<p>Is your parents' IRA/pension used as assets?</p>
<p>xiggi - Thanks so much for continuing to update with new details of the plan. It's clear about the 200k in assets being protected. Beyond that, can you (or anyone) discern whether home equity is treated the same as other assets, with all assets subjected to a lower assessment under the new plan? </p>
<p>I'm really glad Yale didn't announce this before the application deadline! I still consider Yale admission a long shot for my son, but it could've been even more of a long shot if an earlier announcement had generated applications from the fence-sitters out there. It will be interesting to see if Harvard's application numbers go way up this year because of their early announcement.</p>
<p>ClareQuilty, I'm not sure you're looking at the numbers right. You have to factor in other siblings in college, etc. All of these numbers are just guidelines anyways -- the actual award amount would vary depending on each specific application.</p>
<p>I'm just going by the information given in the articles.</p>
<p>Also, Yale</a> Daily News - Following the Crimson leader
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<p>That has nothing to do with the statistics you posted in the previous post, which compared two families with potentially different financial profiles. All cases have to be evaluated on an individual basis, so there is no knowing if you would get a better package from Yale or from Harvard.</p>
<p>In terms of your post above, while Yale may budget 10% less in financial aid per student enrolled, the article you posted also points out that Yale is actually budgeting MORE than Harvard in terms of financial aid per student receiving financial aid -- which is a much more important measure, in my opinion. This implies that people applying for aid will actually receive slightly better packages from Yale than they will from Harvard.</p>
<p>Is your parents' IRA/pension considered as assets?</p>
<p>Fine, agreed. It will really come down to the actual packages received, not the rhetoric of the stated policies.</p>
<p>The problem stated in the article was that fewer students will benefit from Yale's policy than from Harvard's, since significantly fewer Yale students are on financial aid in the first place.</p>
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<p>Yes, it is considered part of your family's assets and there is a field where it asks you that question in the CSS Profile (and I'm sure the FAFSA as well).</p>
<p>The new financial aid package is great news for us ea yalies :) Thanks for turning it out Yale.</p>
<p>Yale's financial aid package is no comparison with Harvard. Superficially, they are similar. But Harvard excludes the parent's primary home from asset. That is a big break for many families.</p>
<p>The point is that for those receiving aid, Yale will be spending more, per student, than Harvard. The other info out there isn't really important. Ultimately it will come down to each individual family's aid package, but the net result, given that Yale is spending more, will be that Yale is as generous if not more generous than Harvard.</p>
<p>Here's another clarification on the issue discussed above from today's Harvard Crimson:</p>
<p>"Neither university created hard rules, however, with Harvard noting the policy applied to families with “assets typical for these income levels,” and Yale specifying that families would pay an “average” of 10 percent of their income. The schools did not elaborate on the meaning of the phrases. </p>
<p>"Both Harvard and Yale’s press releases gave examples of a family earning $180,000 per year. Harvard would expect such a family to contribute approximately $18,000, while Yale said such families would be expected to contribute $23,050—more than 10 percent of income—if they only had one child in college and $11,650 if they had two children in college."</p>
<p>It really depends on each case, but the bottom line is that I doubt very many people will be deciding either way based on money.</p>
<p>... deciding between Harvard and Yale? Or deciding between Yale and another school?</p>
<p>Money is a major factor for me... and if home equity is included, I'm pretty sure that I will not be going.</p>
<p>Between Harvard and Yale. Obviously money is a major factor, but unless you actually apply, you don't know how they would factor that in, or whether either school would be more generous in one area to make up for any differences in other parts of the calculation. Look at Harvard's "approximately $18000" figure as an example -- it is just an average of all the families applying within that bracket, those with many kids, without kids, etc. The actual amount would depend on the individual family and could vary over a wide range.</p>