Are colleges really need blind?

Cairo_Mom
Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:03:49 +0000

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?