<p>The family contribution is LARGELY based on your INCOME. Your home equity would be considered by SOME colleges in the equation for need based aid, but not all…and these would be schools that use the Profile.</p>
<p>Your primary home equity is NOT used in the FAFSA formula AT ALL. Also if your kid’s college doesn’t meet full need for all students, this might not matter either. </p>
<p>If you can afford the mortgage on an $800,000 house (your income would need to support this in order to get a loan), it’s unlikely you will qualify for need based aid anyway. </p>
<p>You can run the online financial aid calculators using the institutional methodology to get an ESTIMATE…try that using both sets of numbers. OR use the Net Price Calculators on the college websites. BUT remember…these are ESTIMATES only.</p>
<p>I know you are not asking for this opinion…but need based financial aid is supposed to be for students with financial NEED…and living in an $800K house doesn’t sound “needy” to me.</p>
<p>To be honest, I don’t see the advantage for you to do this…I seriously doubt you are going to net much more aid.</p>