<p>You are going to need to get your parents involved in the hunt for financial aid because of your situation. Since they are RE agents they should be used to dealing with financial numbers and need to be doing this. I don’t think your Aunts are going to count, sounds like you have a family of 4 for financial form purposes. Since you don’t even know what a CSS Profile is it is time for your parents to get involved. Order How to Pay for College Without Going Broke or some other book about financial aid and start learning the details. Otherwise I’m afraid you are going to have to start at a CC because of costs.</p>
<p>FAFSA - determines if you get federal grants and loans UC and CSU only require this.</p>
<p>CSS Profile - used by a lot of private schools, requires more detail than the fafsa, because the college wants to know all the ins and outs of your family finances so they can determine the portion your family has to pay before you get any aid from the college.</p>
<p>Right now it sounds like you are going to get the 5,500 student loan. If a private school that costs 65k a year gives you 40k, you still have to come up with 25k, see? You have 5k loan, now where is the 20k coming from? Your family has to pay their portion. That is why UC at 33k and CSU at 23k looks like a bargain. You aren’t going to get any aid from CSU. But if you apply widely to all UCs, you might get some need based, not sure and you will have a chance for a Regents scholarship of 5k or 10k per year.</p>
<p>My parents have equity on our house that they are willing to take out for my undergrad. It’s around 300k because our house is worth 1.6 million and refinancing shouldn’t be too big of a problem. My parents really want me to to go to a dream school without being stopped by financial means, but of course I really don’t want to be a burden to them. @BrownParent and @mom2collegekids thank you so much for your advice. I’ll get on that right away. And my aunts are around 60 years old and they have been living with us for 5 years and rent their house out for come income as well. Most of that rent money goes towards their mortgage. One works and the other is mentally disabled. I accounted their income to the 100,000</p>
<p>You Aunts income isn’t considered. Only parent income is considered and household members are parents and dependents only, no matter who is living where.</p>
<p>Maybe you and your parents should go through the Financial Aid FAQ to get familiar.
<a href=“Financial aid FAQs - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Financial aid FAQs - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;
<p>You might like Notre Dame. It is smaller than USC, has about 7,000 undergrads I think, and a good alumni network in business like USC. Very strong in undergrad business. Maybe you can browse the Business Week list and look at some schools for business and find the ones that have other qualities you like. Click on the links and you will get listings, I think you can sort them by sub-majors like marketing.
<a href=“Bloomberg - Are you a robot?”>Bloomberg - Are you a robot?;
<p>Your aunts, grandparents or guardians assets or income are not reported or counted on financial aid. Only your parents and step parents if natural parents have remarried. I realize that’s not your case. So just count what your parents earn and their assets. </p>
<p>@BrownParent thanks. I’ve been considering ucs, but I’ve never thought about Notre dame. Thanks you all for advice. You guys really sped up the process so far.</p>
<p>You do not count your aunts in your household and you dont count their income. They are independent people who just live in your house. They would be similar to roommates. </p>
<p>So, your household size would include YOU, your parents, and their children. </p>
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<p>I’m 2nd in my class and have a 2190 SAT as of now. I really want to be in a middle-large sized campus near a large city. I also have to consider my financial situation because my parents make under 80k a year, so I will need a lot of aid for college. Give me some advice please</p>
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<p>and both parents are realtors.</p>
<p>Something isnt right. You say that you have 300k in equity in a house that is worth 1.6M? That means that they owe 1.3M on that home…that would be a huge mortgage and prop tax bill. And you say that your parents can afford to take out some of that equity to pay for college? What about your other sibling? how will his college get paid for?</p>
<p>This is sounding like a train wreck. Parents not earning a lot. Huge mortgage. They dont want you to be concerned about school costs because they want you to attend your dream school. There is a sibling that also needs to go to college. The parents are both realtors (with deductions) so CSS schools will likely add back in a ton of deductions. </p>
<p>Maybe you are confused about equity and home value. </p>
<p>@mom2collegekids true, maybe my number crunching isn’t too accurate. I double checked for estimates today. We had initially a 800,000 mortgage which has only gone down to about 650,000 in the last 10 years, because they were largely paying interest then. However they used some of the equity for business startup investments and payment of the mortgage, so they have used around 200,000 of the equity as of now. This is the only year in 5 years that they have made considerable income. So 850k is the total loan payment, and my apologizes, the house worth actually is worth 1.3 million, 1.6 is the projected value in 8-10 years because of the good school locations. That leaves 450k, but my parents want to have at least 100k in equity for emergency, and the bank is unlikely to let us refinance all of our equity. That’s where I come up with the number 300k to 350k.</p>
<p>I think you need to sit your mom and dad down and explain what you’re finding out about college affordability. This is stretching my ability to keep up, and I’m uncomfortable knowing what I do about your family’s finances, OP. With them, run the net price calculators at several of the schools to which you aspire. (I know it’s going to be hard to get them both in the same room for an hour or two.) Then run the npcs at several UCs and CSUs. You need to begin to get a handle on what colleges are going to expect of your family. I might even suggest hiring a college advisor who specializes in finances. Your parents need to be taking a more active role in your college decisions (that’s not a criticism of your parents but a statement about your needs).</p>
<p>One suggestion I have for you is called the Western Undergraduate Exchange. It will give you something like 1.25x in-state tution for several Western universities and colleges. The UCs are great, but not everyone gets in to the ones they want. Applying to a WUE college would add to your options. </p>
<p>@Picapole, most of those are like equivalents to CSUs? Would those be safety schools? And there are a lot of choices to look at</p>
<p>In some cases WUE are more prestigious than CSUs. Others would be a peer to CSU academically. It really depends on the university and the program. </p>
<p>As I understand it, many CSUs are commuter schools, whereas many of the WUE schools have a more residential campus feel. </p>
<p>Be aware that some universities do not offer WUE for every program. Engineering, for example, might be excluded.</p>