<p>We are a very confusing family financially (Americans living abroad) and though the financial calculator says we can pay $40,000 a year for college, we plan to explain that we have other circumstances living in the Middle East not on these forms that affect our income–two younger children who cannot attend public school in Arabic in a developing country and therefore must be educated privately. My question is, if you think you have only a small chance of qualifying for aid, should you even ask for it, or am I hurting my daughter’s chances by trying for it when we probably won’t get it anyway? How need blind are these schools really? Should we just plan on getting her student loans and hoping for some merit aid, or should we attempt to explain our unique, complex, situation and try for even a little bit of aid?</p>
<p>You should submit the FAFSA nevertheless - even if to get a Stafford loan. You may also get a school grant since COA will be higher than $40k in many cases. However, some schools won’t account for overseas travel.</p>
<p>Is your D applying to both public and privates? Are you a resident of any state? Also, few publics can meet “need” for nonresidents, so if your D wants to go to a public, she’ll likely need merit money. If she can avoid large loans (which you’d have to co-sign), that would be better.</p>
<p>As a back-up, she should apply to schools that give large merit, since you may not get special treatment for private education for younger kids (that is often viewed as a “choice” - even though in your circumstance it may not be).</p>
<p>BTW… some of the deadlines for merit scholarships is tomorrow, so you’ll need to act fast - however, some have easy apps with no essays or recs required.</p>
<p>What are her stats?</p>
<p>What will she likely major in?</p>
<p>CM, there are few truly need-blind schools that make their admissions decisions without considering how much aid an applicant needs, and there are fewer that also meet full need. Each school that uses PROFILE calculates your need in its own way, so your issue is finding a school that might consider your special case. For most applicants and schools, younger siblings attending a private school is considered a lifestyle choice by parents, with no special consideration given.</p>
<p>At need-aware schools, you can indeed hurt her chances of admittance by asking for aid you don’t think she’ll get. This hits the middle class the hardest. :(</p>
<p>I do know that University of Richmond is truly need blind. We applied ED in October. There were questions I had about the application process and the staff in Financial Aid explained that they do not see admissions applications and Admissions does not see Financial Aid applications. Their decisions are truly independent of each other.</p>
<p>I don’t think there’s a good understanding of need blind vs. need aware.</p>
<p>Need blind is simply no consideration of available finances or student financial need enters the student admission process.</p>
<p>Need aware takes in account the school’s resources to meet the student’s need.</p>
<p>Need aware policies have increasing bearing on students with greater need, NOT those students who have little need as the OP described. Also, need aware policies come further into play the closer the student is to the bubble. If the school is choosing it’s last few slots for admission and has run through the bulk of its available funds, a need aware school is more likely to offer the slot to a student it knows can better afford the school; rather than offer the slot to a student who requires a great deal of financial help that the school does not have left.</p>
<p>In other words, student with little or no need have nothing to fear of need aware policies.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Good explanation.</p>
<p>In the OP’s case, they seem to have a high EFC that they can’t meet and might not get special consideration about private school tuition for younger kids since colleges do view that as a “personal choice” (and the corporation that is employing you over there should be compensating you for the need to educate your children in English schools. Are they?)</p>
<p>So, because of the OP’s situation (high EFC but unable to pay it), her D needs to apply to schools that will give her lots of merit, or the OP needs to be prepared to sign for big loans.</p>