<p>I think we can stop telling the OP how wrong-headed her first post was. She gets it now. </p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>If you received your test scores “today” then I’m guessing you’re a junior who has already amassed “$7,000” in merit aid prior to the start of your senior year. Keep plugging away because an African-American female with 2350 SAT’s and solid grades is a huge catch for any school and you will have options. Further, there are need-blind scholarships for people who have achieved as you have, so keep plugging away.</p>
<p>I don’t know where the $7k in merit aid comes from.</p>
<p>And, as someone who lives in a neighborhood with many very affluent AAs, I can tell you that schools may want them, but they don’t give these kids aid - because they don’t qualify. These kids can get merit from merit schools, but schools that only give FA will give them NOTHING.</p>
If your parents are truly paying almost 50% of their income in taxes, I think they need to get a new tax adviser. Better tax planning might put an extra $50K/year in their pockets which would pay for Stanford without them having to do much of anything.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if she means all goes to income taxes. I think she may mean that after paying all taxes (fed, state, property, FICA, etc) and perhaps business expenses and malpractice insurance, they net about $400k (which is still A LOT of money! )</p>
<p>You may be calling it “stretching the truth” but it is falsifying data to me. FAFSA which is a federal agency will look at it the same way. The numbers are supposed to match your tax returns, and can be checked and often are. </p>
<p>You can always lie,cheat and steal to get money. You can even get away with it at times. That is what you are proposing to do.</p>
<p>Guys, I know this is CollegeConfidential but I think that the OP gets it now. No need to hammer the same point in over and over without going the mom2 route and suggesting useful and logical alternatives.</p>
<p>Sorry, if that was too direct, but I did not think the OP quite got it that leaving out info on fin aid forms and giving incomplete and false info on them is lying and cheating, not “stretching the truth” Stretching the truth would be saying that the family really need financial aid or some other soft statement. Such statements are often true by perspective, but when you are asked for the actual numbers that are already on another tax form, and you change the amounts, that is not stretching the truth.</p>
<p>I think it is a bit like photography. I can pick the photo out that makes me look my best – but I can’t submit a photo of Cindy Crawford or Halle Berry and say “hey, this is me!”. </p>
<p>People respond to FAFSA questions all the time with their best foot forward – when they ask “how much do you have in checking?” I can answer that BEFORE I pay the rent and groceries or AFTER. But what I can’t do is say “zero” when it is not “zero.”</p>
<p>OP should know that filling out the FAFSA (truthfully) is the first step for many colleges to start opening their scholarship opportunities for that student. If the college has a scholarship for an "AA female student studying the sciences ", then the first step to being considered is to fill out the FAFSA (no matter what the EFC ends up being). No FAFSA, no consideration. Many schools operate that way. </p>
<p>I have known more than one upper income kid to end up with a scholarship because they completed the paperwork and put their name in the pot. </p>
<p>some schools do Indeed offer non-need based merit awards even when the FAFSA’s EFC is not taken into consideration, but these are some of the schools that have also required that the FAFSA be submitted irregardless of what was anticipated by the student as far as financial aid opportunities or then access to merit aid availability notwithstanding that which was initially put forth by the student regarding her family’s ability to pay and cost of attendance.</p>
<p>If the OP’s dad runs his own practice, any PROFILE school is going to add a lot of Schedule C/Schedule K items back into the income mix. Have heard many stories of self proprietors getting hammered by FA calcs.</p>
<p>Stanford gives need-based assistance to families whose take-home pay is $270,000 per year? No, that can’t possible be correct. The cap for need-based assistance for HYPS is around $250,000, and that is before taxes, and that is only under extenuating circumstances, like unusual medical bills.</p>
<p>Are your siblings even in college yet? It’s possible that none of you will go to medical school, or only 2 of you, or just you. Anyway, your parents aren’t supposed to pay for medical school…medical school is your responsibility. That’s why graduate students are considered independent students.</p>
<p>You shouldn’t lie on your financial aid forms. First of all, for the ethical reasons; second of all, for the reason that you may very well be taking financial aid from someone who needs it far more than you (let’s face it, your parents’ salary puts you at the very TOP of the income earners in the U.S.; your dad makes far more than some people can hope to make. Your father’s salary is more than my mom earns in 10 years, for example, not that I’m complaining, I think it’s awesome that he makes that much!) Third of all, these things are very easy to find out. If you get selected for verification, you’re screwed.</p>
<p>But what I don’t understand is why people think that there are two extremes - schools like Stanford and community colleges - and nothing in between. With your URM status, your SAT scores, and your activites you’d be very competitive for merit scholarships at great colleges. For example, I went to Spelman College (which you may be interested in; it is the #2 school in the nation for getting African American women into medical school, some of my classmates went to some very prestigious med schools including Stanford) on a full Presidential scholarship that covered everything but books for four years…including my study abroad program. With your stats you would certainly be competitive for one of those. Even if you aren’t interested in an HBCU, though, there are many other SLACs and smaller universities at which you would be competitive for full scholarships. Emory offers one (one of my high school classmates got a full scholarship to Emory); Duke offers one, Chicago offers one (another HS classmate went to Chicago for virtually free. We’re all high-achieving black kids from the burbs).</p>
<p>Save Stanford for med school. Columbia was my dream, I went to Spelman for undergrad and ended up at Columbia for grad school. You save thousands of dollars and once you have an MD no one cares where you went to undergrad anymore.</p>
<p>Also, what mom2collegekids said. I’m still in graduate school but I’m already plotting how I’m going to save money for my hypothetical children’s college funds. If I was making $700,000 I’d have been socking it away before they were even born. Your dad may already have 4 college educations saved away.</p>
<p>Jesus, I hope I make like 1/10 of that when I’m working.</p>