Should I write an appeal letter?

calmom
Mon, 21 Jun 2010 22:17:29 +0000

Well, I have to say that I really admire your parent’s ability to improve their finances so quickly! I know it is tough when you don’t have a lot of assets to fall back on, but it sounds like your parents must be extremely talented and capable individuals. I’m sure they can see the big picture and are happy to finance your education – since I’m sure they want to give you the type of education that will enable you to do as well in life as they are doing now.

Are your parents self employed? One difference between BC and Cornell may be the way they look at self-employment income. Basically, when someone is self-employed, they usually have a lot of seemingly discretionary business expenses and paper losses (like depreciation) that they will write off on their tax returns. Colleges like to look at the business returns and will add stuff back in. For example – lets say I buy a new computer for my business. I think I need a new computer, and since I use if for work, I decide to write off the full expense, giving me a deduction from my income. But maybe the college looks at my tax return, see that I’ve taken a writeoff for new equipment purchased – and figures that I could have spent that money on college tuition instead – so they add that deduction right back into my income.

There are no set rules on that, so we self-employed parents are used to seeing a lot of variance from one college to another on financial aid, especially when the colleges ask to see our tax returns or want a business supplement filed with the CSS profile.