Some Private Schools are Going Easy on Counting Home Equity when Awarding Financial Aid
Posted 16 Nov, 2007
Families that live in certain areas of the country, especially on the two coasts, find themselves sitting with a huge amount of equity in their homes – even during the current real estate market downturn. Students who are applying to any of the 300 or so private schools that require the CSS Profile financial aid form to be filed will have at least some of their home equity counted when the financial aid office determines the family’s financial aid eligibility. That’s the bad news. The good news is quite a few schools are giving families a break when it comes to figuring the amount of home equity available to pay for college.
For instance, recently I contacted four colleges for one of my clients to research how they are treating home equity when calculating the family’s Expected Family Contribution (EFC.) To my surprise I received four different answers! One school was counting 100% of the equity; two capped it at a multiple of the families Adjusted Gross income; the fourth didn’t count equity at all! This translated into this higher income family actually having a good shot at qualifying for much hoped for need-based financial aid from a couple of the student’s choice schools. ($40,000 - $50,000 price tags are a burden to most any family!)
So if your student is applying to a CSS Profile school and you are worried that your home equity might seriously jeopardize the amount of financial aid your family may receive, you should make a point to find out directly from each school’s financial aid office what their home equity policy is this year. You may be pleasantly surprised!
P.S. Here is a link to a list of schools who have all committed to capping the amount of home equity counted.
All the best,
Deborah Fox
Deborah Fox is the founder of Fox College Funding, a nationwide company that helps families find creative ways to reduce their college costs.
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Families that live in certain areas of the country, especially on the two coasts, find themselves sitting with a huge amount of equity in their homes – even during the current real estate market downturn. Students who are applying to any of the 300 or so private schools that require the CSS Profile financial aid form to be filed will have at least some of their home equity counted when the financial aid office determines the family’s financial aid eligibility. That’s the bad news. The good news is quite a few schools are giving families a break when it comes to figuring the amount of home equity available to pay for college.
For instance, recently I contacted four colleges for one of my clients to research how they are treating home equity when calculating the family’s Expected Family Contribution (EFC.) To my surprise I received four different answers! One school was counting 100% of the equity; two capped it at a multiple of the families Adjusted Gross income; the fourth didn’t count equity at all! This translated into this higher income family actually having a good shot at qualifying for much hoped for need-based financial aid from a couple of the student’s choice schools. ($40,000 - $50,000 price tags are a burden to most any family!)
So if your student is applying to a CSS Profile school and you are worried that your home equity might seriously jeopardize the amount of financial aid your family may receive, you should make a point to find out directly from each school’s financial aid office what their home equity policy is this year. You may be pleasantly surprised!
P.S. Here is a link to a list of schools who have all committed to capping the amount of home equity counted.
All the best,
Deborah Fox
Deborah Fox is the founder of Fox College Funding, a nationwide company that helps families find creative ways to reduce their college costs.
Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe by Email
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