<p>^^^ $34 is still barely more than half of the price of my top 3 schools. My college trust will cover more than a year and my parents are comfortable with the rest. I still have to pay my first year but i’m a good student so i’m banking on the fact that i’ll graduate and get my loans lifted by my parents.</p>
<p>If your stats qualify you for the Chancellor’s Award at Pitt, you could get a free ride and a spot at the Honors college there to boot. That’s the school closest to GW and NYU in atmosphere. For you, even at full freight it would be a little over $25K. Temple also has an excellent Honors College and some great merit awards for the right numbers. Penn State is as good as UMD for $10K a year less.</p>
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<p>12Artleye, I’m going to assert that you really aren’t a mix. You really *can *afford it.</p>
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<p>Your family has both income and assets. You have a college trust established by grandparents. And you’re concerned with being able to pay for college and keep a car in an expensive urban area so you can have weekend getaways for your expensive hobbies:</p>
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<p>Your financial situation isn’t “unorthodox” or unusual in the slightest. You come from a family that’s wealthy (but probably thinks of itself as “comfortable,” as a lot of families that fall somewhere between middle class and Bill Gates do) and wants to get the best deal it can on your college education.</p>
<p>There’s nothing wrong with getting the best deal you can. There’s nothing wrong with pursuing non-need merit aid at institutions that offer it. But when you represent your family as unable to pay despite apparently high income and net worth, you’re either deceiving yourself or being disingenuous. Can you see that there’s a disconnect between crying poor (or, at least, not exactly rich) on one hand, and the extravagance of keeping a car in Foggy Bottom for ski weekends on the other?</p>
<p>After reading your last post 12Artleye, I have to agree that I don’t think you can get financial aid. My small business is a very different situation than your parent’s. I have few assets in my business while your dad is buying multi-million dollar companies. Good luck, but if you can afford a car, golfing, and skiing, I suspect your family lives on much more than 100K.</p>
<p>A situation many families who are well to do by any definition of assets and income,find themselves is that they cannot incorporate the cost of college into their budget as they can other things they have wanted/needed over the years. That constitutes “need” in their minds. I understand how they feel, because I feel that way myself. We can manage to get a Mercedes to drive if we so desired, we can buy expensive furniture and go on a great vacation. All of these things are attainable with our credit cards, savings and payment plans. But a college education costing upwards to a quarter million dollars over 4 years is a whole other story.</p>
<p>I certainly understand that families should make the decision on their “need.” They just need to realize that colleges have different definitions.</p>
<p>I have just scanned the thread.</p>
<p>It is hard to know since your family owns their own business but it sounds like you might be a full pay.</p>
<p>Has anyone else suggested that you chase merit aid? There is still time to add colleges to your list that offer it. It is a good way to go to a good college but not be on the hook for the full amount.</p>
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<p>Yes you can explain the situation, but do not expect much in the form grants and need based scholarships. Your family makes $300,000 a year, they pay taxes on this amount. They have loans so your asset basis changes, not your income. Net assets are total assets minus total liabilities. If you own several multi-million dollar businesses, and they are worth say 2 million dollars and you have a 1 million dollar loan, your net assets are $1 million.</p>
<p>So how do schools see it: </p>
<p>12Artleye has a gross family income of $300,000 and net assets of $ 1 million (or what ever the figure is). This is way above what most people have. </p>
<p>They are not going to say, “oh they really have only $100,000 to spend as they have to pay off business loans”. If the business are that successful, you could possibly go to a bank and get a loan spread over the next 20 years instead of the next seven years for example and this would reduce the monthly payments. </p>
<p>So, financial calculations are done differently. If you were spending $100,000 year for example on medical bills, that would be a different issue, it is not discretionary. Principal repayments for businesses are treated differently. </p>
<p>So from what you say, I do not think you will get need based aid. FAFSA may ignore a small business, CSS/Profile will not. What you are looking is expensive privates, who will want to see your total picture. </p>
<p>Your EFC will be greater than $25,000 so you will not get aid form UMD as I see it.</p>
<p>Merit aid is a different issue.</p>
<p>So what i can gather from this thread after rereading everything is to basically not bet on any need-based aid, but try for merit. bummer…</p>
<p>This is an internet message board. We cannot possibly know your specific situation. Get a parent with you and a copy of last year’s tax form, and run through a FAFSA and institutional estimator together. It’ll tell you approximately what your family is expected to cover in terms of college costs. If it exceeds the costs of college, no, you won’t get financial aid, though you can get up to $5500 in Stafford loans your first year in your own name and your parents can likely borrow through PLUS. </p>
<p>From the info you have given us, it does not look likely that you will qualify for financial aid, but when it comes to a private business, I wouldn’t venture more of an opinion than that. Depends on how things have to be reported on your tax forms.</p>
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<p>^Pretty much. And plan your applications accordingly. And as I mentioned earlier, it is a bad plan for you to borrow the amount for the first year – you will need to check to see that your parents can access that financing for you.</p>
<p>You are not in that different of a situation than most. Your family needs to get with a CPA that is good at small business and Fin Aid strategies. These people are not cheap, but they are not rare. You need to ask your families current CPA who he recommends if he is not willing or able to help you with this. </p>
<p>If your current CPA is of no help then talk to your family attorney who can usually recommend a good CPA for you to use, if not talk to your banker… They definitely will know, but might just steer you to one of their customers and may not be the best in town.</p>
<p>As cptofthehouse and others have pointed out, you need to talk to a CPA or others who can help with tax planning and you need to go through the aid calculators to see for yourself how much the EFC is.</p>
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<p>At the end of the day, however you have to realize that your family has much better income and much better assets than most of the people applying for college. Your family may not as much free cash flow as suggested by your income (free cash flow being money that can be readily used for education or a trip to Italy etc.), but that is not what FA officers look at. Your family still has the assets and the income and that is something you need to grateful for.</p>
<p>If there are legitimate strategies that will help you present a more favorable financial position, you should try it. However, do remember aid is limited and there are other very needy students to whom the amount of aid will decide if they go to college or not.</p>
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<p>That “someone” was me.</p>
<p>Arty…listen up…your financial SAFETY is an out of state public university. Hello??? Most students who have financial need would NOT be able to even consider a $25,000 school their “financial safety”. If your parents can pay $25,000 a year (with their income, loans and your grandparents trust fund)…then you need to find a college that fits that budget and consider yourself VERY lucky that you can do so. There are MANY colleges that cost that amount per year…or close to it…</p>
<p>You do not have significant financial need. It is HIGHLY unlikely that you are going to get need based aid. If you WANT to lighten the financial load, look for schools where you would receive guaranteed merit aid OR look at your own instate public universities. Penn State and Pitt are both fine schools.</p>