Don’t they only have a half share in the house?
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OP, you previously mentioned being a Questbridge College Prep Scholar, which provides a lot of individualized support for exactly the kinds of questions you are asking here. Are you using those resources at all?
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This is correct.
They do offer helpful resources, mostly reviewing essays, helping with letters of continued interest (LOCI), and providing webinars or guides about the process. But it isn’t super individualized; it’s more general support rather than direct one‑on‑one help calculating assets or running financial aid numbers
I didn’t report the stipend to the IRS which is why I didn’t want to put it on other documents
You would probably need to determine if the amount on Zillow (or any other site) is for both halves of the duplex or just your half.
Looks like its just our half
But correct me if I’m wrong - your half is $481K…so there are two units in that home. Yours is $481K and the other owner is also $481K to make the entire duplex $960K.
Would that be correct?
After all, you said the original purchase you pooled together to pay $325K years ago - so it wouldn’t make sense that your share is only worth $240K.
99.999 percent sure that you don’t need to report it to the IRS. Their threshold for reporting income is way above that.
But the two people I tagged earlier can confirm that.
And if you don’t need to report it to the IRS, then it’s okay to report it to questbridge and FAFSA/css profile. They are not going to see $200 on their form and 0 to the IRS and be concerned / report you for anything.
Again, though — @BelknapPoint and @politeperson can hopefully confirm as that is their area of expertise.
Edited to add that it seems the values are different for stipends vs. W-2 income. I’ll see if I can find more information later .
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You wouldn’t report - because you didn’t make $14,600 or more.
But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t answer a question correctly on a financial aid form.
That you got a stipend may not be income - not sure how they differ.
But unless you had other unearned income (not from a job but a CD, as an example), you wouldn’t fill out a tax return for $200.
So your intentions weren’t pure (avoid taxes) but your actions were perfectly legal in regards to the tax return.
Actually, I think the limits are a lot lower for stipends, so waiting for the experts to weigh in. That’s assuming that the OP didn’t have taxes taken out of the stipend.
I meant a stipend might not be considered income.
Of course, if taxes were removed, OP would need to fil a return but would get everything back.
But I think OP is fine here.
My son, in his job, got a living stipend (to help pay temporary housing since he was in 6 month rotations) - that part of his income was not taxed.
The Zillow chart says $483k and would not be for half the address.
I thought it was only purchased a few years ago, not “years ago” (can’t remember where this was originally mentioned above), so the increase seems in line with the market.
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So is your family’s equity half the Zillow value?
OP noted they paid $325K two years ago for their half.
Whether it’s appreciated 50% in two years I don’t know - but I can’t imagine it went down 33%.
NJ is a super hot market - in fact, 12 of the top 100 hottest markets nationwide per the WSJ.
Even if they had just half, that’s still more equity than the median family.
I don’t quite know how Questbridge works but I have to think they are looking for those most disadvantaged in society. That doesn’t seem this young person.
But it’s good if they ask QB and/or get a real bounce.
12 N.J. towns named the hottest markets in the nation. See full list. - nj.com
OP, I am not sure if you have answered this question and I might have missed it, but do you have siblings in your household? If your single/custodial parent has other children either pre-college or in college and none of you are getting child support from the other parent, it may impact your aid this makes it all the more important to run each individual net calculator at each college that you may end up applying to in the regular decision round. Of course the best case scenario is that you will match through Questbridge early decision and get a full COA that way.
OP can you clarify if the $325K was for the entire duplex bldg, or only your half share (which is presumably the unit you live in)? Or another possible option…does your mom own 50% of the home where you live?
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Regardless of equity - does anyone know of an accurate list that shows who uses and doesn’t.
Since they have significant equity, and there’s 55 schools and while OP has chosen schools, it might be wise to ensure none of them count equity…to ensure 15 are on the list that don’t.
We know Oberlin does and Denison doesn’t from the two sources.
I find this when I google Dartmouth and Home Equity, but I open the FAQs and it’s not there: In measuring need for Dartmouth scholarships, we look at total income, home equity, family’s assets, and your own assets to determine a fair family contribution.
Most seem not to answer the question at all…
Just wondering if we can steer a list to OP.
If we had a list - we could say - don’t apply to Dartmouth (assuming what I’m reading is correct) or Oberlin…but do apply to Denison, etc.
I don’t know of any resource like this. The only way to know for sure is to contact each school and/or run the NPCs with and without home equity. That 2021 resource that multiple posters have linked is not up to date.
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That’s not really allowed…but it’s done so you can’t wind the clock back.