very confused regarding aid...

Paying for College
1

<p>i dont know if i'm international or not...
lol.
i have an american passport, but also an irish one. i did the second half of my schooling, 5th grade and upwards, in ireland.
does that affect my situation when applying for financial aid?!
in what way?!
am i more or less likely to get it, and is it different, etc.</p>

<p>my family are definitely in the higher income range, but only my dad works, and he's about 10 years from retirement with 4 kids left to put through college... any bearing?!</p>

<p>they deffo cant afford to put me through, as the decision to attend american college is my own, and i will have to fund it completely on my own...</p>

2

<p>If you have an American passport then you are an American for admissions and finaid purposes. You are eligible to file FAFSA just like any other American. Your parents’s income and assets will be what your EFC for financial aid is based on. </p>

<p>The only difference his being near retirement will make is that he will have slightly higher asset protection than a younger parent. Which probably will not make a vast amount of difference to be honest. The siblings will make a small difference in your EFC as there will be slightly higher income protection with a larger family. Really only siblings that are in college at the same time as you will reduce your EFC much. The FASFA EFC in a year where there is more than 1 in college at the same time is divided between them. </p>

<p>As you are not a resident of any US state you will be considered out of state for any public schools as far as tuition is concerned. So there will not be any really cheap options for you. If your parent income is too high to be eligible for aid then it will be very difficult for you to fund college on your own. Make sure you keep your options open by also applying to some places you know you can afford in your home country. That way if reality hits when you see the actual price after acceptances and financial aid offers come you will have an affordable option. Do not get yourself into a ton of debt to go to a US school.</p>

3

<p>On another thread, I noticed you said that you’re entering your second year of law school. If American undergraduate schools allow you to transfer from an Irish law school – which may not be possible – you may not qualify for financial aid as many colleges don’t give financial aid to transfer students. If you will have to fund all of your college education, the odds are low that you’ll be able to find an American college that you can afford. Very few colleges here guarantee to meed students’ full demonstrated financial need. Unless your parents are very impoverished, they’d be expected to contribute toward your college costs.</p>

4

<p>Also, if you indeed ARE in law school, does this mean you have already completed a bachelors degree somewhere? If so, you should know that most schools (maybe all) do not award need based financial aid for the pursuit of a second bachelors degree.</p>

5

<p>This: [FAFSA4caster</a> - Federal Student Aid](<a href=“http://www.fafsa4caster.ed.gov/F4CApp/index/index.jsf]FAFSA4caster”>http://www.fafsa4caster.ed.gov/F4CApp/index/index.jsf) will give you an estimate for your federal financial aid. Financial aid packages will vary on the college. Even with financial aid, school in Ireland will probably be cheaper. There is merit aid, but there is very little for transfer students. Are colleges in Ireland 3 years or 4 years? If they are 3 years, you may have to pay for an extra year (depending how your credits transfer. Also, American schools generally don’t expect students to declare a major until their second or third year of college, so there might be a curriculum mismatch. </p>

<p>By the way, law isn’t an undergraduate degree here. Some schools may have a “pre law” major or “justice” major, but these will not not qualify you to be a lawyer. (If you are going to live the rest of your life in Ireland an American JD may not do you a whole lot of good). Perhaps, you could study abroad in the US or a year, semester, or summer? </p>

<p>If you would be transferring to an American law school, then there really isn’t a whole lot of financial aid besides loans. Law school is extremely expensive. </p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

6

<p>It is not easy to pay for college on your own, but any number of students manage to do so, usually by working full-time and studying part-time. As a US citizen, you can move here, get a job, and study part-time. If you choose the state carefully, you may qualify for in-state tuition in less than a year. For example, if you are working in Maryland, and declare your intention to live permanently in the state, you qualify for in-state tuition at the community colleges after only three months of residency. If your parents own property in the US and pay taxes in that state, you may qualify for in-state tuition and fees, but again each state makes its own rules about this.</p>

<p>You need to talk to your parents about your reasons for coming to the US. It is perfectly reasonable that you should want to get in touch with your other country and culture. Perhaps studying here is the best way to do that, perhaps it would be better to move here and find a job for a while.</p>

<p>Wishing you all the best.</p>

7

<p>ironically we actually do own a house in maryland! haha. oh well in ireland law is a bachelors degree. as is medicine, etc. i would hopefuly be applying for a college such as brown, for the open curriculum. i hate law so far. its to deliberate, if you understand my meaning. where as i want to do something that has a million options, where i can learn more maths and english and art and everything. i have not completed the degree though, and over here, your first degree is free. so that means if i wait there will definitley be no aid available, right?! </p>

<p>this is probably a ridiculous question, but can you apply for like… financial emancipation from your parents?! they will definitley not be paying for my education, i wouldnt dream of asking for it, but if i get no aid… it looks like im stuck here. and i fully intend on living in america, after my degree anyways. </p>

<p>im pretty sure transfer is not an option, as my curriculum in law is not diverse enough to allow me to transfer it as credits to an american college. had i been doing a bachelors in arts it may have been possible, however i thought i should pick a course which had an actual job at the end of it… :frowning: arts over here leads to pretty much teaching. that is less my thing than law is. </p>

<p>as far as my parents… far from impoverished. though 5 kids, and next year there will be another in college, as well as my older sister, who is in her last year of medicine, but moving into internship next year… therefore she’s still going to need taking care of financially. though that probably is irrelevant to the process of aid.</p>

<p>and as far as it being perfectly reasonable for wanting to “go home”, my dad understands that. he encourages it, so he has an excuse to go back too. however i dont think its perfectly reasonable to ask for money off a man who pours all his energy into a job that doesnt fully satisfy him, especially when there’s more kiddies to pay for also. especially in this economic climate… wow do i sound grown up or what?! :stuck_out_tongue: but its the fact that my dad is pretty much at the top of his career, and chose that career because it could take care of his needs and families needs, but he resents it majority of the time. he’d love nothing more to be at home, playing guitar, doing paintings and learning random things such as astronomy. and at this point it seems that that it whats on the horizon for me, unless i get the freedom i need, academically. </p>

<p>wow. sorry, i just started ranting and pretty much pouring my heart out. apologies. but i do think its important you guys get where i’m coming from… even though you prob dont care… ;)</p>

8

<p>“we actually do own a house in maryland”</p>

<p>You need to contact the public universities in Maryland. This might qualify you for in-state tuition. There is a very fine LAC in the Maryland public system [St</a>. Mary’s College of Maryland](<a href=“http://www.smcm.edu/]St”>http://www.smcm.edu/) as well as excellent public community colleges ( [Montgomery</a> College](<a href=“http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/]Montgomery”>http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/) is one of the top ones in the nation), and multiple public universities. Is your house here rented out? If not, you perhaps you could move in there and re-start your life.</p>

<p>A number of your credits might transfer as “electives”. You won’t know until the individual college/university takes a look at your transcript. Whether or not any courses actually can be applied toward a degree, you still are a transfer applicant at this point.</p>

<p>It is extremely difficult to be “emancipated” financially from your parents. The rules for determining who is independent and who isn’t are pretty clear. You can look them up on the FAFSA website.</p>

9

<p>If attending school in the US really is your dream, you could work for a few years and apply as a transfer at age 24. (Yes, the age limit is there to differentiate between parents who cannot pay and parents who will not pay.) Of course, most schools don’t meet full financial need for all students and financial aid includes loans. </p>

<p>Brown isn’t need blind to transfers.</p>

<p>Even when transferring between American schools, credits transfer differently depending on each school’s policy.</p>

10

<p>The bottom line is that if your father makes a good income and the family owns one or more homes, any college is going to expect a significant contribution in the US. If this really isn’t possible, I’d complete an undergrad degree in Ireland and come here for grad school when funding is more likely or you’ll be old enough to be independent and pay with loans.</p>

11

<p>Your family owns a house in Maryland, but that probably does NOT qualify you for instate tuition there. Your residence (place where YOU reside) is not Maryland and you have resident status and a passport elsewhere. We know American citizens in the same boat (even have a house in Maryland) and they do NOT qualify for instate residency. The fact is, that home in Maryland isn’t THEIR home. They rent it to other. OH…and it’s considered an asset on their financial aid applications too. </p>

<p>Yours is a complicated situation. NO you cannot just declare yourself independent from your parents because you want more financial aid…that’s simply not how it works.</p>

<p>Also…if you are applying to most schools here, they WILL ask if you have taken any previous college courses ANYWHERE and will ask for transcripts to be provided. You will need to do this.</p>

<p>I guess I’m confused…why not just finish your education there. If you want to come here afterward, and work and establish your residency somewhere, you will then be able to do so.</p>