okay so our income is around $50k but we have assets worth around $540k AND our income comes ONLY from those assets (since my dad lost his job when i was in my 10th grade and he can’t find another job). So will my parents be expected to pay a lot? We have less than 10k in savings and we cannot afford to sell our assets for my education since our income comes from them. If it matters they are properties thar are rented out and my dad is 68 with no retirement fund or anything. I’m an international student too. The Harvard aid calculator said we will have to pay around 18k which is A LOT we barely have money left after paying for rent and school fees for me and my siblings .
In the US, the FAFSA would not ask for your assets if your income is that low.
The CSS Profile has a section for special circumstances and you might want to write what you wrote here, in that section.
I would suggest you make an appointment to speak with a financial aid officer before applying. Does your family own their own house?
On the face of it, given your dad’s age, it would seem that a rental property or a few rental properties will need to be sold at some point and the increase in cash will balance out the loss in income (for an older person). But that may not be relevant to college aid.
It would help to explain your dad’s age, health and why he cannot get another job. Does your mother work? Any other family members? No need to answer due to privacy concerns - just asking things that may come up.
I will, thank you so much!!
Nope. My mother doesn’t work (and i’m the oldest so everyone else is still in school).
You do not need to answer these questions here but being able to would matter.
Are you a US citizen living abroad?
Shift some of that to retirement accounts that won’t count toward your SAI. It’s also best for your parents since any problem in real estate or climate change factors could really sink their retirement plans if they rest solely on rental properties. Consult with a professional who knows what they’re doing.
At 68 your dad should be considered “retired”.
Can your mom start working or is she 65+?
CSS will ask about school fees and it’d be best if you justify why, with sub 50k income (* ), you&your siblings aren’t in state/government/public schools - unless you live in a country where these have fees at the secondary level.
( * I get that where you live that may well be substantial and therefore makes private/independent/fee-charging schools a no-brainer, especially if local schools are unsafe or poorly funded or otherwise problematic. Being able to explain still matters.)
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No I’m not. I’m an international student.
Retirement accounts aren’t available for us here. We’re citizens of another country (currently war-torn) and live here as expats. Most expats have to leave if they lose their jobs, but my father’s case is different because he owns properties, which qualifies him for a visa (when his current one expires).
My mum is not 65+ but she has never worked before and has always been a homemaker, so finding a job would be challenging. But i will ask her about this.
Makes sense. I live in one of those countries, education here is not free for non-citizens, even in public schools. We go to private schools though.
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Being an international student could affect your financial aid as well. Some colleges here don’t provide aid at all to international students. Some provide limited aid. Some provide aid to all accepted students but are need aware in admissions (meaning your level of need is considered when your application is considered), and some colleges (about 10) are need blind for admissions AND guarantee to meet full need for all accepted students.
So…I guess what I’m saying is…how much you will be “expected to pay” could vary a LOT depending on the colleges to which you apply.
yes i’m aware of that, i’m applying mainly to the need blind ones and the ones that meet full need (like upenn, colby, etc…). At those schools, do you think colleges will understand that i cannot sell my assets? Many people told me i’m not gonna get a great package and that i’ll be expected to sell my assets which is scaring me ahah
Colby and UPenn are need aware for admissions…not need blind.
Are you looking for a full free ride for undergrad in the U.S?
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Here is your other thread. Please read through the responses there…again. The info hasn’t changed since this summer.
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yes but they meet full need (i’m applying to those that meet full need as well) if they accept you. my parents can pay around 8-12k so i guess so.
yes but i’m asking a different question at the moment (estimated efc) cause i only found out just recently that i might have to pay a lot more than what i expected. But its fine let’s see later, thank you!!
As a very rough rule of thumb, parental assets subject to assessment are often assessed by CSS schools at a marginal rate of around 5% of net value (so minus any mortgages or such). The formulas can be complicated, though, and the more generous colleges may adjust that downward in various circumstances.
So off hand, I am not surprised by what Harvard calculated since that is well under 5%. And ordinarily they would in fact expect you to either sell some assets or borrow against them, whatever made more sense for you. Which obviously some people don’t love, but it is worth reflecting on the fact there are people with very low incomes who also do not have $540K in assets, so Harvard choosing to be more generous with them, as opposed to those who do have such assets, makes some sense.
That said, you can always try to explain your specific circumstances and they might consider lowering that. As another poster pointed out, there are protections for designated retirement assets, and I think the normal logic does sort of assume if you borrow against unprotected assets over time you will have the income to service that debt. So maybe you can persuade them to treat more of your assets as protected under the circumstances.
But if you can’t, then you might not be able to afford Harvard. Or possibly any college in the US. These are possibilities I think it is important for you to be clear-eyed about.
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The short answer is yes they will expect your parents to sell one property to help pay for college, as this is what’s expected of American students too and stumps many families that just don’t have the possibility of doing so; they will also assess your need based on whatever is not in retirement funds or protected for retirement.
If your mom has never worked and you live in the UAE, I see why it’d be unrealistic for her to even look for a job.
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And in fact I think Internationals often experience a type of culture clash.
In the US, parents planning to send their kids to college understand that if possible, they have to start planning to save many years in advance, with a plan to actually liquidate those savings when college arrives. And this can be a significant component of overall planning, to the point it may affect the choices you make about jobs, housing, K-12 schools, older kids’ colleges, and so on as you try to make sure you will be able to pay for college for each of your kids.
And then of course sometimes this isn’t possible, but maybe need-based aid will work out instead. But if not, you might have to consider community college for at least a couple years, or working and going to college part time, or so on.
I understand even Internationals with decent incomes (at least by the standards of their countries) might simply not have been thinking about college savings that way for many years in advance. Then they start looking at US colleges for various reasons, and they are shocked by what a lot of these US colleges expect them to contribute financially.
And I am not unsympathetic, but at the same time . . . from these colleges’ perspective, at least, it doesn’t necessarily make sense to treat families who actually have been preparing for this moment less favorably than otherwise similar families who have not. And so if in the past you had significant financial means but chose not to devote much of it to liquid college savings, they may not treat you like those families who never had such resources to begin with, and instead may treat you like the families with similar financial means who did save for college.
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Need blind, meet full need schools: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Brown (2025), MIT, Bowdoin, Amherst. However, your question is about whether you qualify for aid, not which schools will give it. Again, I would make an appointment with a financial aid officer at schools you are interested in. Did your family flee war/violence? How long have you been ex-pats. I think you need to discuss the whole situation with FA folks. No need to reveal any more here on this public thread.
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I believe Washington and Lee is now included in this list as well…and maybe one other this year. @DramaMama2021
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The simplified means test has been eliminated in the SAI formula. @kelsmom
And there never has been such a thing for schools using the CSS Profile.
As noted by other posters, even U.S. citizens would be expected to use their assets to support college costs. I agree with @compmom that your dad’s age and that this is the only source of your income needs to be explained to colleges.
If your net price for an elite school is $18,000 here, understand that the college is giving you about $75000 or so in need based aid. These schools are very expensive!
That is correct. W&L is now need-blind, meet full need (with no loans), for domestic and international applicants.
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This student won’t be completing a FAFSA. But for those who are eligible to file a FAFSA, you are correct that the formula has changed. The information below is for 2024-25 FAFSA (some of the numbers may change a bit in 2025-26).
Certain FAFSA questions determine whether a student is eligible for an exemption from asset reporting. Applicants online may be able to skip asset questions if
- the student qualifies for a maximum Federal Pell Grant;
- their families adjusted gross income is less than $60,000 and they don’t file an IRS Form 1040 with Schedule A, B, D, E, F, H or C or, if they do file a Schedule C, their net business income isn’t more than a $10,000 loss or gain; or
- if the student or their parent or spouse received a benefit under a means-tested federal benefit program during the 2022 or 2023 calendar year.
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I believe the other new one is Notre Dame.
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