<p>I just want to say that I got some awesome aid from Columbia, after being admitted SEAS. I'm likely to go there, in part because of that aid. A lot of people warn me to be wary of coast, go where the money is, sacrifice a big-name college for the sake of my bank-account if necessary, but I won't have to worry about that.</p>
<p>I won't list the dollars, but the total cost will be less than my EFC, and absolutely no debt. It's cheaper than the state school where I got a partial scholarship, as well as beating Rice and CMU (the latter by a disturbingly large margin).</p>
<p>So, I hope you all had as good luck as I did in that department.</p>
<p>Thanks, Columbia.</p>
<p>Columbia changed its Financial Aid policy this year for the incoming class, following after Harvard Yale...etc, so I believe the loans have been replaced with grants</p>
<p>cool. if u don't mind, what was ur fin aid and family income? Just curious because I haven't received my fin aid yet and want to get a rough idea of what it will be.</p>
<p>Yeah, my financial aid was freaking amazing.</p>
<p>did not even get a penny
not even a loan</p>
<p>I just found out today that they didn't give me a penny either. My parents make enough money to pay for me to go, but all of a sudden I'm pretty unsure, because they will be paying for the majority of my sister's MBA at Wharton, which is in the range of 70k. Along with a full 53k at Columbia (she doesn't qualify when they consider financial aid because they consider her an independent, but my parents don't would rather pay that take loans), I might now have to strongly consider Berkeley as a much more practical option because I would feel far too guilty spending basically the remainder of my parent's income on top of my sister's schooling. I had all but committed to SEAS too. Damn.</p>
<p>"because they will be paying for the majority of my sister's MBA at Wharton"
"she doesn't qualify when they consider financial aid because they consider her an independent"</p>
<p>I find it surprizing that you have to sacrifice your undergrad education because of your sister's more expensive graduate education. As a graduate student I don't see why your parents have to support her fully (if at all). 70k a year in loans, or a proportion of that can be paid back easily after a Wharton MBA. If you are indifferent between seas and berkeley i can understand, but that does not seem to be the case. I know I'm going to have to pay for any grad education on my own.</p>
<p>
[quote]
"because they will be paying for the majority of my sister's MBA at Wharton"
"she doesn't qualify when they consider financial aid because they consider her an independent"</p>
<p>I find it surprizing that you have to sacrifice your undergrad education because of your sister's more expensive graduate education. As a graduate student I don't see why your parents have to support her fully (if at all). 70k a year in loans, or a proportion of that can be paid back easily after a Wharton MBA. If you are indifferent between seas and berkeley i can understand, but that does not seem to be the case. I know I'm going to have to pay for any grad education on my own.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I have to agree. On the facts we know so far, pillow's getting screwed by his/her parents. Did your sister go to a fancy college, and how much did your parents spend on that? Presumably your sister had a great job for a few years if she gained admission to Wharton MBA, so doesn't she have any money to pay herself? Do your parents realize that your sister can make a boatload of money during her 1st summer, let alone after she graduates? Do your parents plan on paying for you to go to graduate school, if you decide to do so?</p>
<p>Not to mention that banks would be falling over each other to lend her the money for the MBA, considering she's about as safe a lock to pay it back as anyone in the world.</p>