What is my need?

Paying for College
1

<p>I have just now started to fill out the International student Financial Aid Application provided by Collegeboard and I am afraid of being viewed as a pretty rich student applying, since I need at least 30-35 k dollars every year to even consider studying in the USA.</p>

<p>My parents have their own company and their income this year is a little less than 100 k $, but during the last 4 years we had 15 k $ as a yearly income. We live in an apartment worth 2 mil $ and that is basically all assets we own (the mortgage on our apartment is 619 k $). We have about 15 k $ in savings, but that is it.</p>

<p>How will the colleges I am applying to view our financial need? I am applying to Dickinson C, Franklin and Marshall C, Gettysburg C, Depauw U and St. Lawrence U by the way. My parents will not help financially at all, but I can get about 20 k $ loans more or less from the State every year. Do they care if my parents will not help financially or do they just make their decisions based on our numbers?</p>

<p>Has anyone been in a similar situation or just know how the financial aid offices think at these colleges? Would very much appreciate any help I can get with this.</p>

2

<p>The colleges care if your parents CAN contribute, not if they WILL. A house worth $2 million dollars with equity of $1.4 million will certainly factor into your family contribution for schools that use home equity in their financial aid calculations. So will your family income of $100,000 for last year.</p>

3

<p>If you want to know how the colleges “think,” then run the net price calculators at their websites to find out! The result won’t be exact, but it should give you a pretty good idea what you’d be expected to pay.</p>

<p>And, as thumper already noted, colleges are not going to adjust the aid you receive based on your parents’ willingness to pay. Need-based financial aid is for families who don’t have the money to pay for school . . . not for families who have it, but don’t feel like spending it. Sorry.</p>

4

<p>Just be advised that the net price calculators are NOT particularly accurate for folks who are self employed.</p>

5

<p>First of all, be aware that as an international students, even the schools that are need blind in general, may not be for you. Also be aware that few schools meet need even as it is defined on the forms, and as an international student yo need to show that you have the funds to make it through the year. </p>

<p>So that puts you in the difficult situation that you have to show you can pay as much as your family possibly can, yet show need to get the money from the schools. That is the reality of the situation. I believe those schools you are targetting are not even need blind in admissions for US students, But the bottom line is that it doesn’t matter what your family sitaution is other than what income and assets your family has and if they are there, they are considered usable for school. There are many who apply with a big fat zero in those areas. The schools are really not at all interested in your history of hardships and obligations and bills and when they ask for back info or other info, it’s to get every cent your family might have gotten or has that can be used to pay. They are not trying to come up with the money to make it a go, as they are as bringing that need. by their formulas, to as low as possible. So your aparmtent value less the mortgage on it will be considered an asset even if you can’t borrow against and can’t sell. Your family has it, it’s an asset.</p>

6

<p>If the parental income of 100k is the 2012, it will likely knock you out of the running for most substantive grant-based FA. If the 100k is the projected income for this year in 2013, you might qualify for some aid this year, but you will likely not qualify at all when you reapply for aid in future years, and then you’d be in a situation where college becomes unaffordable for the last three years.</p>

<p>Run the NPCs and get exact numbers, but remember that the primary responsibility for educational costs is you and your parents, not the schools. The schools will expect your family to pay as much as they think you should be able to afford out of your family income and home equity, and then they will make up the difference (depending on the school, sometimes with even more loans). If your parents are unwilling to help, that’s a personal choice between you and your parents, and the school isn’t going to take on your parents’ responsibliity of paying for school.</p>

7

<p>Thanks for your input tumper1, but you didn’t really answer my questions. Do they think we will sell our home to pay for my tuition fee? I don’t see how the value of our house is really relevant. In Sweden we don’t emphasize on saving money for our kids college educations since it is free here in Sweden. Will I be punished for my culture’s perception of spending habbits? Once again, what will they determine my need to be if you would have to guess?</p>

8

<p>Ok, so I am not going to get any need-based financial aid? That is what you are saying right?</p>

9

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</p>

<p>No, we’re saying to run the net price calculators and see!</p>

<p>But, chances are, at schools that consider home equity, the $1+million in equity you have in your family’s apartment is going to present a challenge. Schools are not going to overlook that.</p>

<p>And, no, schools are not going to sympathize with the fact that you didn’t save for college. Many, many families don’t . . . and their kids’ options are limited accordingly.</p>

<p>No one expects you to sell your home to pay for college . . . but they do expect you to decide which is more important to you. If the home is more important, then so be it. But that’s your family’s choice.</p>

10

<p>The schools will expect that your family will borrow against the equity in the real estate you own. If you don’t want to that is your business but don’t expect schools to give you aid. You do not have need with those assets and income.</p>

11

<p>In the US, and I’m not quite familiar with this process, you can take out a loan against your home equity for extra liquid assets, and depending on the value of your home, some schools are going to expect that or consider that fair game. Most schools will cap home equity at a certain rate of income, and some don’t consider it at all.</p>

<p>Home equity and other assets are a small portion of what is expected, but like some posters have found out (in another thread), assets may only affect your EFC minimally (by a couple of thousand in a twenty thousand or so EFC). Parental income seems to be a huge part of a family’s ability to pay, and again, the net-price calculators will tell you what schools expect.</p>

<p>However, just because higher education does not cost anything in Sweden does not mean that schools will apply that same logic here. Your parents will be expected to pay, and if they don’t, schools won’t make up the difference.</p>

<p>Start here:
[Dickinson</a> College - Net Price Calculator](<a href=“http://www.dickinson.edu/student-life/resources/financial-aid/content/Net-Price-Calculator/]Dickinson”>Net Price Calculator | Net Price Calculator | Dickinson College)</p>

<p>[Dickinson</a> College - International Financial Aid](<a href=“http://www.dickinson.edu/admissions/international/International-Financial-Aid/]Dickinson”>International Scholarships and Financial Aid | International Scholarships and Financial Aid | Dickinson College)</p>

<p>For example, Dickinson does not claim to meet full need for international students, and actually impose SAT/ACT cut-offs on their need. While you are over those minimums, the amount of aid you receive will depend on how much they like you.</p>

<p>You need to run the NPC for Dickinson and every other school, and recognize that that is the best-case scenario. The aid that Dickinson will meet will probably be less than what the NPC says, because you are international, but it gives you a starting point-- and if the intial EFC is higher than you are willing to pay, Dickinson will probably not be affordable. Rinse and repeat for all schools, and read how they treat intl students.</p>

12

<p>

No one is punishing you. You are expecting a college in a country not your own to adopt your culture’s standards. Why should they? No one is forcing you to be educated in the US, and you aren’t entitled to special treatment because you come from Sweden. Since your family’s financial path was based on the assumption that you would attend college in Sweden, it looks like that’s what you will have to do.</p>

13

<p>Ok, thanks for all of your detailed posts. I appreciate the truth and would not expect anything else. I am just a bit sad since this is the second time around for me to apply to college. Last year I aimed too high and this year I thought I would at least get one good offer from a college, but maybe I am just wishing too much.</p>

<p>From Gettysburg’s NPC I would get 42 k per year, and I would be very glad if that was the case, but I am not so sure anymore if that is even remotely accurate. My parent’s business is not worth anything if they were to sell it (because of loans). Any thoughts on this?</p>

<p>Thanks again for taking your time and I am truly sorry if I come across as ignorant since I don’t want that to be the case.</p>

14

<p>I feel bad for wat I said earlier. Sorry for sounding arrogant, I am just disappointed that I may not get to study in the US, which is where I lived between the ages of 5 and 8 years old. I miss it there and I am sad that even though I have spent hundreds of dollars for tests, applications, books for the SAT and everything with my money I worked for, I might not be able to study there because of my parents success 10 years ago and the money they made back then. They have since then spent most of that money (which I can’t be blaimed for) on renovating, cars and things that lose value over time, so now we don’t have anything except for our apartment and their business which just recently became a profitable business.</p>

<p>I have spent most of my spare time on applying to colleges in the US, while on the way losing a couple of friends. Maybe I should just blame myself for even believing that I would have a chance at this, but everyone on these boards have so different and strong opinions about stuff. I have friends in similar situations who have gotten good financial aid so I thought I could too.</p>

15

<p>Swedish…do the applications and wait and see what happens. In the meantime, get some applications to colleges in YOUR country. Perhaps you can get your undergrad degree in Sweden and come to the U.S. for grad school.</p>

16

<p>I have plenty of time to apply to Swedish Universities. It takes a couple of clicks and then I press the send button. That is how we apply in Sweden, haha. We also just use grades or test scores, not both. I have high enough grades to study anything I want except for some few programs at a few schools, so there is not much stress at least :)</p>