<p>Hello all. My daughter and I just got back from a grand tour of colleges this past week--Princeton, UVA, Duke, and UNC. My daughter flipped over Duke and its engineering program at Pratt and is leaning heavily towards that school. At Princeton, I was encouraged to hear that they were moving along the same path as Harvard, Yale, etc., where they're trying to make it more affordable for the middle class to afford a private education. Problem is, I didn't get that impression at all from Duke, which skated quickly through the financial aid portion of their presentation and one chart said I could expect nothing. I'm a government worker who makes 140K, which means after taxes, mortgage, commuting costs in the Washington area, stay at home mom, gymnastics classes, two small car loans, braces, yada yada yada, there's not much left. </p>
<p>Since Duke is 46k a year, I don't want to encourage my daughter if this is not realistic. THoughts?</p>
<p>There's no way for anybody to give you an answer as to whether Duke will be affordable for you or not. The only advice I can give is just tell her to apply as she has nothing to lose and then compare financial aid packages. Princeton will undoubtedly give more in aid than Duke as their endowment is significantly larger. I'd also assume UVA in-state would be less. And UNC? They don't even have engineering, so why look there? ;) Duke was generous with me, but it seems to vary from situation to situation. </p>
<p>Dad Kamaro, Duke has superlative merit aid programs like the A.B. DUKE
etc that provide excellent financial coverage regardless of how much you
might earn.</p>
<p>If your D gets merit aid, you will be fine. :)</p>
<p>From a need-based aid perspective youa re right, there is a good
chance you could be shelling out 80-100% of overall expenses (~$51K
for 2008-2009).</p>
<p>We found that there was little predictive value in the EFC calculators. Granted, our financial situation is atypical, but we found that the FA we were offered varied by as much as 10,000 a year at institutions that were full-need and all received the same figures from us. As it happened, Duke was very generous.</p>
<p>The only way you will know for sure is to apply and be accepted.</p>
<p>Unsolicited advice: in addition to having the often-advised academic safety schools on the application list, it is wise to have academic/financial safety schools on the list.</p>
<p>Thanks to all for the encouragement/advice. As Virginia residents, my daughter will have a top notch financial "safety" school, UVA, as well as a more traditional safety school as well. Because she was especially take with Duke's Pratt Engineering school, she is thinking about applying early decision. If she gets in and the financials don't work out, then we'll have to reevaluate. </p>
<p>Is funny. As I told the Duke presenter at their orientation, according to their (Duke's) chart they expect a GS-level government worker contributing the same amount of money to their kid's education as Donald Trump. He had no answer to that.</p>
<p>I think merit aid goes to a very small percentage, We did not bother applying for need based but our AGI (adjusted gross) is probably more than yours.</p>
<p>Be careful about the notion of applying early decision, as ED is binding. If finances are a question mark, the general advice is to not apply for binding early decision. Early action (which some schools offer but Duke does not) is not binding and may be a better choice.</p>
<p>Our son is a sophomore in Pratt. Feel free to pm if you would like.</p>
<p>arwen, where did you get that figure? I thought it was 47K. My daughter is visiting as we "speak"... she got no money... maybe I should tell her to come right home!</p>
<p>I think 47K is what Duke will charge - tuition+room+board. Of course there will be other costs - about 3.5K per Duke's estimation. So, the total cost of attendance is 47K + whatever your child will need other than tuition+room+board</p>
<p>Hopefully, I get to make the decision as to what compelling financial reasons are. Based on what I've seen so far, seems that Duke probably has a minor percentage of students who come from families making between 100-200K.</p>
<p>This year, the cost of attendance is $51,210, and this includes $3,400 budgeted personal cost. The amount that you pay to school is $47,810 (tuition&fees $37,630, Room $5,360, and Board $4,820).</p>
<p>Shrinkrap :), that figure is from the Duke Financial aid office. The official
all-in expense estimate from Duke for 2008-2009 is $51,190.00 of which
$3,380 is under the category "estimated personal expenes".</p>