HI, my son will be a first generation going to US college, he was born in NYC after I immigrated into the US. He is thinking to apply to Questbrigde next year (he is a junior now), but I am a single mom, immigrant, earning about $92,000 yearly and we live in a coop(initial value $200,000) with mortgage (balance about $145000). No other income or assets- basically living in NYC from salary to salary. No money on saving account. I know there is no clear cut, therefore questions: does my son qualify? does it make sense to apply? Thank you.
First of all, he has to qualify academically. Excellent grades, top 5-10% of his class, SAT>1280 or ACT>27, good writer, excellent recommendations.
After that, income<65K/yr for a family of four, with minimal assets, minimal savings. Your income is much higher than that, you don’t say how many people live with you, you own your own co-op unit, you don’t say how much equity you have in it (although you bought it for 200K, it may be worth much more today), and you don’t say if you receive child support, or what the assets are of the other parent, if any. Yes, NYC is an expensive place to live, and I bet that there’s monthly maintenance on the co-op. So if your mortgage payment, property tax payment, and monthly maintenance payment for the co-op is quite high, and it’s not worth a lot (a one bedroom co-op in NYC could easily be worth a million dollars), you might be able to make a case for qualifying, especially if it’s more than just the two of you, and you receive no help from the other parent. I’d say it’s worth a try - what do you have to lose?
Sorry , yes its only two of us and no other parent in the picture, no other income, coop now may be 210000, I still own about 140000, so equity would be about 160000?. So the lower the equity the more chance we have? With only two of us is it not likely to get any positive result?
I’d apply. In NYC, equity of 60K is nothing. And you can certainly make an argument that your cost of living is high - what is your monthly mortgage, maintenance, and property tax payment?
I work for the UN and we cant deduct anything from out taxes, so i end up paying more taxes then any other citizen and get no refunds. I receive about 5100 monthly salary to my bank, after that about 1900 mortgage and maintenance, social security tax monthly 600, food / transportation and necessities in NYC 2000 so Roughly 500 -600 left if ever.
A 92k income is not going to qualify for Questbridge, period.