<p>Impressed with U Chicago? So were we, until we got the final price. Though they claim to "meet 100% of need" they redefine need to well below industry standards or even schools with smaller resources. And the appeals process was a stone wall. It's not just that they charged 4X what Harvard offered (!), but that in speaking to other parents, we see a pattern of overcharging and then hardballing families with modest means. I guess they are trying to make money on undergrads, but it seems really greedy and mean.</p>
<p>Anyone else see a difference in financial aid or the appeals experience between Chicago and other schools?</p>
<p>I was personally extremely pleased with my financial aid package, and I’ve talked with many more students who were happy with it than otherwise (though of course, students who are attending the university skews the data.) However, the idea that UChicago is “making money” off of undergraduates is stupid. First of all, it’s not a business. Second of all, what the university spends on an undergraduate is significantly more than what the undergraduate pays, even if they pay full-price. That’s why donations are so important to universities.</p>
<p>Also, I don’t think Buyer Beware means what you think it means. It does not mean unfair price.</p>
<p>I was happy with my financial aid package. UChicago offered me about the same as Dartmouth did, and my family’s income is “modest.” Northwestern on the other hand offered me the worst FA out of all my colleges; they expected me to pay about $15,000 more than either Chicago or Dartmouth.</p>
<p>From Wikipedia:
“A business (also known as enterprise or firm) is an organization designed to provide goods, services, or both to consumers.[1] Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, in which most of them are privately owned and formed to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also form not-for-profit or be state-owned.”</p>
<p>A college is an organization designed to provide goods and services to customers; additionally, it can be privately-owned or state-owned. It’s definitely a business (a for-profit one at that). Regardless of whether you’re willing to admit to yourself that colleges exist to “increase the wealth of their owners”, as Wikipedia puts it, you can’t dispute that colleges are businesses.</p>
<p>Sapling is going to graduate from UChicago in June. Excellent financial aid, thank goodness. Four years ago, it was a surprise to me, what they can come up with. And it got better, not worse, after first year.</p>
<p>My financial aid from Uchicago wasn’t very good either. I had much cheaper options at good schools but Chicago was the best fit for me so I’ll have some loans…</p>
Universities are run on a business model in the US, yes. However, Chicago is a non-profit. Schools like DeVry and University of Phoenix are for-profit.</p>
<p>^^This. I was objecting to it being run as a business in the sense that investors are making their money off of the backs of the tuition paid by undergraduates.</p>
<p>Speaking from a historical perspective, the University is still feeling the effects of Robert Maynard Hutchins’ tenure as President of the University. Hutchins instituted much of what we now identify as ‘UChicago,’ the Core, the commitment to academics and intellectualism, etc. Unfortunately, in this process he also made decisions that hampered the University’s societal and fiscal health; he alienated alumni and donors, choosing to focus on the life of the mind today rather than tomorrow.</p>
<p>The University administration is now trying to correct this, while maintaining the unique culture on campus that really makes us Chicago. They’ve been working to grow the endowment, instead of just spending it, and financial aid has increased in the past few years to reflect these changing economic conditions for the University.</p>
<p>I don’t know what Harvard or other top schools would have offered, but I don’t have a problem with the financial aid package that I got. I got a total of $48,250 per year in grants given a family income of ~$70,000. Do other top schools really offer more than that? I thought the offer was pretty generous, but I don’t have any close comparison.</p>
<p>3 years ago UChicago offerd my S the least amount of aid of all his acceptances. He chose to attend UChicago and we supported his decision. However, discussions about financial aid should include family income. At around 70K per year you can expect some decent aid. As that number climbs, the aid drops substantially compared to some of the ivies. Each school has its own formula and UChicago almost always includes student loans as park of it pacakage. We did appeal decisions twice during the last 3 years and were successful once.</p>
<p>My financial aid offers from Yale and Princeton were vastly better than Chicago’s. Wasn’t close at all. Family income over $100K (but not much), but 3 kids, 2 in college. </p>
<p>I chose Yale. Parents’ contribution will be fairly minimal, I will have some loans upon graduation. From Chicago, I would have been weighed down with loans.</p>
<p>I am very impressed by the size of the financial aid packages many of you have been offered. I hope all of you who have received generous aid will realize that you will need to make financial contributions to your chosen school after graduation as part of your obligation to them. My parents scrimped and saved and paid my tuition fully, and I now give back to my university as well, but I sometimes wonder if there are too many “takers” out there for this model to be sustainable. It’s a factor to consider when claiming your “tuition treasure”. If you don’t give back, others in the future will not have your opportunities.</p>
<p>^^ so true. This whole financial aid process has made me realize that if they are stingy with money, it’s at least partially because they do not have it to give to people. If everyone could just declare themselves independent or claim their parents won’t pay anything, no one would pay anything and the money well would run dry very quickly. I can attest that it is frustrating to not have all the funds to pay the full sticker price, but I think we also have to remember that loans are not necessarily a terrible thing. If nothing else, they are at least that extra motivation to keep you going through college. Sometimes the least successful people are the ones that didn’t have to work for any of it. But that’s just my conjecture. :)</p>
<p>With respect to Princeton and Yale, comparing Chicago to schools with endowments north of 20B is not apples-to-apples by any means. </p>
<p>Also, undergraduates are on average a losing proposition for the school. UChicago is a net beneficiary from MBA / JD / MD students, but not UG’s. Even if everyone paid sticker, it would still likely be a lost cause. I know Harvard spends roughly 70K per UG per year, and while UChicago is not as lavish in terms of bells and whistles on campus, I would wager its own fully loaded costs are not far below.</p>
<p>Finally, you get to a 6B dollar endowment through major donations and aggressive investing, not tuition. Note that large, private schools like NYU, BC, USC, etc. - which charge more effective tuition per head - have paltry endowments given their size.</p>