<p>How good is caltech financial aid? i heard its really good but how does it compare to the financial aid of schools that recently changed their financial aid systems?</p>
<p>and with regards to family contribution, does caltech include home equity? and do they count siblings in grad school as siblings in college?</p>
<p>Caltech financial aid is not by any means as good as Harvard financial aid. It was one of the less generous packages my son received and also where he decided to go. It had a much heavier loan component than his other packages did. One of the frustrating things is how they calculate the budget in determining your aid. Many of the expenses they allotted are nowhere close to the true expenses of things like books and travel. </p>
<p>One bright spot is that future classes will not have to pay medical and dental insurance of almost $3000 if they are already insured. That was a deal-breaker for some people who have responded here.</p>
<p>I'm not sure as to your specific questions. I don't remember anything Caltech specific with respect to home equity, but I'm not sure. I know they had a supplement to the FAFSA but I don't recall either of your specific questions coming up.</p>
<p>One good thing is that they do reduce your loans and work study before your Caltech scholarship if you receive ouitside scholarships. Of course, they don't reduce your EFC for that. In addition, I think most schools reduce loans and work study before scholarship money as well, so this is not like they are being more generous than everyone else, they are just being as generous.</p>
<p>You could try asking them on the website your specific questions. I will warn you, response time can vary from immediate response to never. Sometimes they are great, sometimes they are incredibly frustrating. One parent said they just completely lost her daughter's file. It's sort of hit or miss. Sometimes they just seem annoyed that admissions let a poor person in. It's a great school if you can get through it financially.</p>
<p>like, one thing im wondering is if they count your home as an asset when determining EFC, since most schools do but a few dont and also whether a sibling in grad school would help reduce ur efc.</p>
<p>cuz i had always heard that the fin aid here was really good, but then after looking at how frustrated some people have been its hard to tell. cuz itd be sad anticipating maybe getting in if the fin aid was really bad lol.</p>
<p>Different people have had different results. Some people think the financial aid is much better than other places, some don't. I've heard probably more of the former than the latter, but I've still heard a decent number of people in the latter. I got roughly zero financial aid from everywhere I applied, so I can't really compare.</p>
<p>Caltech is not a good FA school as per the D's school GC. Rarely anyone from our D's school qualify for FA at any university but for Caltech the rule is don't bother applying at all.</p>
<p>if you live ina family of 4 with 1 kid in college how low does your income have to be (approx.) for you to get any kind of financial aid?</p>
<p>Well, our experience has been different. DS has a great financial aid package. No loans, its all grants/scholarships. (The first year he had a $1000 loan, but the second year and third years, no loans.) The financial aid packages he received at MIT was comparable to Caltech. At UCB he would have had to take out lots of loans(he was nominated for the Regents which might have changed the finaid package for UCB but he had had already decided he wasn't going to UCB since he'd gotten in to Caltech & MIT). The worst financial aid package was from RPI (and he was a medalist but that $10,000 or what ever it was didn't make a very big dent in what he would have had to pay). </p>
<p>As for home equity, when he applied Caltech was a PROFILE school, and I would think they still are (not sure what the supplement is that Crazymom mentioned). Profile schools do take in to account home equity. But I believe there's a formula that limits home equity based on family income. I do own my home and the home equity couldn't have hurt my son's financial aid package at Caltech...it really couldn't get much better unless of course he'd received an Axeline. </p>
<p>As for expenses, we haven't had any issue with expenses exceeding the budget. But DS does use lots of on-line resources for books so he hasn't had huge book expense. He seems to know which books he needs to buy and which books are available on-line or he finds them used.</p>
<p>alright. thanks. its daunting applying to a school when im unsure about the financial aid ill receive though.</p>
<p>that still doesnt answer my original question though, which is whether having a sibling in grad school would affect the number of kids my family has in college and thus my parents efc.</p>
<p>and also, how have your guys efcs at caltech compared to the efc that you guys get using the calculator on finaid.org?</p>
<p>post your question about a sibling in grad school on the finaid forum. My gut reaction is that having a sibling in grad school would NOT effect your financial aid. My understanding is that for financial aid for grad school one is considered to be independent of parents. So I would think a sibling in grad school would not be taken into consideration for undergrad. </p>
<p>as for your last question, our efc matched the efc we got on the finaid.org calculator</p>
<p>I actually think most everyone applies not knowing how much financial aid they'll receive. And at a place like Caltech even if your efc was $50,000 you could receive an Axeline and have a full ride. But the decision is up to you. My son applied knowing he could not go unless he received enough financial aid. But Caltech was his dream school so filling out the application was a small task (and it took him hours).</p>
<p>its just absolutely insane though. the efc that i get on finaid.com is 3/7 of my familys yearly income. we dont have abnormal assets or anything of that matter and so if thats how much id have to pay to go to caltech then i guess ill have to go find another dream school, lol. </p>
<p>and i wish i could get one of those scholarships -__-. but no, im just your average guy with 800s and close to 800s and crappy insignificant national awards. blast.</p>
<p>but isnt caltech financial aid supposed to be good? good gravy, i guess id be freaking out a lot more if this was say, 3 years ago.</p>
<p>The only way to find out is to apply, but make sure you have lots of other schools on your list. Our experience was that Caltech's financial aid offer was the lowest of all schools.</p>
<p>I got my letter today and was extremely disappointed. Our reported gross income was <$60,000 but Caltech is expecting us to contribute $30,000/year. I'm not sure how they calculate these things, but it seems pretty unreasonable.</p>
<p>That seems pretty nuts. You should definitely contact them at some point.</p>
<p>According to the freshman blogs, the girl that does that negotiated more money four different times. They didn't seem too interested in giving my son a dime more than the original offer even though he tried. As for their "budget," the amount they allotted for travel was not enough to get my son there, let alone back again at the end of the year, or out of there for any breaks. We are almost 2000 miles from Caltech and they budgeted about $300 for the whole year. Given the gas and airfare prices when school started, that budget was ridiculous. He seems to be making up some of the difference by having little or no other expenses, but it would be nice if he could afford to go to a movie or eat out once in a while.</p>
<p>to neuschwanstein:
my situation is completely different; my family makes >150,000 and my family's EFC is 13k. Needless to say, I am thrilled. But how is this possible?</p>
<p>^^^I think it is possible that Caltech Financial Aid is bipolar or something. There seems to be a huge difference from day to day depending on who you get on the phone. I couldn't figure out why it took them forever to figure out "the changes in federal law" in administering the federal loan programs when schools that started a month and a half before them had it figured out months ahead of them. I had to get a lot of the information I needed from a public university in our state that my son had turned down, but they sent me the information anyway. I sometimes wonder if they are as need based as they say they are, and whether it is easier to "negotiate" if you are a student they really want for some reason.</p>
<p>what is the significance of this statement ?
"In order to strengthen our need-based financial aid program even further, we will be redirecting our freshman merit-based scholarship programs to our need-based financial aid program, effective with the class that will enter in September 2009."</p>
<p>arghhhh, we were offered a third of what we were expecting. but, what can i do but negotiate?</p>
<p>Caltech actually gave me the best financial aid offer of all the places I applied. It does seem there are mixed reports, and people with bad aid offers are more likely to mention it. Since financial aid is a bit of a crapshoot, you may as well apply and figure out the finances later. (or attend another school if it's really that terrible) There are student loans that make it payments feasible. If you're unhappy with it, you can always call the financial aid department and see what they can do. As for the EFC, it seems the government has yet to figure out how much it costs to go to college for most families, so it's "normal" to receive a ridiculous number. </p>
<p>For what it's worth, I could have gone to Michigan (instate) for about the same amount. Private schools usually are more generous with financial aid (Berkeley gave me about $200 in aid for the whole year), and even with rough economic times, the administration is still holding the financial aid budget in high priority.</p>
<p>Don't give up hope just yet.</p>
<p>omgitsover9000 - It means that starting with the class entering next fall, Caltech will not have merit scholarships for freshmen (Axline, President's, etc.). That money is being redirected towards need-based aid.</p>