How much need based aid can I expect?

Paying for College
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<p>Well, here's some info.</p>

<p>One sister in college already.
Parents together make $130,000
Own 2 houses (not own but mortages)
Net worth of $800,000-$1,000,000</p>

<p>My sister goes to a private school (about $12,000 a year) and got nothing for need based aid.</p>

<p>If I wanted to go to a expensive school (like Northeastern for example) where costs from tuition room and everything came to around $50,000, how much aid should I expect? Is it possible for them to cover almost everything?</p>

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<p>You need to run your numbers through the calculators. Is you sister in high school? Unless she too is in college, I don't expect you will get much government aid other than non subsidized Staffords. I don't know how generous NE is. You need to use their specific calculator and look at how much aid they normally provide to students. I don't believe that they guarantee to meet full need. I don't know what % of their packages tend to be loan laden. You may be able to get that info from the USN:&WR big book.</p>

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<p>When you say "net worth" are you including the home equity in both homes, or is that other savings and investments (not including retirement accounts)?</p>

<p>The biggest "obstacle" I see in your list above is that you own a second home. That will have to be listed as an asset on any financial aid form and will be considered as a usable asset for financial aid purposes. On the FAFSA, your first home is not considered at all.</p>

<p>To be honest, there isn't enough information for anyone here to give you an exact number but agreed...use one of the financial aid calculators and do the institutional methodology.</p>

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<p>I doubt that sister is in college if she is at a private school with no aid, but only paying $12k.</p>

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<p>To the OP...could you clarify the info about your sister(s)?</p>

<p>Most private colleges cost well in excess of $12,000 per year.</p>

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<p>Sorry, for some reason I thought it was private but when I looked on CollegBoard it's public. But it's still $12,000 a year for her and she's a sophomore.</p>

<p>Well, our first home is about $500,000-$600,000 and we almost own it fully because there's only 4-5 years left on the mortgage. The second home is really just for an investment that they bought about a year ago and my parents took out a big loan to completely renovate it and that house is worth $400,000-$500,000. </p>

<p>So yeah, net worth is both homes. So I guess net worth for FAFSA is really that second home and some change for other things. And I know (because I set up my parents online bank account) that there's about $20,000 in the bank but that's from a loan taken out that has to get paid off.</p>

<p>But yeah, I'll check the calculator on the site. Thanks :)</p>

<p>EDIT- Well I looked at Northeastern and it doesn't have a calculator that says how much aid I would get. Just how much interest I'd pay in total if I already knew how much aid I would get.</p>