Your biggest worry after being accepted somewhere would be if you can afford it.
Did you file FAFSA? What was your EFC?
With $60k your EFC will probably be too high for much federal grant aid. You can take a $5500 student loan.
Being in NYS maybe you would get a state grant.
So what are your plans for school? Do you have stats for substantial merit?
What taxes are you talking about? If you rent your place of residence, you don’t pay property taxes. If the family gross income is less than $60k/year, income taxes should not be outrageously high, especially if that income is spilt between two earners (you and your mother), each able to claim a deduction. The big tax left is sales tax. What is the sales tax rate where you live? And if you “really have nothing left” after paying taxes, how does your family pay for essentials?
We live in CT in FC. Everything is outrageously expensive. We still have to pay taxes in the area for school, etc. We barely have enough for essentials, hence why I also have two jobs. @BelknapPoint
3.72 UW, 32 ACT w perfect English and writing scores, planning to retake. Very competitive school, plenty of AP classes. My gpa is lower because I work constantly and have devoted ECs
How many children in your family will still be living at home after you finish high school? If there aren’t any others, can your family move to a less expensive community once there is no need for the good school system?
Most colleges and universities in the US are needs-blind for admissions. However, most colleges and universities in the US also don’t have much aid to shell out. You need to find out what effect losing your income will have on the family if you go away to college. To make things work for your family, you might find that it is necessary to work full time and study part time at a commuting-distance community college or public university. Lots of students are in that situation.
Are you in NY state, NJ, or CT? That will affect your options. If you are in NYS, sit down with your guidance counselor and find out whether you are likely to qualify for TAP. You may think that you are the only one in your HS with your financial situation, but my guess is that you aren’t, and that your guidance counselor will have ideas for you. You also can send a PM to @sybbie719 who is very familiar with NYC area issues.
There is no jurisdiction in the United States where more than half of income goes toward taxes (unless, of course, back taxes are owed, but then you really ought to count the previous income into the equation), or in very rare cases where a massive amount of real property is owned but there is very little income (in which case it’s probably worth selling)—so it might be worth finding out what the actual facts are before trying to figure out anything based on those facts.
And besides, like @GMTplus7 and @siliconvalleymom pointed out, your stress appears to be (or at the very least may be) misplaced, anyway.
Ok. So what taxes are you talking about? Your sales tax rate is 6.35%, which is better than most New York counties (generally 8%, 8 7/8% in NYC) and not out of the ordinary on a nationwide basis. You don’t pay property taxes. With a family gross income of less than $60k and multiple deduction opportunities, your federal tax bracket is likely no more than 15%. Connecticut income tax brackets for lower incomes are not crazy high. Yes, Fairfield County, CT is an expensive are to live, but that’s not because of a higher tax rate (at least for the taxes that your family is paying).
It is unlikely that you all are paying more than ~20% of income to taxes, even in NY. Not saying that you are well off, but taxes at the $60K mark simply don’t take more than 1/2 your income.
Everybody in the college process is aware that different areas in the country have different costs of living. Most of the first evaluations for financial aid are done by computer, not by a judgy person saying ‘well, if he can afford to live there I guess he doesn’t need aid’.
If Op lives in CT, s/he is not eligible for NYS aid. They still need to take a bottoms up approach in making sure that they are looking for affordable schools. This could be schools where s/he can get merit $$ of an affordable school in Ct, even if it means starting out in community college.
Well-resourced colleges that are not need aware will look at your application fairly. Should you be accepted, their essential policy will be to make the opportunity to attend affordable for you. In terms of achieving your goals, the quality of your academic preparation – to the extent that it’s clear from your application – will be more relevant than your family’s finances.
Your ACT of 32 score places you at the average for full-demonstrated-need schools such as Williams, Hamilton and Brown. Though you may not (or may) gain acceptance (or have an interested in) these schools specifically, this should give you an idea of the strength of your standardized scoring and your prospects for finding an excellent college that will be considerate of your ability to pay.
I’m not saying that half of our money goes towards taxes- sorry. I’m just trying to say that a lot of our money goes towards high expenses that come with living in this area (grossly inflated housing prices, high taxes, high priced bills, etc). Sorry I’m just very flustered right now. Very stressed. I don’t know much about my families financial situation besides that it is dire and that we make less than 60K. They don’t like to talk about it with me even though it is becoming very vital for the college process. @BelknapPoint
Are you a junior in high school and what is your PSAT score?
OP, be aware that if your mom takes a healthy set of deductions to reduce her income that those schools that meet need will add many of those deductions back in, raising your income. Do run the Net Price Calculators on the schools web sites but ask your mom about deductions she may take.
Why do you keep talking about taxes when it doesn’t seem like your family has an unusually high tax burden? Heck I pay 9-10% sales tax even on food.
You need to target schools that meet financial need and/or offer merit aid for your stats, just like the many, many people in that income bracket.
What are you talking about. I’m a CT resident. Schools are funded through property taxes of property owners. You don’t own your residence, right? You are renting. Your LANDLORD is paying school taxes, not you.
And everyone who lives in this area pays sales tax, and income tax. Our state income tax rate isn’t even all that high. Neither is the sales tax rate (compared to many other high cost of living areas).
So what is your GPA, and what is your SAT or ACT score?
Have you looked at Southern or Western CT State Universities? One of those should be close to your home.
If your grades are high enough…and your SAT or ACT high enough…you could be a contender for admission to a school with generous need based aid.
So…what are these numbers?
Earlier OP said
If you’re paying rent, then how is the majority of your parents’ income going to pay taxes? Federal, state, and City taxes are all income taxes, aren’t they? So the amount you pay is based on income, not zip code.
Your situation is complicated because your mom owns a business. Colleges’ net price calculators may not be accurate for you. Ask your parents how much they can pay for college per year so there are no surprises.
I don’t think colleges take living expenses into account unless a family has unusual circumstances (high medicallike bills not covered by insurance). Some colleges use the FAFSA to determine aid, others use their own (more detailed) financial aid application, and some use both. If finances are an issue, look for colleges with guaranteed merit for your stats. There’s a thread pinned to the top of the financial aid forum that lists some. And make sure your list includes a couple of financial safeties that you’d be happy to attend.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/16451378/#Comment_16451378
Look at the above link. You will need to verify current info, but your stats are high enough to get you a full ride at several schools
As others have stated, financial aid will be based on income and assets only. Neither your ethnicity nor your cost of living is considered. However, with a <$60k income you could receive a large financial aid package from a meet-100% need school. Your GPA is a little below but not too bad, and your 32 is just fine. Most of them are reaches for everyone, but there are a few matches. Have you considered applying through Questbridge?
For safeties, you’ll want schools that will give a you full ride for your stats. There are many choices which can be found in that one automatic merit thread…
Not really sure why you feel the need to be so excessively snappy when I’m stressed and asking for help. If you see my previous post, I apologized and said I was flustered and mistyped- I don’t necessarily mean that all of our income goes towards taxes but the grossly inflated cost of living in Fairfield County in one of the most expensive towns in the country (very high rent for very small houses, extremely high utility bills, general cost of living very high). @thumper1