<p>My dad make 70k last year, and I'm attending a school that costs 45k a year. We own a large farm (property values have skyrocketed in our area) and all of our property together is worth about 1 million. My school offered no financial aid, but we'd literally have to take it all out in loans or sell part of the farm to pay (180k! sheesh! and there's 3 kids after me that have to go to college!)
I'm applying to a ton of scholarships, but my question is:
Should I apply to scholarships that consider financial need, even if my college apparently doesn't think I have any?</p>
<p>70K shouldn't put you out of reach of some traditional financial aid-- did you complete the FAFSA or Profile when you applied to your school? If you live on a family farm, under FAFSA the value of the farm isn't included as an asset-- so you likely would be eligible for aid from schools that use the Federal Methodology. Perhaps not for those using the IM (Profile) since they consider the farm as an asset.</p>
<p>Do consider scholarships that consider financial need.</p>
<p>Apply for scholarships that don't look at need, land/home value will kill you every time.</p>
<p>"I'm attending" So I assume you are already in college.</p>
<p>Let's get personal and see if we can't figure out what's going on.</p>
<p>What school do you attend?
Outside of the farm, how much money do your parents have in non-retirement assets?
How much money is in your name?
How much did you earn this year?</p>
<p>Thanks for your input so far guys!</p>
<p>Stanford- I'm accepted, and will attend next year but I'm in HS right now.
My parents have something like 80k in stocks and the bank, our home is about 250-300k. I have 1500 in my name, and I earned a measly 400 from a part-time job late in the summer.</p>
<p>Has Stanford sent out its financial aid offers for early action already? And they didn't offer anything? I would suggest calling up the financial aid office and seeing if they would reconsider. My son just graduated from Stanford, and they gave him excellent need-based aid. (Of course, we did not have that amount of property or savings...) But they were also very helpful when I would call them. One time they offered work study when my son was unable to get a summer job and thus didn't have the amount they expected. Another time they allowed us to spread out payments, rather than sending a lump sum. So there is some flexibility there.</p>
<p>Perhaps they don't realize that the land is part of the farm, and that it is used for producing income, so not able to be sold for tuition money.</p>
<p>It can't hurt to try. As for outside scholarships, I would go ahead and apply for ones that consider need, as long as you are able to explain why your land value is not a valid indicator of available funds.</p>
<p>The farm equity is going to be a killer for Stanford. Your Profile calculation is likely over 400% larger than your FAFSA calculation. Make sure you include any and all debt associated with the farm.</p>
<p>Have you applied to any other schools, particularly those that use the FAFSA std as oppossed to the Profile?</p>
<p>Did you apply ED?</p>
<p>I applied SCEA, and Stanford does use the FAFSA later on for the official offer- they used the CSS the first time to estimate finaid when I applied.
Susantm- that's a great suggestion, we'll call up the office and ask them about it.
The FAFSA isn't due until March 2nd though, so in the meantime, should I apply to scholarships that consider financial need?</p>
<p>Absolutely apply for those that consider financial need. Just because Stanford uses a standard that puts your expected contribution far higher than most, doesn't mean that the scholarship board will do the same.</p>
<p>oops the title supposed to be "Is this considered financial need" not "aid".
Thanks for all of your help, guys!! That just opened up a million new scholarships that I can apply to.</p>