<p>I know I probably ask a lot of silly questions, but bear with me here...
So, I'm a hopeful international. Supposedly, I get into a college in the US that offers full demonstrated need awards. My question is, what would this demonstrated need be for me considering:
-my mother is a teacher and her annual income is somewhere around $5000
-my dad owns two small shops that bring in about $8000 a year, together
-before the economical crisis, dad bought a couple of houses for cheap that currently together value at around $18000
-our house was built from scratch, and the current market price is around $30000, but because of the economical crisis, we could probably only sell it for $20000
-dad's shops have brought us more debt than profit. We used to have a $30000 bank debt, but borrowed money from an aunt to pay that, and now we pay her back so we don't have crazy added interests and such
-I make under $500 a year from 2 jobs together</p>
<p>Thanks for taking the time! I'm really really worried that colleges might see those houses my dad bought as sell-able assets to fund college, but in reality, the real estate market in Romania is in serious suffering. They've been trying to sell a house for $7000 for 2 years and no one even offered</p>
<p>As an international student, there are no simple formulas to determine what your family would be expected to pay. You really do need to sit down with your parents, and find out how much THEY are willing to pay, and then apply to colleges and universities that offer aid to international students. Some of those schools will have calculators on their websites that you can use. Most won’t. It is perfectly OK for you to ask them how they would evaluate your father’s business investments.</p>
<p>What is the main question you are trying to ask? Are you trying to ask what would your financial aid package look like for 4-6 years assuming your financial situation would stay the same for 4-6 years if you were to attend a college that is need blind in admissions and meet 100% full demonstrated need without the use of loans for international students? For you, the list would be:</p>
<p>Harvard
Yale
Princeton
MIT
Amherst College
Dartmouth College (since your AGI is below $75,000, you don’t have to take out any loans as part of your financial aid package).
Berea College</p>
<p>They can only afford about 1000 dollars per year. I’m pretty adamant about going to a college in the US and will apply to those that offer full demonstrated need. If I don’t get accepted, oh well, at least I tried :)</p>
<p>Anyway, I thought that if I wrote to colleges and asked about how they would view my financial situation they would not answer (like it’s been the case for every other email i’ve sent to colleges…) </p>
<p>Also, I’ve plugged in these numbers on EFC calculators for US citizens on a bunch of college websites and they all bring up an EFC of 0. I just want to be sure</p>
<p>Basically, yes, that would be my question. I guess a debt of say $8000 for all 4 years on my name wouldn’t hurt so badly in the long run, so small loans could work if colleges consider I have an EFC greater than 0, which was predicted by EFC calculators</p>