We own our own family farm. Our income is very very low, so that makes us quite eligible for the college prep scholarship. We also have farm land that tallies up to quite a large number. When completing the FAFSA, these assets do not matter because we live on this land and it is necessary to have in order for us to make money. For the college prep scholar application, one section under assets is for real estate other than your home. Since we wouldn’t use our farm information for the FAFSA, would we do the same for the college prep application?
Are you sure the family farm is not reported on FAFSA? It doesn’t matter if the land is ‘necessary’, it just matters what the reporting rules are. I am not sure myself for farms, you could ask the Financial Aid forum. fyi families owning property with equity have loans available against that presumably. So check to be sure.
Also, the Questbridge colleges use CSS Profile in addition to FAFSA to determine aid. So those colleges will use the expanded information asked for on CSS. You can always email Questbridge to ask if it isn’t clear.