Does anyone know of a source that outlines how individual schools (via the CSS PROFILE or institutional forms) treat home equity in the FA process? I heard recently that JHU ignores home equity, others cap it as x times income, etc. Is that info per school available anywhere or must you contact each individual school and ask them their policy?
Thanks!
I believe all CSS schools consider home equity but have different rules. There are schools that cap the max to 1.5-2.5 times annual income and others take into account everything. I think only Harvard and Princeton do not consider home equity. You need to run NPC on the college website. Or google CSS Home equity.
The number of Profile schools that don’t consider home equity is small, but it’s a bigger number than 2.
Here you go:
http://www.thecollegesolution.com/will-your-home-equity-hurt-financial-aid-chances/
(click on the “Home Equity Spreadsheet” link)
Awesome info Belk…thx!!!
@BelknapPoint Thank you for the link. I ran the calculator and we will have two in college next year. Are the EFCs , FM and IM, the total for our family of an estimate for each student?
Typically any EFC is unique to each student, so you would need to add each EFC to come up with a family total.
Beware that there are some colleges with their own internal FA application that you have to fill out. A lesson learned. After filling out FAFSA and CSS Profile, I thought all was good and done and time to finally relax. Then, late into March, I started receiving letters saying I haven’t yet processed their FA applications!
Thank you.