<p>Here: ask Yale if they believe your donating is necessary. That will decide whether or not they disregard that part of your income. I don’t think they should, nor do many on this thread, but that doesn’t matter: they’re the ones giving you the aid.</p>
<p>I never gave any indication of feeling superior to you guys, or at least I didn’t mean to. I only asked you to stop with the disrespectful personal attacks. I only was “condescending” to the disrespect; some of you guys have been condescending to my entire religion! I really tire of this…I was hoping to have a nice discussion with Idiosyncra3y, but the personal attacks are getting old. I no longer feel the need to defend this aspect of my lifestyle and religion in general over the internet, especially when it is getting disrespectful on BOTH sides of the argument, I admit. I wish you a happy holiday season and good luck with other admissions processes.</p>
<p>I know I’m being insulting. Telling me isn’t going to accomplish anything, lol. </p>
<p>I’m taking this personally because I have an older sibling who could not attend the college of his dreams because our EFC was ridiculously inflated. It included a business that crashed at the beginning of the recession. The top 10 LAC refused to consider that loss when calculated FA, and he had to attend an in state school instead. For the record, his freshman year EFC was 40,000. His sophomore year EFC was 7,000. Just to show the sudden drop in income and assets. </p>
<p>So I have no sympathy for people who spend their money on what most of us consider luxury items, then expect FA offices to give them money. Dont b<em>tch at us about not being able to afford Yale. B</em>tch to your parents. They’re the ones trying to take your dream school away from you, not us. We all want you to go to Yale without going into massive debt, hell, YALE wants you to attend without massive debt.</p>
<p>But first your family needs to have some good ol’ GOP FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY and consider your priorities.
This isnt socialism. This isnt Communism. People need to be responsible for themselves, and shouldnt expect handouts to continue their lavish lifestyle.</p>
<p>Nobody’s being disrespectful to your religion. We are being disrespectful to your family’s spending habits. It’s like saying “My parents are heroin addicts, so can our drug expenses be deducted from our income?”</p>
<p>Yale is nondenominational, therefore if they did that, it would show favoritism towards your religion, which would upset a lot of alumni, and honestly, you don’t matter enough to them to warrant that. End of discussion.</p>
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<p>I sympathize with you and it may not help you much to know this, but I have seen many kids here on CC over the years who find out (only after gaining admission) that their parents have certain priorities that are more important than paying for college. </p>
<p>Colleges very clearly spell out their financial aid policies up front, and it is part of the student’s responsibility (and that of his/her parents) to research those policies in advance. Certain family expenses are, in fact, taken out of family income when calculating financial need. For instance, college expenses for a sibling are taken into account. I have heard of no college that deducts voluntary charitable contributions, religious or otherwise. This should not come as a surprise.</p>
<p>I hope you are able to afford Yale- it would certainly be a shame for anyone who wants to attend to not be able to do so. But I hope Yale doesn’t make an adjustment to account for the family’s charitable donations.</p>
<p>Yeah, agreed that 1 was my best… Sorry about the personal (cringes) in 5 they were just my way of explanation of why you may be encountering more hostility than you expected. They do sound a little preachy and “high and mighty”. They weren’t intended as insults just showing the difference between your stated position “Not H and M” and your tone - occasionally a little condescending/H and M. </p>
<p>Anyway, you seem like a pretty cool person (even though you do have ridiculous views on this :)) and so I wish you the best. This is fun though - I hope you find it fun too, it seems so - so I will respond, trying not to re hash what I said earlier. Maybe we can reach a resolution…</p>
<p>Let us consider a scientologist. Their “religion” (as defined by the US of A) costs a rather large amount to be a part of ([Scientology</a> as a business - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_as_a_business]Scientology”>Scientology as a business - Wikipedia)). Would you suggest that Yale deduct the costs of auditing, “Operating Thetan” courses etc from there Gross salary? These courses are as essential to be a true scientologist as tithing is to a good Christian, should they be considered in the same manner as your tithing?</p>
<p>Of course, the fact that your donations are for charity is a central point of your argument, but essentially you are then asking Yale to subsidise your giving - I mentioned this earlier - but doesn’t that defeat the point of giving in the first place? If by giving 30 000 Yale gives you an extra 5 000 (or whatever) in aid how can you claim to be doing your religious duty? Yale is operating here like a rakeback deal in online casinos??? The key fact remains that it is your money and it is your choice to give to charity.</p>
<p>But even this is not the point…</p>
<p>Consider Maslows hierarchy of needs ([File:Maslow’s</a> Hierarchy of Needs.svg): - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Maslow’s_Hierarchy_of_Needs.svg):]File:Maslow’s”>File:Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.svg - Wikipedia)
I would argue that your need to give to charity comes in the 4th or 5th level. However, why should Yale exempt the expense of those needs while not regarding the expense of those needs in levels 1,2 and 3? Why exempt charitable giving from aid calculations when costs of food, housing etc etc are not? How can they consider charitable giving in an entirely separate class when clearly it is a fairly unimportant (compared to food and housing) need - and a need that is recognised by a small minority of the population? Why should they draw the line there, why should they draw a line at all?</p>
![http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Maslow’s_Hierarchy_of_Needs.svg):]File:Maslow’s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Maslow's_Hierarchy_of_Needs.svg):%5DFile:Maslow's){kind=link}
<p>If you can provide a satisfactory answer to that question then I may start to give your argument some credence :)</p>
<p>Whew a lot of posts… jumper - good point.</p>
<p>bzva74 - You are now getting a little ranty. Your first few posts were good, now it is just attacking.</p>
<p>^Not really. He or she is being a little bit snarky, but does at the same time bring up some very good points.</p>
<p>Drug expenses=/=Charitable donations
Just wow.<----Being condescending on purpose. Sorry, but that analogy was just extraordinarily inaccurate.</p>
<p>@ Idiosyncra3y
It probably would have been fun minus some of the other posters…I just got out of the hospital so I guess my tolerance is a little low right now. I know it’s not an excuse, but just so you know, I normally try not to get this worked up 
The tone was not meant to be condescending; I phrase things a little differently than most people because I’m kind of eccentric…I often get misunderstood, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I feel kind of lame for letting the personal attacks get to me, but I guess my defenses are a little low. </p>
<p>@Jumper
I would hope that Yale would deduct charitable donations for people of any religion…not just Christianity…so no favoritism needed. </p>
<p>@Vicarious Parent
I respect the view that Yale shouldn’t take it into account even though I disagree. I guess I was just angry at the posters who criticized my parents for being generous and personally attacked me.</p>
<p>I wish I could resist arguing…I’m so tired 
On another day, I would be happy to do this Idiosyncra3y. Right now, I guess I feel obligated to defend my honor lol</p>
<p>Great point about subsidizing-which is why I don’t think Yale should give us back the money we donated; I just want them not to consider it as a part of our disposable income. We would not end up getting back what we gave; we would get FA for less than that…just would not be considered as being so rich because we give a lot away.</p>
<p>Also good point with Maslow’s Hierarchy-our money goes to provide for other people at the first and second levels.</p>
<p>snarky is nice… He is intentionally being insulting - which he admits - which will accomplish nothing. There are maybe 2 sentences of good points, but the rest is just a rant.</p>
<p>@bzva74 Giving to charity is a lavish lifestyle? <em>Sigh</em> And this has nothing to do with politics; we just want to help people. Please put a sock in your capitalist rant. I will no longer respond to you because it is bad for my health and faith in humanity.</p>
<p>Apologies to everyone for seeming like a jerk…can’t help it anymore; I’m pretty angry</p>
<p>@chaos - what about those who choose to participate in no religion? Do they boost the FA packages of those? Or what about those people who are religious, but just choose not to donate money? This emphasizes the idea that there is absolutely no way to estimate packages based on donations, simply because it is a choice! So, if they gave you money, they would have to honor the choices made by those who do not donate and adjust their FA accordingly as well.</p>
<p>Please stop addressing Idiosyncra3y as if everyone else on the thread’s opinions are worthless. That’s just mean. </p>
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<p>This is favoritism towards religious people in general. There is absolutely no reason why religious charitable donations should be valued over regular charitable donations.</p>
<p>Also, I’m pretty sure we can all agree that Scientology is probably a scam. They are giving to a business, not a charity. It is not considered a religion in Europe, but in the US we are too afraid of being labeled bigots to acknowledge that something isn’t right with that organization.</p>
<p>I agree Keellota. All donations should be considered.
Also, I apologize for giving that impression; that was incredibly rude of me…I mainly directed that at bzva74. Again, I really do apologize.</p>
<p>You still have failed to address my point.</p>
<p>I agree that is does (provide at levels 1 or 2) but since Y does not subtract your expenses at levels 1 and 2 from their finaid considerations I do not see why they should deduct your expenses for others levels 1 or 2. Again, why draw the line there? Would helping extended family be in the same class etc etc…</p>
<p>Anyway, I agree that this has turned pretty mean…</p>
<p>In my first post - way back on page 1 - I was a little pi**ed at this fairly affluent person claiming FA for his/her families expenses. While I still do not think that you should get the charitable expenses deducted from the income they use to calculate FA I really do hope that it is enough… </p>
<p>Hope to see you at Yale because you seem like an interesting person, and I could imagine having interesting ‘debates’ with someone like you. We have very different beliefs but that makes it interesting and there was something about “learning about other cultures etc” somewhere here :)</p>
<p>Edit:
I completely agree that scientology is a scam. However, legally in the US it has the same standing as christianity, and I happen to think that most religions are a scam (Though perhaps older and less obvious).</p>
<p>I’m sorry, Jumper. I really am very tired. I’m sure that you understand that it is hard for one person to address every other poster’s points. Please refer to this post:</p>
<p>I would hope that Yale would deduct charitable donations for people of any religion…not just Christianity…so no favoritism needed. </p>
<p>and combine it with this new one:</p>
<p>I simply don’t think that charitable donations should be counted as a part of disposable income.</p>