Allow me to explain, its not that my family lives a super lavish lifestyle, but we live somewhere where cost of living is quite high. My dad earns while my mom is a stay at home mom, and income is a little above $200,000/year. There are also 7 dependents on the single earner in the household, 4 kids who have yet to go to college, and 2 grandparents who live with us who do not earn either. It is kind of a unique situation, and something that may be difficult to get across to colleges and other fin-aid stuff. I am the oldest and will be applying this fall, I have some reach schools in mind otherwise I will settle for the in-state school which is not that bad. Would I qualify for any decent fin-aid given my circumstances at an OOS school?
First…your situation is not all that unique. You aren’t the only college student whose grandparents are living with them.
With a $200,000 a year annual income, it is very unlikely that you will get need based aid at any college. Your family income is actually pretty high.
Are you saying that your grandparents have NO income at all? No savings, social security, pension? Nothing?
What are your SAT or ACT scores…and your GPA? You should look at schools where merit aid is a possibility.
Read the links in this thread…check schools to see if awards are still available.
ETA…you asked about financial aid at OOS schools. You need to understand that the only OOS public universities that guarantee to meet full aid for all acceoted students are University of Virginia, and University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. UNiversity of Michigan is moving in that direction. All three are highly competitive for admissions for OOS students.
The remaining public universities do not guarantee to meet full need. Their first obligation is to instate students whose oarents pay taxes in THAT state. In fact California is no longer giving need based aid at all to OOS students,
All are choices – living in a high cost area, having a parent who does not work, supporting grandparents, having a lot of kids, and not saving over the years. Multiple kids might give you a bit of a break, but none of the rest will.
Each college has a net price calculator on their website. Run it with your parent’s info and see how it looks. Generally public schools (there are a couple exceptions) give limited need based aid to out of state students.
If you provide stats, major interest, home state, and what your parents can pay, we may be able to make suggestions where you might get merit. They probably won’t be your reach schools, but there may be choices besides your state schools (which may be fine).
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$200,000 is not middle class…
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2 grandparents who live with us who do not earn either.
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Your situation isn’t unique.
Are your grandparents retired? do they collect social security? Are they on Medicare? Do they have a pension or savings from when they were working?
Either way, you don’t have a good chance at aid unless maybe you got in a tippy top school like H or Y or P or S…because they give super aid.
What are your parents saying? How much will they pay each year for YOUR college costs?
With greater than $200,000 a year in family income…it’s not likely that aid would be forthcoming even at HPSY.
This is a family with three kids, and only one will be in college.
Living in high COS area: choice
SAHM: choice
Supporting GPs: choice
Would make more financial sense to target schools where you’d be eligible for large merit awards. Merit money is awarded irrespective of family income.
$200K is not middle class, believe it or not.
You may not think your parents have made choices, and are meeting their obligations, but they are choosing to support their parents, which is morally good, but the schools won’t give you financial aid to help support your relatives.
We’d all be listing grandma/grandpa, uncles, aunts cousins, etc. if that were the case.
Find your instate publics and use them. Please don’t ask about California aid. Everything public will be full fees.
Income percentage calculator
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2016/03/02/what-percent-are-you-2/
200k income is top 2%
To answer some of the questions asked, no my grandparents don’t really have savings and don’t get social security. and given their current citizenship status and how long they’ve been living in the US, they don’t qualify for medicare yet either.
Lol, I’m bad at this, I just recently started looking into fin-aid and don’t know much about it.
A few of you asked for where I stand as far as test scores and GPA, to answer that:
3.9 UW GPA
2380 SAT
Yeah my parents neglected to save pretty much anything and I guess that’s on them, oh well. My state school (UW) is pretty great and I’d be psyched to go there 
Many schools will give you generous merit money for stats like that, so just focus on schools that offer it.
FYI
List of schools that give merit aid
http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/college/T014-S001-kiplinger-s-best-values-in-private-colleges/index.php
Make sure to not just look at the avg merit award amount but also at the percentage of students who receive it. Some schools consistently give merit money to a sizable number of students (e.g. Tulane), while other schools only give it to a handful of students who walk on water (e.g. Duke).
Also have a talk with your parents about how much they can afford. Room and board adds up and you still maybe looking at at least $10-$15K if you are going to live on campus.
Which UW? Wisconsin? Washington?
Saying your grandparents “don’t really” have savings isn’t an answer. Either they do or they don’t. Sounds like they do.
With your stats there are a number of places that you could attend very reasonably. You have put yourself in a good position.
Do more research here at CC.
Read the links in this thread.
University of Alabama would give you quite a decent merit award.
I used to work at a school that had a high population of students whose grandparents lived with them and did not have any income/social security. The school was a public U, and many of these students had the grades and test scores to go to more impressive schools. Instead, they went to our school because they could get great merit. Otherwise, they would not have been able to go to school. These students got great educations because they made sure to take advantage of everything they could at the school.
Take the advice above and focus on schools that will give you merit. You can be successful no matter where you go to school.
DD2 wants to go out of state from CA, and we won’t qualify for need based either. We are hoping for similar statistics - good for you!!! Yeah for your Dad for working so hard to support his family! Yeah for your Mom for raising a kid who is so responsible and reasonable, and for making the sacrifices necessary to be a SAHM. How blessed you are to have Grandparents and sibs - celebrate your good fortune!
In terms of financial aide, that Kiplinger list ROCKS. I was just given that link from another poster - saved me hours and hours of googling individual schools to get the Common Data Set individually. If you are interested in a specific school, Google “Common Data Set Amherst” for example, and you will get a complex looking report. Scroll down to section H, and you will find clear statistics on how many people got merit based aide, and what the average aide was. I now look at Kiplinger first, and then do this if the school is not included. If you can’t find it, ask the school. A small number don’t participate in CDS. By the way, take a close look at Jesuit schools. They are excellent, and I have noticed a trend that they often give excellent aide. Don’t be concerned about the Catholic piece - we toured four with DD1, and it wasn’t a limiting factor at any of them. We loved the atmosphere of 3 out of 4: enthusiasm for discussion, service to community, and strong academics predominate. Often good sports teams, too! Good luck to you!
She likes none of the 32 public universities in California, or are they not affordable?
^Very positive response @shoot4moon. Everyone here is correct in that his/her parents have made choices that now affect financial aid but the positive spin you put on it will be much appreciated I am sure from this young student. I tend to be very “to the point” myself and its great to have someone leverage that sometimes 