<p>Hi, guys. I have applied for financial aid to Georgetown Q. I am facing the following problem now:</p>
<p>I have sent only ONE of bank statements to the college. The other account has funds which we will be using to buy a house in the next month or so. The problem is that the statement that I have sent in shows an entry which states that funds of X amount - to be used to buy the home - were sent to dad’s other account a month or so ago. </p>
<p>What is the best way to deal with this situation? Should I send the other statement in with a note explaining that these funds will be long gone by the end of my firs of year of study? Should I risk not sending in the statement because this might affect my aid award?</p>
<p>Hopefully, we will (90% chance) buy the home in the next 1-2 months. :/</p>
<p>Qatar Foundation - the organisation which gives aid to students - requires applicants to send bank statements as part of the financial aid application.</p>
<p>If they require the statements, then you need to send both, Yes, the money will be out of the account by the end of the account a month from now, but I’m assuming the application deadline is less than a month away. Perhaps you could send a statement attesting to the fact that the money is no available because it is being used to buy a house - and attach a copy of the purchase contract.</p>
<p>Even if you were able to wait a month, you would then need to indicate that your parents own their home following the purchase.</p>
<p>The only other option I can see is to set up an escrow account with the purchase money - to make it very clear that is house money with strings attached - but that would still need to be disclosed until the house is actually purchased.</p>
<p>As others say, be honest and talk with them.
There may be another issue, though, depending on your family’s financial situation: Buying a house at the same time your child is going to college can be a bad idea.</p>
<p>In order to legitimately get funds, you do have to comply with the requests. I am not familiar with how this particular aid works, but if you have money in any account the day you fill out FAFSA, you are sunk unless you go through a Professional Judgement request and can show that the money is clearly not for school. But holding it to buy a house would not cut the mustard, I can tell you that right now. </p>
<p>Georgetown is a Profile school and they do count the market value of even the primary residence as part of family assets, so it would not matter whether the money is in the house or in an account. How your particular case may be viewed and this particular app is a whole other story and one with which I have no familiarity, but your reasoning would not work with ordinary financial aid with PROFILE. If the money is there, it’s assessed. Money in a home is assessed. They are all family assets.</p>
<p>Remarkable . . . I am assuming you were asked to submit “bank statements,” not “some bank statements” or “just those bank statements you want us to know about.”</p>
<p>I am also assuming that if it weren’t for that pesky transfer (which - oops! - revealed the existence of that second account), you’d have been perfectly content never even disclosing the existence of that account. Again, remarkable. Just remarkable.</p>
<p>I do understand the conundrum you’re facing. If you tell the truth, you might not get the money you want. But this has been addressed (at length!) in other threads. Suffice it to say that lying in order to get financial aid funds is not a good way to start your college career.</p>
<p>Junaid, bear in mind that GT will consider the house an asset as well, so putting that money into a house is not going to shelter them. Again, I don’t know the Quater process here, but PROFILE takes 5.6% of assets over the parental protection allowance towards the expected contribution, most of the time. It’s income that tends to get the big hit in the fin aid process.</p>
<p>Firstly, is 5.6% of the total assets over the protection limit the EFC per year or for four years.</p>
<p>Qatar Fondation, and not Georgetown, gives out these interest-free loans, so I can’t not be sure about the policy they use to calculate the student’s financial need. I have already disclosed everything else on my profile - 2 lands and buildings etc - and I am assuming that the best option would be to send the other bank statement as well - which contains only one third of the amount my parents would be using to buy the home, not the full. :/</p>
<p>Each year, one has to fill out financial aid forms and the family assets on PROFILE are assessed 5.6% over the protected amount. How the Q Foundation calculates need, we don’t know, but they want to see your bank statements and, yes, just because your family has plans for money does not make it exempt. Anyone and everyone can come up with plans for money. Maybe if some surgery or medical condition needs to be addressed, there would be some exemption, but no, not for a home. The home itself would also be assessed at most PROFLE school, and yes, it’s every year.</p>
<p>The challenge the way that I see it is OP is an international student. S/he will not obtain a visa to study in the US unless s/he can prove that they have the funds to pay (remember GT is not need blind to international students). </p>
<p>My guess is that OP showed these accounts or put down their existence in order to get admitted to GT. GT will want to know that the $$ is still available to pay for college (which according to OP is was-by him/her listing in on the financials for admission).</p>
<p>You can say that your parents are using the $ to buy a house, but GT is not going to increase your aid of it. In addition, they probably may not grant you a visa to study in the US, because you will no longer have this $$ available to pay your way.</p>
<p>Yes, it is a problem when you show one set of assets to show you can afford to come into the country to study, and a whole other set for financial aid. It just doesn’t work that way here. You are asked to show all of your assets. If some are earmarked, you can let those who are examining them know what they are earmarked for ,and it is up to them to make that decision as to whether they are excluded from financial aid uses. It certainly is not up to the applicants and their families. No one wants to show all of their assets, and most families do have earmarks. Some very critical ones. There is a poster who got a workman’ comp award due to an injury, who will need likely need surgery in the future and that award should go towards those expenses. Unlikely a school will let that go. </p>
<p>OP, if your family finances are in such a state this year that shows some transitory and temporary things that hurt your financial aid awards. As for deferral for next year, and perhaps things will have settled down by then. As I’ve posted before, I’ve known families who have done just that.</p>
<p>My bad, since the student is studying in Qatar, funding from the Qatar foundation will be mostly loans. The challenge to this is that the Qatar foundation does not guarantee funding.<br>
</p>
<p>Remember
</p>
<p>It seems the you are stuck between a rock and a hard place. If you submit the bank statements, the Qatar foundation will assume that you need very little funding from them and may only offer you a small loan (which may not be enough $$ for you to attend).</p>
<p>Since Qatar foundation is need aware in their funding, if you don’t put down the money in the other bank account, the foundation will see that you need a lot of funding and may not give it to you because they may feel that your family is not financially stable enough to pay the $$ back (still not making you able to attend)</p>
<p>If you must reapply each year, will your family still be credit worthy to borrow money again next year? It does not sound like you have a good long range plan to fund your education here.</p>
<p>regarding repayment: are you willing to pay a % of your salary for years on end or commit to years of public service to repay the debt?</p>
<p>Do you have a school that is a financially feasible option for your family?</p>
<p>I don’t think that with holding the information is an option; I think that OP needs a lot of aid to make this happen, that the school really is not a financially feasible option for him/her no matter how s/he slices it.</p>
<p>I also think op believes that if s/he does not disclose that s/he will be eligible for more money whereas if s/he does disclose s/he is going to receive less money (and have a short fall). Again, no matter what option s/he chooses, s/he is going to be stuck and not be able to afford this school, which is probably what s/he does not want to hear (and is having a hard time accepting).</p>
<p>Deferring for another year is not really an option for me because I am already on a gap year. I think I can try applying as a transfer applicant next year. The only other options available are my safety school in my home country and NUS, which I am waiting to hear from.</p>
<p>I plan to repay the loans borrowed by working in Qatar. Georgetown Qatar offered me a grant of $20,000, which, if combined with $5-7k earned from the work-study program, is equal to 50% of the total cost of funding one’s education at the Qatar Campus. That means I would have to work for around about 3 years after graduation to repay the loans.</p>
<p>Since I have no idea whether or not Qatar Foundation takes into account fixed assets such as homes into account, I think I’d be better off sending in the statement.</p>