<p>I am an American expatriate living in Southeast Asia. My son recently graduated from an East coast LAC. Your situation certainly is complicated, but I think you’ve come to the right place to untangle your sons’ options.</p>
<p>First, let me assure you that your sons’ life experience will be of interest to many colleges and universities in America. There are hundreds of good ones, so your focus right now should be more general than specific. </p>
<p>American schools like American expats: American citizens who live abroad provide international viewpoint, often increase diversity percentages and don’t have visa and language issues. Don’t underestimate the strength of this hook. Colleges, even the most selective, want interesting kids who lead interesting lives.</p>
<p>Putting the money aside for a minute, does your sons’ high school have a college counselor? Do kids regularly attend US colleges? You need to put their statistics (grades, scores, rank) in some kind of context before you start making a comprehensive list of potential schools. I know how it is to be “stateless” and in effect have the whole country (indeed the whole world) to choose from. It can be geographically overwhelming, but don’t worry about that right now. </p>
<p>I agree with your friend’s analysis that expatriate kids are often more comfortable at small or medium sized colleges. From thousands of miles away it can be daunting to learn the difference between the many, many colleges, but slow down and take a deep breath – it will be become clearer as they go through the process of elimination. By the time they are ready to apply they should have a list of about 10-12 schools in various levels of selectivity. </p>
<p>I know very little about your sons’ qualifications so this is just a shot in the dark, but some of the LACs that are popular at my son’s highschool and that have come through with excellent need based aid packages are Williams, Macalester, Pomona, Swarthmore, Grinnell. They might just start with these and if any are appealing they could expand their list according to the school’s personality.</p>
<p>The money is definitely migraine material, but again, just break it down element by element. Most likely your sons will qualify for need based aid. If they are applying as US citizens they will get the same aid as any other US citizen. There is a kind of inverse proportion at work here: The most selective colleges often have the most money to offer. For example, if they had the right qualifications, they would be likely to get more need based financial aid from Harvard than from the University of Massachusetts.</p>
<p>Merit aid is a whole other situation and if your boys are academically accomplished this is a very appealing possibility. But let’s just leave that for frosting on the cake and concentrate on need based aid for now.</p>
<p>To me, the biggest wrench in the works is your ex-husband’s income. I don’t have personal experience in this area but from what I understand most colleges are quite strict in their expectation that both parents contribute. There is a process that you need to go through to prove that the father is totally uninvolved in the sons’ financial position. You will need to get some expert advice here, for sure.</p>
<p>As far as US taxes go, the point is not whether you’ve paid US tax but rather if you’ve filed a US tax return. It sounds to me that after your expatriate exclusion would mean that you wouldn’t owe any US tax, but I’m guess that you still need to file (again, I’m not an accountant).</p>
<p>Good luck and let us know how you do. :)</p>