<p>I had the same experience as SitheyTove with the Princeton calculator. Not optimistic. That’s why D is still working on scholarship applications at USNWR top twenty privates and top fifty publics.</p>
<p>DocT said: Once again folks, fill out your financial aid info in February, send it in and you’ll find out how much you’ll get.</p>
<p>Just wondering about that application… the CSS Profile asks how much the student’s parents think they can afford to contribute, so what will you all respond? If I put the 10% amount it’s going to look awfully silly to other colleges when my “normal” EFC would be roughly 2.5 times that amount. Will they laugh us out of the financial aid office?</p>
<p>I haven’t found any financial aid calculators for Harvard -if there is one please provide the link. I don’t think how much you put into the css profile has any impact. You will have to send in your 1040 for 2007 which must include any other sources of income that may not be on the form such as a trust. Actually the trust doesn’t have to provide income, they want to see it anyways.</p>
<p>I havn’t run Princeton’s calculator myself. When I was at Princeton’s info session, they said 3 steps, very easy. And their on line calculator pretty accurate. They have the best FA package in the nation because all components constitute as grant, no loans.</p>
<p>One thing though she made clear that since they took the primary resident house out of picture, then all loans(mortgate) associate with that house also out of picture. My understand is if you have cash sitting in saveing earning the interest while at the same time pay the mortgate on the house, better pay off the mortgage(even your mortgate rate might lower than your saving interest.).</p>
<p>The another parent asked if one of them lost job middle year. She said even better, things will work at your advantage since your family income will go down, you qualify for more money. All you need to do is let their FA office know.</p>
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<p>I don’t think Harvard has ever posted an online calculator. But if it does, yes, please provide the link, as many readers will appreciate that.</p>
<p>Here’s a question for you savvy CC parents - It looks as if the Princeton calculator actually penalizes for funds in 529s!! I was under the impression that 529s were NOT counted when calculating the students FA. Would it make sense for us to cash out the 529s – penalty is only over growth which has not been much – and put them toward our mortgage where it would be “hidden” from the FA calculators? Then finance college through mortgage loans? Our mortgage rate is fixed and low and we have been in the house a long time – 15 years. In fact the 529s would more than pay it off. On second thought, maybe we should cash out all investments along with the 529s and buy a big trophy house now – live large – and have our money not counting against us for FA. Not at all our style but maybe the best use of money with lots of houses going for bargains right now in our area.</p>
<p>Anyone else thinking along these lines?</p>
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<p>I’ve now got two conflicting CC pieces of advice seemingly running headlong into each other. On the one hand, it’s a bad idea to let a kid apply to a college if you know from the get-go that the price tag is going to be higher than the family can/will pay. On the other hand, you won’t know if the college will be affordable until the kid receives an admission letter and a specific FA award. </p>
<p>Now, my older kid is only in 9th grade, and is not interested in Harvard per se. But she has voiced some interest in other schools that are in the same selectivity/cost class, and which do not offer merit aid. Before the Harvard initiative was announced, my feeling was to steer her away from interest in these schools, or at least to caution her that she could not count on being able to attend these schools even if she was admitted. But now it seems that there might be some financial leeway…except I’ve really got no idea, because of that opacity into what FA might really be offered. Argh! I don’t want my kid to just be a selectivity statistic!</p>
<p>Well, there’s a few years for us to see how this really shakes out. One irksome side effect of the $180k cutoff is keeping our mouths shut when friends and family tell us that we must be delighted with the Harvard announcement…uhm, yeah, except we don’t really qualify, and I don’t feel like announcing to the world that our household income is higher than that cutoff (CC isn’t the world, lol).</p>
<p>ST, I called my DD’s Financial Aid Officer at H to find out more about the cutoff. He told me that it was not a hard and fast cutoff. I asked specifically if the cutoff was based on AGI or gross income, and the answer that I got was that it was generally based on gross income. </p>
<p>In regards to your comment about steering your DD away from schools that do not offer merit aid, I would advise you to not do that. The financial aid and admissions picture in the next four years, when your DD will be a frosh in college, will be very different than today’s. In any case, stay tuned to CC as I am sure that there will be plenty of reports from parents when FA offers are made to new and existing students at H, Y and others in the spring.</p>
<p>ST - I think there are two kinds of reaches - academic and financial. I don’t think there is anything wrong with allowing a child to apply to the school that may be beyond your financial reach - as long as you are honest with the child from the beginning as to what you are willing to do. Then if a FA package were offered that made school affordable - then your D could attend. </p>
<p>What I think most CCr’s really get frustrated with is when parents allow or encourage a kid to apply, and only after they are admitted tell them they can’t afford it.</p>
<p>MSMDAD: I called too, and I did not get an answer to the AGI or gross income question. I was told that they will look at the entire financial picture, as they have in the past.</p>
<p>BREAKING NEWS: YALE FOLLOWS HARVARD IN SWEEPING FINANCIAL-AID REFORM TARGETING MIDDLE-CLASS FAMILIES</p>
<p>The link is below:</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.yaledailynews.com/”>http://www.yaledailynews.com/</a>]</p>
<p>[Yale</a> Daily News - The Nation’s Oldest College Daily](<a href=“http://www.yaledailynews.com%5DYale”>http://www.yaledailynews.com)</p>
<p>This is great news for those who are lucky enough to apply to and get accepted at Yale. Schools like Yale and Harvard have huge endowments and most of their financial aid comes in the form of institutional awards. What <em>I</em> wish is that this was a sweeping reform that would help ALL students attending ALL colleges. Now THAT would be college financial reform.</p>
<p>I wonder if those who got in EA to Yale will now make up their minds to attend. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Yale’s EA yield go up substantially after this annoucement.</p>
<p>The announcement specifically addresses an issue that remained all too vague in Harvard’s. </p>
<p>“**The University will also reduce the amount that students are expected to contribute from their own earnings each year to $2,500, from $4,400. **Students will be able to earn this by working on campus for about seven hours a week, according to the University’s announcement.”</p>
<p>However, one has to wonder why the schools refuse to address the TOTAL of self help and summer earning (or savings) expectations in terms that are easily understandable by everyone. The purpose of a press release should be to inform, not to add to more idle speculation. Would it not have been simpler to write: "Yale is eliminating the $1,900 loan component of self-help. The remaining $2,500 might be satisfied by working on campus (although federal work study might NOT be available. No changes are made to the requirements of a minimum Student Summer Work Contribution of $1,850. We also expect students to contribute 25% of their “Student Savings.” The determination of what constitutes assessable parental income will remain entirely within our discretion. </p>
<p>Current Information:
</p>
<p>The other details are: </p>
<p>** Yale will reduce the cost of a Yale education for families making under $200,000, the University announced Monday afternoon.</p>
<p>** The expected contributions from families in income brackets up to $180,000 are identical to those laid out by Harvard, and like Harvard, Yale will eliminate the need for student loans. But Yale will allow families making between $120,000 and $200,000 to contribute on average 10 percent of their income toward tuition, while Harvard limited the 10 percent contribution to families making up to $180,000 in its December announcement.</p>
<p>** As at Harvard, Yale families earning less than $60,000 annually will not be asked to contribute toward tuition, while families making between $60,000 to $120,000 will contribute up to 10 percent of their total income.</p>
<p>** The statement did not explicitly state that Yale would exclude home equity from consideration in financial aid calculations, something that both Harvard and Princeton University now do.</p>
<p>Yale will also tie its increase in tuition, room and board charges next year to the expected level of consumer price inflation, 2.2 percent, according to the statement. For the past few years, Yale has increased these costs by around 5 percent each year.</p>
<p>Props to the colleges that are engaging in friendly rivalry to make college more affordable.</p>
<p>Indeed, one should not dismiss the benefits of the new financial aid policies. However, there is a lot of value in clarity and transparency. </p>
<p>A missed opportunity! Of course, there is always the next Education Conservancy conference to sponsor.</p>
<p>From the Yale Office of Public Affairs, with examples: </p>
<p>[Yale</a> Cuts Costs for Families and Students](<a href=“http://www.yale.edu/opa/newsr/08-01-14-03.all.html]Yale”>http://www.yale.edu/opa/newsr/08-01-14-03.all.html)</p>
<p>Again, those tables are not complete. Some good news is that the summer expectations for FRESHMAN will be $1,200 instead of $1,850 (with a probable increase thereafter to $2,400.) </p>
<p>With a twist of irony, the $3,700 of student contributions matches Stanford’s. There is love among SCEA schools. </p>
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<p>From [Yale</a> University SFAS: Financial Aid > Our Philosophy and Policies](<a href=“Welcome | Student Financial and Administrative Services”>Welcome | Student Financial and Administrative Services)</p>
<p>Yale Financial Aid Initiatives</p>
<p>Beginning with the 2008-2009 academic year, Yale has announced a number of financial aid enhancements designed to make a Yale education more affordable to a broader range of students. You can read the press release here.</p>
<p>Extends the Zero Parent Contribution to Families Earning Less Than $60,000. In 2005, Yale exempted families earning less than $45,000 from contributing to their child’s education; it also significantly reduced the contribution from families earning less than $60,000. Yale will extend the zero contribution to families earning less than $60,000, with subsidies extending to families earning less than $120,000. </p>
<p>Eliminates Loans for Students in Yale College. No student will be required to take out loans to meet the cost of a Yale education. Yale will reduce self-help to $2,500 from $4,400 per year. If student is willing to work about 7 hours a week in an on-campus job (Yale’s hourly wage scale starts at $11.30 per hour), he or she can graduate with no debt. </p>
<p>Reduces the Assessment on Income and Assets. Generally, the expected parent contribution is established by combining the calculated contributions from income and assets and adjusting that contribution if the family has more than one child in college. Yale will lower the assessment on income and assets and provide an even split of the parental contribution between the siblings. </p>
<p>Income Currently, disposable income is the single most important factor in determining the parental contribution. Yale, like other schools, assumes that a portion of parents’ disposable income is available for their children’s educational expenses. Yale will reduce the assessment on parental income across the board. </p>
<p>Assets Yale and many other schools also take parents’ assets into account
when determining parental contribution. In calculating the parental contribution from assets allowances are made for college savings and emergency expenses. </p>
<p>Yale will change its treatment of assets in two ways. First, Yale will exclude the first $200,000 of all assets from the calculation of the parental contribution. Yale will also reduce the assessment on assets above the $200,000 allowance. </p>
<p>Siblings Currently, when two or more siblings are in college at the same time, Yale calculates the parental contribution and then assumes that 60% of the total is available to finance a Yale education, as recommended by the College
Scholarship Service of the College Board. Yale will now make an even split among the siblings for the parental contribution. For instance, if there are two siblings in school, the parental contribution to Yale will be 50%. For three siblings, the parental contribution will be 33%. </p>
<p>Reduces Summer Earnings for Freshmen. Yale will reduce the student contribution for the summer prior to freshman year to $1,200 from $1,850. </p>
<p>Increases Vacation Allowance for International Students. Currently, Yale provides international students an allowance of $400 per year. It covers additional expenses, such as food and lodging, which international students often incur during school breaks and short holidays. Yale will increase this allowance to $1,500. The University will also assist first year international students with the tax implications of their scholarships</p>