You won’t find this out until next September, but with a 226 selection index, you can safely assume you will be a NMSF. Congratulations and definitely look at the schools that offer merit money for this.
To get back to your original question, does your family own this business? Some schools require you to complete the CSS for determining financial aid and this would be taken into account along with other assets. It’s good that you are figuring this out while making your college list. Good luck to you!
I’m still confused.
Does this mean that this business grossed $1,150,000 and your parent income was $350,000?
Your family “runs” this business, but how is the business structured, and do they have sole ownership of it?
While you are discussing college costs…see if they have college savings for you.
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I talked to them and the budget is likely close to 0. Essentially what happened is that my dad lost all of our life savings in the stock market which he has set up as a business. I’m pretty sure we’re also in a significant amount of debt so I’ll likely have to pay all of the tuition myself.
See post above—for clarification, the gains from day trading were 350,000 and the losses were 800,000. On our tax returns, our gross income was -450,000. They don’t have any savings left as they were put into the market.
Yes we have sole ownership of it. Thank you!
OP- hugs. This is challenging.
If your parents are telling you that your budget is zero, regardless of how the numbers end up shaking out for financial aid (and I don’t think you have a full picture of your family’s financial situation-how are you all eating and paying your electric bill? but that’s your parents prerogative) then you need to start looking at the least expensive way possible to go to college.
Start local- which is what most kids do- commute to a college nearby with a reasonable tuition price. It may mean working and taking less than a full academic load.
Hugs to you. You can make this work and it’s good you know now…
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As a NMSF, I believe you would get a free ride to University of Tulsa, and likely University of Alabama and University of New Mexico as well.
@WayOutWestMom do NM scholars get a full ride to UNM?
So gross income was minus $450,000? Was this for the tax year for your FAFSA/profile?
For the 2024-2025 academic year, you would use 2022 income.
For 2025-2026 academic year, you would use 2023 income.
So…what year was this loss taken in.
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@thumper1 and OP
UNM’s National Merit Scholarship (full ride) is now only offered to in-state students.
If you qualify for National Hispanic Scholars, National Indigenous Scholars or National African American Scholars, then you will receive free tuition to UNM regardless of what state you live in.
That’s too bad!
Thanks…Thats a good question honestly! I’m not sure how they’re managing that right now. That could work—I may be able to negotiate a scholarship with a school near me like NJIT with my stats/EC’s. Do you think it’s still worth applying to other/better schools since I just don’t know if I’ll get the aid or not?
I don’t qualify for any of those but than you
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UT Dallas…not totally free but an excellent award.
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Look on this thread for some NMSF/NMF scholarship schools:
I expect you would get some merit aid at NJIT…would you be able to live at home and commute there? Are there other CCs or 4 year schools in commuting distance?
If you become a National Merit Finalist (and with a 226, that’s almost assured), you would receive full tuition and fees at NJIT, and if you are accepted into the honors program, there are residential scholarships that range from $500 up to full room and board. Merit-Based Scholarships | Financial Aid. Based on what you’ve shared so far, I suspect you would be competitive for full room and board, which would be a full ride.
Seconding U. of Tulsa for you, as I believe that’s a full ride as well. Some of the other big NMF schools have stopped including room & board as part of their packages, which means that I would form the foundation of your list with schools where you will get a full ride (i.e. extremely likely to admit you and to be affordable without loans) and then you can add some additional schools that offer full rides that aren’t guarantees, but a shoot your shot type of situation.
If you let us know more about what you’re interested in studying and about your other interests (see my questions above), people can suggest additional schools that offer full ride scholarships for which you could be competitive.
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I would be able to live at home/commute. Some other schools are Rutgers and my county community college. I’m just wondering if it’s doable to report our family’s income to other, harder to get into, schools since I’m aiming to go to a T20/30 school. I talked to my father and he said that the losses count as an operating loss so I think I may be able to report the negative figure or just input 0 as my income. Our tax returns show the aforementioned negative # so yeah. Do you think that it would be feasible?
Sorry about that! I forgot to mention. I’m interested in studying CS or EE and don’t have any preferences in terms of the size of the school but would probably prefer a smaller school. I’ve been working on a college list as a reference which I can attach. That would be amazing for NJIT though. Thank you!
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