<p>Also, I reread the UChicago financial aid package letter. It said it is an estimate based on last years cost and that we will receive a final/official letter in the spring. </p>
<p>The home we have in Belgium is rented out by the company my dad works for, for employees who work in Belgium but all of this is explained in the letter we sent to both institutions. </p>
<p>If it was somehow unethical to apply EA and ED why in the world would there be a difference for “local public” schools? By “local public” do you really mean less selective? Interesting in light of the prom date analogy. </p>
<p>Nothing at all wrong with applying to EA schools in addition to ED. I’m sure schools offering EA realize that some students are ED at other schools. </p>
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<p>If you have sizeable equity, a college could expect your family to take out a home equity or other loan to tap part of the value. Colleges aren’t in the business of subsidizing those with high assets, regardless of what form they take. So how much equity is there in the Canada home? If it’s an expensive home with high equity, colleges may consider that a choice families make rather than saving for college for their kids and paying your own way.</p>
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<p>Actually, since this isn’t your primary residence, yes…they just might expect you to consider selling it. College financial aid is not designed so that families can have secondary homes while collecting need based aid…with no regard for that secondary home.</p>
<p>As noted colleges are not in the business of subsidizing so that folks can hang on to assets for later use.</p>
<p>And you say that Chicago clearly states the aid award you receive is an estimate and will be finalized once the FAFSA is completed. </p>
<p>If it were me, I would be calling Chicago, and asking them about your home in Canada. This IS going to come up on your FAFSA where the question is clearly asked…and the equity clearly asked for. I would want to know what I could be expecting for change, if any, in that Chicago financial aid award.</p>
<p>As an example. My DD applied to two EA schools. She received estimated aid from both with her acceptance. Because her brother was also in college, we actually had some financial need that year. One school gave her a $12,000 grant, the other a $6000 grant. When we filed our FAFSA, our estimated incime was about $3000 more than we had estimated. The $12,000 school (a FAFSA only school) reduced her award to $3000. OTOH, the $6000 school didn’t change it at all (this was a Profile school). </p>
<p>@1or2Musicians </p>
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I am guessing that the intention there was that many state schools have rolling admissions, and often there are scholarship issues involved with application deadlines. So many ED schools have stated exceptions for these situations. Something like that.</p>
<p>@Remi56783 </p>
<p>Just another take on what has been stated above. Suppose family #1 put a lot of their savings into a college fund that, when it came time to pay for college, had enough money in it to cover the entire cost. Obviously the college would expect them to use that and would offer no need based aid. Now suppose family #2 took that same money and invested it in houses, or even just a house that was not their primary residence. Why should family #2 be “rewarded” with need based aid when they have all that equity built up as a form of savings, while family #1 is forced to drain everything they saved over the years? That is why colleges look at all the assets available. While family #2 probably never thought of it as “hiding” assets or anything like that when it came to paying for college, in essence that is what it would be if the schools didn’t take it into account. Every financial planner would be telling families from day 1 of having a child to invest in those kinds of assets so as to appear cash poor come college time. I am sure you can see that.</p>
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Most expats I know either sell their home-country residence or rent it out. Your parents bearing the cost to keep your home unoccupied is a discretionary expense. Why should colleges subsidize that luxury?</p>
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I’m amazed that w your family’s expatriate compensation package where the employer is picking up the cost of housing & other living expenses that your family qualifies for any FA at all.</p>
<p>UPenn gives money for financial need only, while Chicago also gives merit money. My guess it that the Chicago offer has a large component of merit, in additional to financial need, while the UPenn offer is purely based on financial need.</p>
<p>I clearly am clueless about the terms of ED, but as an expat myself, I’m still scratching my head about how a Western expat that keeps a house empty qualifies for any financial need at all.</p>
<p>I disagree with all posters here who believe that home in Canada is not a primary residence in this scenario. The OP’s family presence in Belgium may be temporary. It is quite possible that the OP’s parent works in Belgium for a Canadian company, getting paid out of Canada and the family files regular Canadian tax return. Many years ago I was working in exactly same scenario in France and I did have a nice apartment and a car in France fully paid by my host company. I continued paying mortgage for my house in the US that was still my primary residence. My tax return did not reflect me working abroad at all.</p>
<p>Both UChicago and Upenn ask about primary home equity on their finaid applications for International applicants. What they do with this info is of course a mystery. Uchicago does not ask about primary home equity in their finaid calculator that is geared towards US applicants so there may be a chance that that they are more lenient to Canadians as well.</p>
<p>In any event, the OP has a complicated, unusual situation: Canadian, home in Canada not being occupied, living in Belgium. We don’t know what the parent’s income is, how long they’ve been living in Belgium, what equity there is in the home etc. The OP stated a letter of explanation was sent to the schools. It’s possible the schools treated things that differently even if both schools are fully informed about the situation.</p>
<p>Yes, short answer is that different colleges have different factors that they weigh differently when figuring aid.</p>
<p>All that is somewhat immaterial, though. What matters is
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Perhaps your tax return didn’t reflect your working abroad because your assignment in France was too brief to meet the IRS test for a bona fide foreign resident.</p>
<p>The situation explained by @CCDD14 is very close to our actual situation. Do any of you know if it possible to get an extension on enrolling to an ED school? I am suppose to provide an answer on the 5th but that is the day they reopen. One day to see if we can work something out seems a little short so I’m hoping they’ll grant an extension. Does anyone know anything about this? </p>
<p>@Remi56783 </p>
<p>How long have you lived in Belgium? How long with your parents continue to live there?</p>
<p>We have lived for just over a year in Belgium and my parents will move somewhere else at the end of the school year. @mom2collegekids</p>
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<pre><code> For sure. What sort of job does dad do?
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<p>@Alfonsia He’s an engineer… we obviously do qualify for aid. Look at UChicago’s grant (it’s entirely need based no merit) </p>
<p>I don’t get how an engineer that is living rent free qualifies for need based aid. I think you may have filled out something wrong or failed to include your family’s expatriate compensation package correctly. If I were you I would be very concerned that you may not actually get the aid you think you will.</p>
<p>I think you need to re run your numbers. I have no idea how an engineer on those kinds of terms (international relocations on full secondments) would qualify for FA. How do you obviously get aid? Usually an engineer with the internationals are going to be grossing plus 150 more likely 250K with the packages at that level.</p>
<p>There’s no way in hades the $50k that UChicago offered is entirely need-based if your dad is a western non-diplomatic expat working abroad on an expatriate compensation pkg as an engineer, and can afford to keep a house unoccupied in the home country.</p>
<p>Chicago’s website states all applicants are automatically considered for merit awards. I’m shocked that UPenn offered anything at all. </p>
<p>As @Alfonsia suspects, i also am guessing that you’re not including the value of the non-cash compensation like: employer provided housing (and) car, local living expenses, international school tuition, utilities, entertainment expenses (e.g., golf club membership), home leave travel, etc. </p>
<p>It can vary how the Canadian home is viewed. I know a lot of folks who live away temporarily and they consider their primary home one that is not where they are living. If someone else is living there, say the place is rented, that’s one thing, but if that is not the case, I can see variations on how that is viewed. This happens with military families alot, as well as families moved around by corporations. Schools may have precendents on how they handle the situations if they are familar with it.</p>
<p>The Obamas consider their Chicago home their permanent residence, not the White House where they have lived for 6 years.</p>