It looks like Yale incorporates at least a portion of the equity in the primary home as part of their financial aid evaluation. I say this based on two pieces of evidence, but you should definitely confirm.
If you go to www.myintuition.org you can see that Yale asks about the primary home equity, whereas other Ivies that don’t use home equity (such as Brown) exclude that question.
Paula Bishop is a CPA who maintains a list of colleges that utilize some or all of a family’s home equity. You can see her list here: 2021 Home equity final worksheet for website.pdf - Google Drive
Note that it is current as of 2021, so you definitely have to contact the colleges to confirm. It says that Yale caps home equity at 1.2 times parental income – although they don’t define parental income, it is likely to be AGI.
You can also use that list to see if there are other colleges that appeal to you that don’t include home equity.
The NPC is much better to use than myintuition simply because it is more detailed, for example myintuition for Yale does not ask for financial info about the small business, or the value of the non-primary home real estate. Also, the broad range of EFCs that MyIntution gives as an output is not helpful, IMO of course.
OP has run the NPCs, and can do so again with parental input (as discussed at length above), but the Yale FA package should come soon and will give the definitive information.
But if OP wants to attend a small school (so not a UC) and if the parents will not be able to afford full pay (they might not care the cost) - but if there’s a chance they will be priced out - I do think OP needs to line up some other small school options.
And I’d start with looking now at application dates - because some schools have early RD deadlines.
If OP chooses schools with a February deadline as a backup, etc., then they can wait to see if the Yale #s come in first.
But if the desired backup schools have a January 1/2 RD date, it might be wise to submit - just in case that Yale is too expensive and a large UC is not desired.
And again, I’d focus on merit schools. Hoping others will match an offer is a bit murky for sure - matching wouldn’t matter because if OP can afford Yale, they are going to Yale.
Basically I’m just saying - if they truly don’t desire a UC, they need a back up plan - now - not later.
If UC is ok and we don’t know which they applied but assuming they get into one or UC Merced is ok - then no planning needs to be done.
I’m not sure why you tagged me. I stated in my first post OP could look at schools that give merit, but they have chosen to not respond to that, nor have they said they want to attend a small school.
OP, if you do want some ideas for schools that offer merit that could offer you a lower COA, please do ask us. But as catcherinthetoast said…a clarifying discussion with your parents (ASAP) is necessary.
sorry - just hit reply to your note - mostly about the part of the Yale offer coming soon enough.
Agreed parents need to be involved in all monetary decisions. OP noted up front they saw value at sticker price so the aid, may in fact, not change anything from a where OP attends POV.
To belabor the obvious: applying isn’t sufficient. You need to apply, complete the FinAid app and be accepted to get a comp school award to show to Yale.
That said, submitting a better award from a peer institution is the best way to get your award raised at Yale. In my son’s case, Yale fin aid matched a Harvard offer in less than a minute.
The issue here, to me, would be if you apply to other HYP and don’t get in, then what? And one assumes their offer would be better.
I don’t know who Yale would match - but I bet you can count on one hand the schools. I don’t know but I’m assuming.
A smarter (to me) strategy would be to apply to schools you’ll know you’ll get into with merit - that yes, won’t be as highly ranked, but will also come with a lower price tag.
We still don’t know, however, if even at full-pay, if the OPs family would move off of Yale. But if Yale is 100% where OP is going and OP simply wants a few more offers to show Yale, then I’d stick with Harvard, Princeton and maybe Columbia. Not sure if a Stanford or MIT would be seen as equivalent.
But given the amount of work to go into an app like that, it doesn’t make sense (to me).
Yale WILL increase your aid offer under certain circumstances:
1- you made a mistake-- listed assets that shouldn’t have been listed (an IRA held by Merrill Lynch–so you listed it as a brokerage account because it’s held by a broker)
2- Your financial situation changed between the time you filed and the time you get your package- i.e. primary breadwinner loses a job.
3- Your family’s assets are wiped out in a Ponzi scheme, a hurricane or tornado demolishes your family business, etc.
You have no leverage for a negotiation- what are you going to tell them-- “Either you match Northeastern’s offer or I’ll go to Northeastern”? And the response will be “Good luck in Boston”.
Many people make mistakes on their financial aid form- it’s complicated, people roll over a retirement account and then don’t realize they’ve just listed it as income, people use overly generous estimates of their assets to avoid taking the time to look up the value of the account (seems like a good use of ten minutes but what do I know). And in a year when the markets generally declined, using last March’s statement is likely going to inflate the value of a brokerage account-- so it pays to check, verify, confirm every line on the form- do not estimate or assume.
But you can’t negotiate when you have no leverage.
No. I did not apply to any colleges with guaranteed merit aid. Unfortunately, that is partly on my decision as I am more than happy to attend a UC where the price is both affordable and the education is top tier.
But… that was before my Yale acceptance. My Yale acceptance has tied the bucket and my parents are not willing to budge even if UCLA (one of my favorite schools) offers a more affordable price. They are willing to pay, and while I am extremely grateful for that, I also worry that it will be a huge mental burden for them.
That, and the fact they also have 2 other siblings – one of which is also going to college too – to think about.
Okay, I’ll take your advice and apply to a few more just to keep my options open!
But… if I’m going to be completely honest: I don’t think my parents are willing to budge on my Yale acceptance. They’re willing to pay the price and that is that. And… honestly, I don’t exactly disagree with them… the amount of work I have put into my high school career was partially due to the fact that I wanted to apply, and attend, these high caliber schools.
However, the reality is that there will always be a barrier and that barrier will mostly likely be green. How do you feel about scholarships? Do you think if I apply to a lot, I can rack up enough to chip off some of the cost?
Right! I did have a conversation with them and it looks like they aren’t budging on the Yale acceptance even though I can get more aid at other schools. And I can’t blame them either… I know the smart decision is to choose a good, but affordable state school and re-apply to Yale for Grad… but my heart truly loves Yale beyond it’s brand and prestige.
I’m unsure of what to do but I’ll keep my options open, pray that Yale’s Financial Aid is affordable, and keep applying to scholarships.
I will say that my son was accepted to a different Ivy and we weren’t offered enough financial aid. When we appealed, they asked if we had any other (ie, better) financial aid offers from a different Ivy because they would be willing to meet it.
Scholarships come from the schools. Getting private scholarships is extremely difficult.
Start with your parents employer - mine gave me $2K for one kid and $1K for the other.
You might try some hidden local ones - rotary, local chambers of commerce, etc. but these are usually one time and $500 to $1000. It’s a lot of work for not a lot of money.
The reality is scholarships come from the colleges. For example, if you have a 4.0, University of Arizona, certainly a reasonable sub for any UC, would give you $32K off and if you have a 3.9 UW GPA, $30K off. Of course, they have a fine Honors College.
U of Alabama would be even less expensive - and has smart kids in droves - the most NMF int he country.
You’re certainly not looking for these types - and I get it - and hopefully you’ll get into a UC - I’ll assume you will.
Yale would be awesome - but don’t put yourself or your family into a level of financial ruin - nothing is worth that. Hopefully the # comes in right.
But if you really want that small school private - moreso than a UC (which are not small schools), then you should throw in a few apps b4 RD ends at schools like mentioned earlier that are prestigious, provide great educations, and offer decent merit aid to top students.
Unless you believe you’re going to end up at Yale (because you seem to believe even at full price, your parents will send you) - but if you have any doubt and you’d like a small school, you’d be making a mistake by not throwing in a few more apps now (in my opinion) - again schools like Macalester or Grinnell for small or Miami, Denver - for Yale size.
I’ve been keeping a spreadsheet of local scholarships because I know they’re less competitive. It hurts my heart to go through this process fearing that I can’t attend the college I worked insanely hard for because it will pull my parents into financial ruin.
I’ll do everything I can to negotiate with Yale’s financial office. If I’m being honest, I am little frustrated given Yale’s huge endowment. But at the end of the day, colleges are just glamorized businesses
