<p>I filled out the FAFSA form and my efc turned out to be around 35000. I went to another site for EFC calculator, and realized most of that 35000 is calculated from my parents' investment net worth. Yes..we do own another apartment other than our own house, and it is being rented out for us to make a living. Without the income from the rent, my parents would only be making 15K USD a year (rent income is 30k a year). Does FAFSA suggest that my parents should sell the apartment to provide for my college education?</p>
<p>No, they are not saying that your parents need to sell the apt complex to pay for college.</p>
<p>What they’re saying is that your parents have an asset that is worth a lot of money, therefore that asset could be used as collateral for a loan (such as a second mortgage) to pay for your college - if necessary.</p>
<p>It is irrelevant that without that asset, your parents’ income would only be $15k per year. The FACT is that their income is HIGHER than $15k per year because that apt building is generating annual income for them.</p>
<p>this is no different than when people have a lowish income from a job, BUT they have a lot of income coming in from stocks or other investments. It all counts…</p>
<p>It sounds like your parents income is about $45k per year, but the apt building is worth a lot of money.</p>
<p>I understand this issue, because we also have rental property that drives up EFC…and we won’t sell the property to pay for college.</p>
<p>hi thanks for your response. what does “collateral for a loan (such as a second mortgage)” mean? Oh, also…I’m the only us citizen in my family. My parents don’t live in usa. They don’t have citizenship, green card, and don’t file to IRS. So let’s say hypothetically I don’t put the number for asset net worth, will FAFSA be able to track it down? I know its a terrible idea but I just curious, and obviously I can’t call FAFSA to ask that question lol…</p>
<p>and yes the apartment complex is worth quite a bit, but it is just generating 30k of my parents total annual income of 45k…which is still low by american standards right?</p>
<p>45k is not “low” - that would be a solidly middle-income household.</p>
<p>A second mortgage is a loan backed by the collateral security of the building.</p>
<p>It depends on where you live, whether 45K is low or not.</p>
<p>Here in California, it is considered low. (Median income in my area in CA is 70-80K) In Kansas or middle America, it might be considered middle income.</p>
<p>Really doesn’t matter where it is - $45k is just a notch below the national median household income of $50k. It’s not “low income” anywhere.</p>
<p>His location is listed as Atlanta - Georgia’s median household income is only $47k.</p>
<p>Nobody should have to worry about this. College should be free for everyone. The more that middle-income families get ****ed at the absurd cost of college, the more likely things are to fundamentally change.</p>
<p>Polarscribe, if college were free for everyone, where do you think the money would/should come from? Increased taxes?</p>
<p>Yes, and decreased spending on other things, like the military.</p>
<p>We have spent more than ONE TRILLION DOLLARS on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. What fraction of that money would enable public universities to offer free tuition for all who meet entry standards?</p>
<p>A quick take: The U.S. Department of Education shows 4,861 colleges and universities with 18,248,128 students in 2007. (“The Almanac of Higher Education”. The Chronicle of Higher Education LVI (1): 5. August 28, 2009.) Some of those are presumably international students. [Countries</a> with the Most University Students](<a href=“http://www.aneki.com/students.html]Countries”>Countries with the Most University Students) lists the US as having 14,261,800 students in university. I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the latter source but it seems a reasonable number in light of the first. I’m not sure if those numbers include community college or not. To give each of those students a $50K COA education each year would cost $713 BILLION dollars every year (71.3% of what we’ve spent (in total?) on the wars, needing to be spent every single year) Assuming we’re not including books, room & board etc. consider an average tuition of $35K/year, that comes out to $500 BILLION per year. (There is already some subsidy inherent in the State Public University system. That 500 billion would include that money that is already being spent). However you count it, it’s not a trivial amount of money that we can just pull out of thin air. Note that if higher education were free for everyone, the number of students enrolled would certainly increase.</p>
<p>Tuition of $35k per year? I’m not aware of any public university which even comes close to starting at that level of cost. Indiana University (a high-quality R1/AAU public flagship) costs $4k for in-state, $13k for out-of-state.</p>
<p>Federally-calculated “cost of attendance” includes room and board, travel expenditures, “personal expenses,” etc. - I’m not proposing that those be free. We’re talking strictly tuition here.</p>
<p>A significant percentage of those 14 million students are graduate students and/or students at private universities.</p>
<p>If we assume 10 million public university students at an average increased subsidy of $10,000 each, that comes to… $100 billion.</p>
<p>The Department of Defense budget proposes to spend $673 billion on the military this year. You’re telling me we can’t shift $100 billion of that from war-making to student-educating?</p>
<p>If private universities want to charge $50,000 per student, more power to them. But public higher education should be free, or nearly so.</p>
<p>betterday55 -</p>
<p>You have to complete the form with all of the assets, sorry. Fraud committed on the FAFSA would just not be worth it. </p>
<p>Your situation is not much different than that of a student with citizen parents who have this large a share of their income coming from a rental property. Like those students, you have to figure out how to pay for your education with what you’ve got. Maybe your parents can take out a loan against their property in the country where they are living so that they can help you pay for your education. If your parents can’t do that, then you will have to find a college/university/community college that you can afford. Check out the rules for in-state residence in Georgia. If you live and work there for a year after you finish high school, and you can demonstrate that you are self-supporting, will you qualify for in-state residence for tuition purposes? </p>
<p>beeish is a US citizen studying here now whose parents are outside the US, and b@r!um is a legal permanent resident whose parents don’t live in the US. You might try sending one (or both) of them a PM to ask how they are handling their financial situations.</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best.</p>
<p>Public universities don’t cost $35K for in-state residents because they’re <em>already</em> being subsidized by state governments. I did state that the current subsidies were included in my estimate. Public Universities can easily cost on the order of $35K out of state. Consider [Tuition</a> and Fees : Student Financial Services : University of Vermont](<a href=“Student Financial Services | Student Financial Services | The University of Vermont”>Student Financial Services | Student Financial Services | The University of Vermont)</p>
<p>Even if you’re only talking about $10K/student to give free in-state tuition to every student every year, you’re talking BILLIONS of dollars. Consider if only 10% more students attend college now that it’s free. That’s still over $150 billion dollars per year to give them all a $10K tuition for free. </p>
<p>And, you’d have to factor in a huge increase in the need for each state to spend more money subsidizing its public higher education system if it’s now free to all residents and thus many more people are attending. That more hundreds of billions of dollars per year either somehow materializing out of the state budgets, or being again subsidized by the federal government.</p>
<p>I’m not saying that it’s not a worthy goal to provide free higher education to all Americans. I’m just saying that the money required is hardly a drop in the bucket.</p>
<p>*My parents don’t live in USA. They don’t have citizenship, green card, and don’t file to IRS. *</p>
<p>So, your parents live out of the country and they earn about $45k per year? That could be a good income in some countries. </p>
<p>So, do you live in Atlanta with a relative?</p>
<p>What schools did you apply to?</p>
<p>If your parents live outside of the country, then do you know if you would get charged instate rates for the state you live in? If not, that would mean that you’d be OOS for all public schools.</p>
<p>*Tuition of $35k per year? I’m not aware of any public university which even comes close to starting at that level of cost. Indiana University (a high-quality R1/AAU public flagship) costs $4k for in-state, $13k for out-of-state.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>First of all, this student may not be instate for ANY state.</p>
<p>Secondly, IU OOS tuition is much higher than $13k per year. The OOS tuition ALONE is almost $28k per year. The COA is about $40k. Have no idea where you got your number from. Instate tuition rate is $9k per year.</p>
<p>thanks for the responses, appreciate it</p>
<p>I’m attended Emory University for two years, then I took a break from school for a year. Now i’m planning on transferring to Berklee College of Music. I originally thought I could declare myself independent so I wouldn’t worry about my parents income, tax…etc. But I checked the FAFSA forms and I think you have to be over 24 to be independent? I’m 21, so yea we’ll see…</p>
<p>Yes, generally you have to be 24 to be independent for FAFSA. You can not declare yourself independent. Your status is based on a series of questions on FAFSA (age, are you married, a veteran, etc etc)</p>
<p>Does berklee give good aid</p>