<p>As I stated in my previous post, Op was probably using his likely letters as offers, which to mean if he would have applied, he would have been accepted. However, these offers were probably contingent on him committing to the school in the binding Early round, so that the coaches could build their teams. </p>
<p>At the end of the day, he could only accept one offer especially ED or SCEA. He took the Ivy as ED and that is where is son is attending</p>
<p>Sybbie that is how it was with my stepdaughter. I didn’t know the term was “likely letter” but that is what happened with her.</p>
<p>She actually only “applied” to the one college that she chose to go to (an ivy, BTW).</p>
<p>The OP used incorrect terminology, apparently.</p>
<p>But the question remains…did the OP qualify for need based aid at one of these Ivies? And with an income of $250,000 a year, it would be helpful for so many others to hear HOW he did this. </p>
<p>Preferential packaging of need based aid DOES happen…but this is assuming the student qualifies for need based aid. The financial aid offices can adjust the aid offers, packaging less loans, more grants, and perhaps even a tad more grant money.</p>
<p>BUT if a student doesn’t qualify for need based aid at all…the financial aid officers can’t make up a NEED at a school that only gives need based aid.</p>
<p>Kudos to the OP’s son…but really, it would be ever so helpful to others for the OP to share HOW he qualified for NEED BASED aid at any Ivy League school with an income of $250,000. Since this question appears here frequently, I’m sure the answer would be helpful.</p>
<p>^I’m not sure the OP mentioned, or anyone asked about other siblings in college, high medical bills, etc., which would be a consideration and could make FA a possibility for a 250k family.</p>
<p>"If you have a REALLY big family, or especially if you will have more than one kid in college at the same time, you may qualify for a bit of aid.</p>
<p>Seems like pursuing an athletic scholarship (if the kid wants to continue in the sport) or merit aid would be the way to go (at non-Ivy schools)." - Momcat2 Post #12</p>
<p>I think OP received some good advice last year. The thread provided some accurate info and ideas, pointed him in the right direction and was probably helpful in accomplishing what he set out to do.</p>
<p>^Thanks for finding that OM!</p>
<p>I didn’t post on this thread originally. Really, I know very little about athletic scholarships (so little that I didn’t realize Stanford was Division 1) <em>however</em> I do know of a family who claims that a need-only top school was very creative in finding ‘need’ to attract their son who, by the way, is an academic superstar in a way that makes him one of the top in the country. I don’t think he got a full ride but he got money based on ‘need’ despite his only child status and their high income. Fwiw, the kid went on to do amazing things. </p>
<p>I do, however, think the advice provided was sound.</p>
<p>In post 27 Op stated the following:</p>
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</p>
<p>This is very telling as it seems that Op may have other kids in college. </p>
<p>In addition an affordable package is a relative thing. Op did not say that his son was going to school for free and he was not looking to pay “0”. He said that they plan on being able to contribute 30k. So in the end, perhaps he was looking for a school where his family paying 30k would be doable through some sort of preferential packaging picking up the ends.</p>
<p>He also stated that when he got his financial reviews, he presented them to peer schools. From his final post, I think his son is going to Penn, because he does comment how Penn and Cornell were more amenable to his situation.</p>
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<p>Thumper1 - your statements above are not correct. I know of an athlete whose parents are very wealthy in income and assets and was offered tuition-free admission to an Ivy.</p>
<p>Cornell “strives to” match offers from Stanford, Duke, MIT and promises to match offers from the rest of the Ivy League. I don’t know how that is all interpreted when the Stanford offer is a talent-based and not need-based scholarship, but that might have been part of the equation somehow.</p>
<p>Cornell did also mention at a financial aid session that some students get better need-based offers than others, if they particularly want the student for some reason. I interpreted this to mean reduction in family contribution via additional grant aid since the loan amounts are directly/strictly tied to parent income. They said you wouldn’t know if your student got this treatment, but if they did it would continue for all four years. They claimed that if the family’s financial situation did not change, the parent contribution should stay the same for all four years (for all students).</p>
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<p>Then I will stand corrected.</p>
<p>The fact remains that for the VAST majority of $250,000 wage earning families, the Ivies…and all other colleges will NOT provide NEED BASED aid to students unless there are other factors like multiple kiddos in college, or special circumstances that are not typical of most applicants.</p>
<p>The OPs situation (and the other one with the highly sought after athlete at Cornell) are NOT what most applicants for aid would see at the Ivy League schools with a $250,000 income.</p>
<p>And there are plenty of people who say that their kid got a full scholarship to (fill in name of school that only gives need-based aid). I was embarrassed early in the application process when I said something to someone about an Ivy school giving merit money and was slapped down by a grad. However, I was basing my comment on what a colleague had said about her son.</p>
<p>We can probably all agree that the rules as we know them do not apply to all applicants. The early advice in this thread was for the OP to go for it and see what happens, which he did. I was a bit baffled by the response of the OP.</p>
<p>We often hear claims like that, but the Ivy League agreement states–
“All the Ivy institutions follow the common policy that any financial aid for student-athletes will be awarded and renewed on the sole basis of economic need with no differentiation in amount or in kind (e.g. packaging) based on athletic ability or participation, provided that each school shall apply its own standard of economic need.”
[Common</a> Ivy League Agreement](<a href=“Apply to Dartmouth | Dartmouth Admissions”>Apply to Dartmouth | Dartmouth Admissions)</p>
<p>I’m sure there are ways around the agreement, but I can’t believe the schools flagrantly disregard it by giving full tuition scholarships to student athletes from very wealthy families on the regular basis that the we hear about.</p>
<p>If some ivies are violating the “no athletic scholarships” rule by giving phony “need based aid” to students whose FA profile would NOT get FA otherwise, then they are violating their conference rules - or at least the “spirit” of those rules. Certainly the schools have some “wiggle room” to take into account medical bills, etc, but to give an affluent athlete a “free ride” or anywhere close to that is violating their own conference rules.</p>
<p>If they’re going to do this, then conferences with athletic scholarship limitations (head numbers) can do this as well…hand out extra scholarships under the guise of the aid being “need-based” or whatever.</p>
<p>I’m not that surprised. There is a bit of a “tough love” attitude and somewhat strident tone around here when someone with a 6-figure income starts asking about need-based aid. I think this is meant kindly to help people understand the realities of need-based financial aid so they don’t get a very unpleasant and unplanned-for surprise in the spring with their kid not having an acceptable financial safety. It often seems like the chance that “your mileage may vary” is minimized so that people don’t get unrealistic hopes up. So the OP probably felt like people were being very negative and cutting him down and minimizing his son’s chances.</p>
<p>I 'd venture to say that parents lie about the specialness of their special snowflakes by tossing around “full ride” claims at least as often as the Ivies violate the rules. We don’t know the truth of any one student’s situation, but it’s ridiculous to generalize from the experience of a URM athlete who is ranked #1 nationally (and who hopefully will not be bringing any inherited snottiness to his new campus).</p>
<p>I read the thread for the first time today, and I think one thing that was missed is the idea of “typical assets”. The Ivys and other top schools that promise to meet need at various high income levels always include the caveat that the families with these high income levels are assumed to have “typical assets” for these levels. A family such as the OP’s, which seems to have a very high level of debt and few if any assets at all, would fall outside of this category and would probably warrant a special adjustment regardless of all of the other attributes of the student. The fact that the student is an athletic and academic superstar just adds icing to that cake. Hard to know which was weighted more in the determination of need (no assets vs athletic ability), but either way this seems to be a special case outside the norm.</p>
<p>It appears to me that so much time is being spent (wasted) on this post. So many valuable people with great input should be placed on threads where it really matters. We will never know the complete truth about the op.</p>
<p>You are right about that, guitars. And despite offering “If I can help you in any way. Please feel free to let me know and i will add some truth and actual experience in my response.” the OP has not shared any further detail of his actual experience.</p>