<p>If you don’t think you will be able to attend due to financial problems, CALL THEM. Oftentimes they may be able to help you out some more.</p>
<p>ICalculus, then according to what Princeton was saying, you should have been given about $3,000 more in scholarship</p>
<p>These colleges strive to make their education affordable to the kids they choose. They picked you! Call them and work things out. Good luck.</p>
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<p>Bilguun, I got the EXACT same offer with a VERY similar income bracket. </p>
<p>It left me with the same expression as well:</p>
<p>o_O</p>
<p>Part of the reason schools sometimes give one person with the same income less FA than another person is because some people have certain assets, investments, etc. that go into the calculation of FA while others just have their gross income.</p>
<p>And yeah, if you really want to go to Princeton, call the FA Office - they will not let you slip away just because you can’t pay. Tell them like, “Oh, I really love Princeton, but Harvard is offering me such and such,” and they’ll almost certainly give you a couple more thousand bucks.</p>
<p>I URGE you to contact the FA office if you feel as though your package is not suitable/you have better offers. They’ll almost invariably match a better offer/try to make things better.</p>
<p>The Financial Aid Office congratulates you on your admission to Princeton’s Class of 2014. </p>
<p>We have carefully reviewed your aid application and have determined that you are eligible for need-based aid for the 2010-11 academic year. Your financial aid award is:</p>
<p>Princeton Grant: $45,750 </p>
<p>Estimated Outside Awards:<br>
3,100 ----> DO I HAVE TO PAY THIS?!?!?!?</p>
<p>Campus Job:<br>
2,900
The student budget we have used for you is $52,780 and the family contribution is $1,030. Your financial aid award covers the difference between the costs and the family contribution. </p>
<p>So Do I in total owe them 6000?!??!?!</p>
<p>help help help!!!@erwerb 2</p>
<p>I’m really opposed to massive loans, in general, but it seems to me that borrowing less than 10,000 per year for a Princeton education is very doable. Most kids today are going to graduate with some debt…good luck.</p>
<p>@honeyjay:</p>
<p>As far as I understand, you owe them [(Tuition + Room + Board + Fees) - $45,750]. Since you have a very large grant, it doesn’t look like you’ll be owing them much (i.e. much less than $6,000). Therefore, the outside award stuff and campus job is how Princeton is assuming you’ll be covering your personal expenses for the purposes of FA calculation. In reality, they don’t really care/penalize you if you don’t actually get a job or an outside scholarship.</p>
<p>Income Bracket: Less than 40k, five people, 3 in college
Princeton Grant: $51,004<br>
Estimated Outside Awards: 1,176
Family Contribution: $0</p>
<p>@honeyjay- The outside award is Pell Grant. I saw it on the financial aid form. Just get a work study job, don’t be lazy unless you plan on covering that amount by yourself. So you only have to pay $1030 unless you have scholarships like actual scholarships already.</p>
<p>^I second that. I got a very similar award, and if you read Princeton’s finaid booklet it explains that ‘outside scholarships’ are federal/state grants (that are by definition paid by the govt/state, not by you). If you have won an outside scholarship (NMS etc) first it goes toward the student contribution for summer, and then toward the work study. </p>
<p>If you read the literature, it is very clear. Then again, I have pretty much stalked financial aid since junior year because I was so anxious about. It is a pretty scary subject.</p>
<p>In fact, Princeton even said that if the federal gov’t fails to offer as much as Princeton estimates (for instance, if the ‘outside scholarship’ says $4000 will be offered by the fed govt, but the fed govt only offers $1500) then Princeton will cover the differences with more grants. So, really, Princeton is the financial aid bomb, basically:)</p>
<p>And by the way, you have to fill out the FAFSA to get the fed. grant, and in addition they have to deem you qualified by their evaluation of your FAFSA application. Which is why, in some cases, Princeton think the govt will offer $4000 based on the student’s PFAA, but the govt decides the student only deserves $1500 based on the FAFSA.</p>
<p>I hope this all was informative! I feel like I could take a written test on this all now:)</p>
<p>My annual family income is ard US$125,000 yet I only received a Princeton grant of around US$15,000/yr and my family is required to contribute US$35,000/yr. This number seems to deviate too much from past-year statistics ( <a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/pr/aid/pdf/PU-aid-glance-0910.pdf[/url]”>http://www.princeton.edu/pr/aid/pdf/PU-aid-glance-0910.pdf</a>) whereby the average grant was **US$33,700. ** for families earning US$120,000 to US$140,000.</p>
<p>Other than savings and the family home, my family does not possess any form of assets (e.g. investments, businesses, real estate, etc.)</p>
<p>Do you think this is indeed too large a deviation despite any mitigating or specific family circumstances I possess? </p>
<p>How do I go about appealing to the financial aid office on the award they have given me, and are they likely to improve the condition of the award? </p>
<p>And also, how long would the entire process to getting a new award (if any) probably take?</p>
<p>Thanks for answering all my questions! I really wish to attend Princeton, yet my parents feel that the family contribution severely exceeds what they can afford.</p>
<p>You should contact the financial aid office tomorrow. Once you reach them, if they are willing to give you more aid, you would generally find out before you have to make a decision about whether to attend.</p>
<p>@BeautifulNerd
Sorry. I just needed clarification. Other colleges’ FA offices broke things down better. I was not sure what they meant by outside sources (such as federal aid, my pocket, other grants, etc.)
I’m definitely ok with getting a Campus Job.
&& I recently got a scholarship (just notified today) that will cover that portion.</p>
<p>Princeton is very doable now. :D</p>