<p>I immigrated from Ukraine 13 years ago. Up until about 7 years ago, my dad delivered pizzas and my mom was a babysitter. They taught themselves programming and now our total family income is about 180k. The problem is, even though that what we are making now seems like a load of money, we had no foundation in America, so we had to pay off a house, a car, support our relatives, and a crapload of other things. Thus, even though we make more than some families, we live much worse than they do, and do not have the financial resources available to pay something like 40k a year for a private university. </p>
<p>So, my questions are:
A) Based on a total income of 180k for two kids (my sister is 8), will there be any chance of financial aid</p>
<p>B) Will the financial aid office consider my situation, or will they only look at the superficial number of 180k? Thank you.</p>
<p>EDIT: My parents combined salary was around 85k, untill 2002. So its only that my dad got a great new job 3 years ago that we have more income.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure that if you plead your case well enough you will be able to get some sort of financial aid. In my city local cultural organizations (because you’re Ukrainian) would help out. I’m not sure if that would accure with your city as well, but you can try (I’m not sure how it works in the states, I’m from Canada so I don’t really know about that). If financial aid isn’t going to work, you can try scholarships if your grades are decent and you work well in school. Most schools have tons of scholarships to give out for leadership, community involvement, grades, and they even give out scholarships for the best in a certain club or class. Local businesses might be able to help you out too, depending on how involved they are with the population of your city. That’s all I an tell you, I hope it helped.</p>
<p>I’m afraid micceli is wrong. If your parents make $180K, you have equity in a house and no other kids in college, chances of getting a cent in need based aid is unlikely. You will need to look at schools that offer merit aid for money.</p>
<p>Sorry, I don’t think I made it clear. I wasn’t really thinking along the financial aid that schools give out, sorry sometimes my mind thinks it’s own way and I write something completely different. I was talking about businesses that give out financial aid. That’s what I was mostly aiming at. When it comes to school financial aid zagat is right. Sorry about the misscommunication.</p>
<p>It seems like you would be an unlikely candidate for any finaid that requires demonstrated financial need. Needbased finaid awards are based on your income for the previous year and do not take into consideration income levels prior to that time. While your family has certainly spent their monies on worthwhile causes (family, home etc), this also is something that is not used when need is determined. Those are CHOICES your family has made, and they could just have easily have chosen to save for a college education. That they have paid for their home will only mean that they have equity that they can borrow against, and this IS taken into consideration by anyone using the Profile to determine eligibility. Re: businesses, etc…you need to read carefully what the requirements are for eligibility. Many require some demonstrated need. Re: purely merit aid, well, that would depend on what you are bringing to the colleges to which you are applying.</p>
<p>180K in income isn’t a superficial number it is a REAL number
Especially considering that you don’t have a mortgage- I doubt any need based aid would be available.
Most families who have children in college- I daresay make less than $180K AND have a mortgage to pay.( heck I bet many if not most make less than 85K- it certainly is much higher than the average income)</p>
<p>I think it is great that your parents were able to pay off their mortage- that is really an accomplishment- but that is the majority of most peoples expenses, to not have that frees up a lot of money that is available to spend on something else.</p>
<p>I just asked them and I think you have it wrong. We still have to pay mortage for 10 more years. But yeah, I get your drift, time to make the wallet hurt. Damn, and all my friends who’ve lived here longer than me have parents make less money but all live in very nice/big houses while we get a shack. Oh well, lifes unfair =/.</p>
<p>Edit: I just checked my original post, and I made it seem like we’ve paid everything off, while what I mean is that we are STILL paying all of that stuff off, so the actual spending amount is muuuuuuuuch lower.</p>
