Working around farm equity!

Paying for College
1

<p>Oy.</p>

<p>Biiig problems. So, I filled out the FAFSA 4-caster and received an efc of about 70 thousand. Now, that estimate also happens to be my parents NET INCOME.</p>

<p>Maybe this isn't appropriate to divulge such information because of privacy issues and such, but I'm not exactly handing out my SSN... delete this if you deem it inappropriate ^^;</p>

<p>The underlying factor is that the farm which my family owns/lives on/relies on as single source of income has a net worth of approx. 1 mil.
This includes the land we live off of, which we need to produce... the cows owned also needed for this income. It's not like we can just sell off a portion of it to pay for college or otherwise, it'd affect our yearly income.</p>

<p>After you factor in living expenses, loans & otherwise taken out, we're in the hole 30 grand...</p>

<p>I ask you, is there any way I'll be able to afford a four year private college???</p>

2

<p>Are you sure your are supposed to include the farm as an asset if you live on it and operate it?</p>

<p>from the completing thr FAFSA - the applicationquestions at [Completing</a> the FAFSA 07-08/The Application Questions(81-83)](<a href=“http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/publications/completing_fafsa/2007_2008/ques5-5.html]Completing”>http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/publications/completing_fafsa/2007_2008/ques5-5.html)

</code></pre>

<p>from finaid.org at [FinAid</a> | Financial Aid Applications | Small Business Exclusion](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Small Business Exclusion - Finaid)

</p>

3

<p>Really? You don’t report farm equity at all?</p>

<p>it’s just on the page I was filling out it said this:</p>

<p>Investments do not include the home the student’s parents live in; cash, savings and checking accounts; the value of life insurance and retirement plans (pension funds, annuities, noneducation IRAs, Keogh plans, etc.).</p>

<p>and, well, they didn’t include farms on that list. I didn’t know if farms would be considered homes…</p>

4

<p>I don’t have a farm so can’t speak from experience but that is how it reads to me. Double check the guidelines on FAFSA.edu. The first quote is from a government site.</p>

<p>However if you are thinking of private schools you may also have to complete css profile (for institutional aid) and I am not sure they will exclude the farm equity.</p>

5

<p>I really dislike forms, heh.</p>

<p>(Edit) Ahh… this makes sense. I found on a few sites that any farm-related asset, if it’s on one you live off of, doesn’t have to be reported.
Well, that’s a reprieve ^_^</p>

6

<p>Online forms do have a drawback in that one cannot see the other pages while looking at the current page. </p>

<p>We printed the form out both FAFSA and Profile inorder to see where answer will lead us in the future.</p>