<p>I'm an international student who was admitted to a competitive California LAC which promises to meet full-need for admitted international students. I received substantial financial aid, for which I'm grateful, but my family will have difficulty footing the bill as it is now. However, this school is my #1 choice by far and I will certainly matriculate whether or not my appeal is approved.</p>
<p>My parents are divorced and my estranged father has lived overseas in a Third-World country since I was born. He did not submit financial information, however, he is unemployed and therefore cannot contribute (we marked him as unemployed on the financial aid forms) My mother earns about $50k annually, however, $10k of that goes to retirement funding as mandated by the government.</p>
<p>My family (consisting of my grandmother, mother, and I) currently live in a house owned by my grandmother. It is worth about $500k USD. Since my grandmother, not my family, owns this property, this property shouldn't affect my EFC, right? (I don't know how primary home asset is viewed by financial aid officers for international students :|)</p>
<p>My mother owns an additional condominium, worth about $500k. The outstanding loans on that condominium come up to $400k USD. This house is rented out for $36k annually, but $27k goes toward repaying the loans. Altogether, my family's (i.e. my mother) income is about $86k. However, $27k goes to loan repayment and $10k goes to retirement. So the net income is about $50k.</p>
<p>The CoA is $53k. The FA package I received consists of $30k loans and $2k work-study. So the out of pocket is $20k. I wasn't offered loans by the school (I understand I'm not eligible for federal loans, and I do not wish to take out bank loans in my home country) but I would consider taking up loans if I was offered some, so as to reduce the immediate financial strain on my family.</p>
<p>I was offered a higher FA package by another LAC, with grants of $37k and loans of $2500. This aid is also need-based.</p>
Is my Financial Aid really low? My family income is less than $100k but they want me to pay $20k I suppose it’s because of the assets. What do you think?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I’m international so I can’t appeal in person. Is fax or phone better? If phone, I’m not sure what to say, my mum doesn’t really want to appeal so I’d have to speak to the officer myself.</p></li>
<li><p>Should I get my father to send in certification (income tax) certifying that he’s poor? I haven’t seen him for a few years, but I can contact him via email. I’m not sure if more clarification is needed for my dad’s status.</p></li>
<li><p>What are the pertinent points and helpful points?</p></li>
<li><p>Retirement Funding</p></li>
<li><p>The outstanding loans on the condominium</p></li>
<li><p>Primary home being owned by grandmother</p></li>
<li><p>How should I mention the FA from the other college? Should I include the letter from the other college? </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Thank you so much (in advance) for any replies, guys… I’m so stressed out over this. </p>
<p>It seems to me that you were offered fair packages. There are not that many schools that are need blind for internationals, but those that are do put US rules on things that are not as applicable in another country such as mandatory retirement contributions, etc. I can also tell you that even Harvard is not very understanding as to how the numbers work if your family is living on real estate income. Yes, those assets do count heavily toward what they feel your family could pay, and this goes for US students as well. </p>
<p>You need to contact the financial aid office and ask them precisely what they want from you to consider an appeal. Then send it to them. Explain the mandatory retirement contribution perhaps comparing to our US social security contribution requirement which is NOT added back into income whereas pension contributions here are. If it is government mandated, perhaps they will see it that way and that could make an impact on your aid numbers. </p>
<p>Your financial aid awards are not really low, no. They are very good. The problem is that the school is really expensive. We ran into this ourselves. My son got some great scholarship money, but since the school was so expensive, it still left a lot left to pay.</p>
<p>Oops, I meant that the $30k is in grant. Silly me.</p>
<p>@Cptofthehouse I will write in and ask the financial aid office what documentation I should send. I thought that the aid offer was a bit low since the school had promised to meet full need, and also since another LAC with need-based has offered me 8k more. Have you any idea how I can leverage the other offer best?</p>
<p>You should not look like you are negotiating, from all I have heard. You should ask the financial aid officer if there is any way he could see why his full need guaranteed school has come up with 8K less than another LAC, and if they re open the file and go over the numbers with you. When you do this, you should then bring in mention of the other offer and that you would be happy to fax or mail it to them so they can take a look. </p>
<p>Schools do define need differently. Many kids I know get a wide variance in aid offers even from schools that are supposed to use the same methodology so this is not unusual. Also, as Happymom mentions, the EFC for someone at $90K and NO assets can come up to $20K so you are within what is considered reasonable. So I would not hold my breath that you are going to get the difference between the two offers. However, you may get a little more and every bit can help.</p>
<p>@happymomof1 Thanks, that’s some information.</p>
<p>@cptofthehouse Thanks for the help, I’ll try very hard not to be obnoxious. Even a little more aid will add up over four years, though, so I’m trying to look for wiggle room.</p>
<p>@Northstarmom I’m very grateful for the amount I’ve been given. It’s tough, isn’t it, when college in the USA is so expensive! In Singapore, education is managed by the government and thus is cheaper, but I don’t think the US can achieve that anytime soon. Well, pros and cons…</p>
<p>The US is not going to achieve it ever. Why come to the US with loans for undergrad when you have the cheaper option? Save the US for grad school where you can much more easily come without the financial burden. What is the spell US colleges have on kids from countries with fine universities at a fraction of the cost?</p>
<p>“The US is not going to achieve it ever. Why come to the US with loans for undergrad when you have the cheaper option? Save the US for grad school where you can much more easily come without the financial burden. What is the spell US colleges have on kids from countries with fine universities at a fraction of the cost?”</p>
<p>I have the same question. I don’t know why so many kids from abroad are sacrificing to come to the US for undergrad when they have good colleges that are free or dirt cheap in their own countries. They don’t know how lucky they are.</p>
<p>When you run the calculators (I’ve used both the [FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org%5DFinAid”>http://www.finaid.org) and the [::</a> College Planning Made Easy | Inside Source for College Admissions Requirements](<a href=“http://www.collegeboard.com%5D::”>http://www.collegeboard.com) versions), the results page will indicate what the asset protection for your family is. This is dependent on the age of the oldest parent, and increases a bit each year. It is something like 50k for a family where the oldest parent is 50 years old. I don’t remember the exact figures.</p>
<p>$20K is not considered low for a family making $90. </p>
<p>I would <em>not</em> bring up your father. They would not have made up wages for him. They gave you an award so they are not counting his income. I would not mention that you can get a hold of him because they might then turn around and require you to try. </p>
<p>I think cpt’s suggestion for how to compare the retirement funding (saying it’s like social security) is excellent. </p>
<p>I also think you need to tackle the suggestion that your family earns $36K from the rental. You need to clarify that your family only earns $9K in rental income. This is very important. Your family does not make $90K; it makes
$59K.</p>
The college I chose is a small undergraduate-only college focusing on Math and Science. Simply put, this style of education is unavailable in my home country where the public schools are large research universities churning out factory-style education. I chose this college because of #1 small class sizes #2 excellent teaching #3 ability to take wide range of classes outside major #4 research and industrial attachment opportunities.</p>
<p>The rental income of 36k is still considered income and will be treated as such. The college does not care that the 27k is being paid out for the mortgage as it is the parent’s choice to go into real estate as a business. In addition, because it not the OP’s primary home any equity in the home is going to be taken in to consideration when calculating the EFC.</p>
<p>The 10k for retirement is going to be added back in because the college believes that this money could be used to offset the college cost.</p>
I suppose it’s because of the assets. What do you think?</p>
</p>