How do colleges look at assets?

Paying for College
1

<p>Hi guys</p>

<p>I'm just wondering how do colleges look at a family's income and assets when determining financial aid. For example, if my family chose to buy a house, would the house count towards my entire family's assets as opposed to if we just kept the money in the bank?</p>

2

<p>If this is the first house that you're family will be living in, it will not be counted as heavily as just cash in the bank. FAFSA does not count home equity and I believe profile cap the home equity. It depends on the school, but the general idea is that it is better to put the cash in a house. Note it must be the first house, because the second house is considered an asset which financial aid treats it differently.</p>

3

<p>anyone else wanna give me some advice? bummmmmmp</p>

4

<p>It depends on the college, they decide if home equity is part of the equation. As an example, Yale counts home equity, Harvard and Princeton do not. There is I think asset protection of approx. 50K per family, I read that somewhere.
Try using this calculator...get both FAFSA and CCS calculations:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.finaid.org/calculators/finaidestimate.phtml%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.finaid.org/calculators/finaidestimate.phtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>explore <a href="http://www.finaid.org%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.finaid.org&lt;/a> in general especially: <a href="http://www.finaid.org/fafsa/maximize.phtml%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.finaid.org/fafsa/maximize.phtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

5

<p>In addition to what Mizo posted, the trend seems to be that the more prestigious colleges analyze your assets too. Aside from the very top of the rankings, most other schools look only at income.</p>

6

<p>In addition to what Mizo posted, the trend seems to be that the more prestigious colleges analyze your assets too. Aside from the very top of the rankings, most other schools look only at income.</p>

7

<p>Sorry about the double post, computer froze</p>