<p>I heard a friend saying that his child got much less amount of financial aid in the 2nd year from Penn, even his family gross income is less than the 1st year and other numbers (asset and retirement) are similar. He received $32K in the first year and only $7K in 2nd year. Is it possible that school provides higher amount of financial aid to attract student to enroll in the first year and then school reduces the amount a lot in later years? Does anyone have or know this kind of situation at other Ivies?</p>
<p>I’m not sure about Penn, but when my step-brother went to Columbia for his undergrad we paid just about the same each year.</p>
<p>That sounds unusual. Did something other than income change? Were they paying for a sibling that was in school also that is no longer attending? Was there an outside scholarship that was deducted from need?</p>
<p>Of course they could just call the school and find out, but I think they use the same formula for need every year.</p>
<p>@parentofpeople, he did call the financial office, and he still received the same offer $7K, even his family income is less than $100K. No outside scholarship. Yes, he had a older child graduated from college during this period. But $25K difference is still a lot.</p>
<p>Student Financial Services (SFS) should be able to explain precisely why it reduced FA. It doesn’t just pull these numbers out of its you-know-what, and NO, it is NOT Penn’s policy or practice to simply bait-and-switch (award higher aid to prospective freshmen and then cut aid for subsequent years) when it comes to FA. Such a practice would quickly become well known among current students and prospective students and applicants, and would have a significant impact on the applicant pool (not to mention be utterly inconsistent with one of the most important cornerstone goals and policies of President Gutmann and the Penn administration, to enhance the financial accessibility of a Penn education).</p>
<p>A graduation will make a significant change on FA, but at less than 100k income it shouldn’t make a 25k difference.</p>
<p>@45 Percenter, SFS didn’t explain much to my friend. He also thought it should be consistent. That is why I posted here to know about other people’s situations.</p>
<p>@Harrovian, l found the award amount for both Morgan and Eric in below Penn example much more than my friend’s $7K. The main difference is that my friend doesn’t have mortgage but the examples have mortgage $215,000, so now I am wondering how the mortgage affects the financial aid.
[Examples</a> of Aided Students](<a href=“Submit My Documents | Penn Student Registration & Financial Services| Penn Srfs”>Submit My Documents | Penn Student Registration & Financial Services| Penn Srfs)</p>
<p>From personal experience, the rate per year our family received has been consistent. Our financial picture has stayed about the same, as has our aid package. Of all the people who I know who get aid at Penn, I have never heard of anyone having a situation where their aid was decreased substantially in subsequent years. </p>
<p>Another possibility is that your friend is not telling you the whole story. Is the person you are talking about international? I don’t know anything about how aid works in that situation (and really I know very little how it works for anyone other than our family 
)</p>
<p>Mortgage doesn’t affect aid substantially, I don’t think. I played with calculator online an it makes a less than 5k difference.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>This is most likely the reason why. If you previously had 2 kids in college at the same time and you received $32k, it is not far fetched to have that number reduced by substantial amount when one of the kids no longer goes to college the next year. We see a very similar difference in Financial Aid from Penn when we have one kid versus when we have two kids in college at the same time. Except, our situation was reversed, we first had the lower amount, then we got quite a bit of aid after our second child starts college.</p>
<p>I think something is wrong in the FA application. My son graduated in June 2013 but my daughter FA award from Penn only dropped 45% for 2013-14. Her grant amount is a lot more higher than 7K. My income is a lot more higher than 100K.
I think Penn FA is similar to or better than MIT FA with my income bracket.</p>
<p>Thank you very much for sharing all the experiences. I know my friend’s child worked in summer and got good pay. How the student summer income will affect next year financial aid? I guess my friend received much less financial aid could be the combinations of several factors.</p>
<p>Students are expected to contribute around $3000 during the summer. That amount is after housing and other expenses. So, summer earning does affect much on FA award.
Your friend probably did not disclose all financial info and hidden assets.</p>
<p>Parent ages also affect FA awards.</p>
<p>Oh, you are saying they lost the aid because they did not earn enough credits to be full time and eligible for aid?</p>
<p>They did get 7K in aid though, so not sure that would be it.</p>
<p>Quick question: if I apply ED without requesting financial aid, does this put me at an advantage (assuming my credentials are on-par with other applicants).</p>
<p>If you’re from North America, then no. As far as I know, all north american applicants are judged separately rom their financial aid status.</p>
<p>Thanks, I’ve heard different things about aid and more consideration from ad coms, but I guess the case is different in schools with larger vs smaller endowments.</p>