<p>I am a HS junior and have a 4.0 in all AP and honors classes. I am a year ahead in math and will take Calc II and II at a local community college. I am also a 4 year varisty wrestling starter and will be captain next year. I have thousands of volunteer hours at my synagogue and hold a leadership role in the youth group. I play guitar and won a scholarship to go to Wisconson for a music symposium next month. I have great SAT scores. I will probably be valedictorian.</p>
<p>My parents own a business and make too much to get any aid, but not enough to afford Princeton...my dream school. How is it fair that someone who's parents make less will be able to go because they will get financial aid? Why don't the Ivies offer merit aid for students like me?</p>
<p>I think you may well be jumping to conclusions. Princeton gives unbelievably generous financial aid. Have you used the estimator? We ended up getting more than the estimator implied we would. Just apply and see how you fare, you may end up not having as much to whine about as you think you will.</p>
<p>Thank you for your reply. I don’t mean to whine. I did use the estimator and got zilch. My parents own a manufacturing business. On paper they make a lot, but most of the income has to stay in the business as working capital, so they don’t actually take home as much money as reported on taxes.</p>
<p>It is expected that your parents would have saved some of their income over the years for your college costs. If they make a choice to reinvest their income in their business, that is an unfortunate choice for you, but you should not expect a college to give you money if your parents have extensive assets. </p>
<p>This is a lesson in your parents’ values. You will be able to take out loans if they refuse to pay, or settle for an affordable college.</p>
<p>P.S. No one ever promised life and college are fair.</p>
<p>Princeton is a very friendly place, and I’m sure they’d be willing to help you out (if not financially, then at least verbally). Give the financial aid office a call and tell them about your situation. Don’t give up yet! You’ve worked hard, and hopefully you’ll be on the Princeton campus or at another great school in a couple years.</p>
<p>It all depends on how the business is owned and legally held/titled. If your parents are 100% owner of a business which employees less than 50 people the asset value is not NOT included in either the FAFSA or CSS PROFILE calculations. Your parents income would be whatever the business transfers to them and they subsequently show on their personal AGI.</p>
<p>It used to be this exclusion only applied to family farms, it changed in recent years. There are details which I’d encourage you to investigate. If needed, your parents may be able to restructure the business in such a way so that their income is lower and thus qualify you for greater FA.</p>
<p>You should only worry about this if you actually get in. Your vague descriptions of the number of APs you have taken and your SAT score don’t sound impressive at all.</p>
<p>In my experience with Princeton, they are more than willing to make sure that it’s possible for the people they accept to go there. I felt like the truly WANTED me to go there and they were willing to work around problems for me. Remember though, there is only so much they can do for you. Taking out loans to pay for you dream school is worth it, IMO - depending on how much you would have to take out. But like Jersey13 said, worry about this if you get in.</p>
<p>Private colleges like Princeton can present a challenge to affluent parents whose assets are mostly illiquid. With your record, you could probably get excellent merit aid at some very good universities, though not from the Ivies, which don’t do merit scholarships. Or, as others have said, your parents could borrow the money, expecting that somewhere down the line they’ll be better able to pull cash from the business. </p>
<p>It’s likely that by growing up in an affluent family with very successful parents, you’ve had many advantages that lots of kids would love to have. Is that fair?</p>
OP’s descriptions of his actual objective stats are way too vague to pass judgment on whether he would actually receive merit aid from non-Ivy schools.</p>
<p>Correction to my previous post - small family business with less than 100 employees (not 50) may qualify for exclusion in asset calculation:</p>
<p>Criteria for Exclusion</p>
<p>The small business exclusion establishes the following criteria for a small business to be excluded from assets on the FAFSA:</p>
<p>Small business with 100 or fewer full-time equivalent employees. The size of the business is based on the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) employees, not the income or assets of the business. Two half-time employees are counted as the equivalent of one full-time employee.
Or any part of such a small business. Any assets owned by the small business are also excluded as assets, in addition to the business itself. Owned and controlled by the family. The small business must be owned and controlled by the family. This means that more than 50% of the voting rights must be owned by the family as listed in household size on the FAFSA. (If there is more than one class of stock with different voting rights, the family must own more than 50% of the voting rights in order to control the business.)</p>
<p>What in the OP’s statement demonstrates affluence? It is an often erroneous assumption that a family business results in affluence. Often, and especially in today’s economy, families with businesses are simply struggling to survive.</p>
<p>I’ve got to agree with this. There are families who don’t qualify for financial aid at Princeton but paying the full tuition feels like a huge strain and they might choose not to do it.</p>
<p>To the OP, apply to Princeton and see if you get in. Then see what your financial aid package looks like, making sure Princeton understands what your family’s particular situation is. Then figure out if through student loans and parent loans you can make it work.</p>
<p>In the meantime be sure to check out and apply to other schools. With your stats you have put yourself in a great position of getting into many fine schools, possibly with merit aid. Maybe one of these other schools will appeal to you even more than Princeton does.</p>