<p>I borrowed this posting from Tokenadult (I hope you forgive me for taking your posting and posting on other thread) posting on Princeton thread:</p>
<p>
Are Yales Financial Aid Offers the Real Deal? </p>
<p>Hi, everyone, </p>
<p>I thought I'd ask a substantive, factual question that I'm sure is on the minds of a lot of parents. Is it really, truly possible for middle-class (here defined as near the median United States income level) families with more than one child to afford to send a child to Yale? It's my understanding that Yale also has been a leader among Ivy League schools in restructuring its financial aid policies to make Yale more affordable to families in all income ranges. I was told by one CC forum participant that I have even been quoted (by my CC screenname) for praising Yale for its financial aid policies on a CC forum about some other Ivy League college. </p>
<p>What is the reality you have found in high school class of 2006? Was Yale's financial aid offer as good as you expected? Was it even better than you expected? Do all of you think, up and down the income range, that Yale is an affordable choice for ambitious students? </p>
<p>Thanks for any been-there-done-thats you have to share. Best wishes to all the new Yalies for a very successful school year.</p>
<p>For people like us who will depend on financial aid to send kids to college, they would definitely benefit with the financial aid data information. Thus, it is so important for us to choose schools based on the financial aid data.</p>
<p>Since every situation is different, if you have not done so, I would suggest you use the FAFSA calculators and see what you EFC comes out to be. Remember too that Yale uses the CSS profile so if you're cash poor but asset (house, real estate) rich that will affect the financial aid award. I've read on this board several cases where generous aid was given to folks earning 100K. In our situation - two middle class incomes - nothing - but no surprise since our FAFSA contribution was higher than the tuition.</p>
<p>Our FAFSA EFC was about $8000, income about $60K. My daughter received FA offers of about $10K family cost with small loans from Stanford and Brown. However, her initial offers from Princeton, Harvard and Yale were all around $6K family cost no loans. Yale is definitely the real deal for us! Remember that income of $60K is in the "low-income" range. Yale is absolutely an affordable choice for ambitious students at this income level.</p>
<p>Yale gave me an amazing financial aid package (probably the best) and my family contribution was almost half of what it would've been at Brown or Cornell.</p>
<p>Total cost of attendance (out of pocket) is the key to comparing offers. Take off the book allowance, the travel allowance, and anything else that is not a bill from the school. Add back the student contribution, the summer job contribution, the parent contribution, any loans or work study. Get down to what you (or your student) will have to write a check to the school for. On that basis (class of 2009), Yale was in the middle of the pack. It lost badly to Swarthmore, Dartmouth, and some others. It lost by less to Harvard. It beat some of the others, but not by alot. This was just before their latest initiative to catchup with Princeton and Harvard for the under $40K applicants.</p>
<p>The "free under $60 K and substantially reduced under $80 K" initiative helped give Harvard a yield rate in excess of 85% among applicants from families in the lowest income quadrant.</p>
<p>HYPSM are all striving to be more "economically diverse" in their own interest, as demographic shifts are occurring in the applicant pool.</p>