<p>Since I was warned everything in NY is very expensive, is this extra cost shown consideration in FA?</p>
<p>Also, can anyone share within 100-140k share their FA stories ... I may apply ED.</p>
<p>1) um, nyc is a unique beast it can be very expensive, but it has a lot of things that are very very affordable, do don’t believe the hype. as far as i know the living allowance that they factor in to the ‘total’ cost is around the same amount as you’d get elsewhere. i should note having had an on campus job, that’s where you’ll find things making up the difference with an opening job at 9 to 10 bucks an hour.</p>
<p>i will note i checked out harvard’s page and it looks like though their tuition is lower, weirdly enough they have higher personal costs and room+board fees, so i mean i wouldn’t say boston is more expensive than new york, different things come in different packages. </p>
<p>i wouldn’t worry, i lived very comfortably off my work study stipend.</p>
<p>2) you are in economic no man’s land for most finaid policies, finaid will depend on how many folks are in your family, and if you have any siblings that are in college. you could receive something, you could receive not much depending on that, plus their is the assets question of course. i think you should do your homework, check out some finaid calculators, and then see how things go. most folks where money might be a concern, do RD and spread out across other privates and publics - you can compare private need based aid offers, or decide if you rather want the less expensive public school option.</p>
<p>Can you estimate some numbers? The website says something like 57k a year.
For 100-140k income range, what did you have to pay? 30k a year? 40k?</p>
<p>I know they will vary, but I would like to know others’ experiences.
Plus if it really is TOO low, then I probably can back out of ED.</p>
<p>Financial aid doesn’t really work that way. If your family makes $100,000 annually for managing your grandfather’s gardeners while waiting to vest into a $30,000,000 trust fund, you won’t get any aid. If your family has no assets because it uses $140,000 annually to pay for the 13 children, two parents, three grandparents and two spinster great-aunts, you may qualify. Stated differently, much more information is required to compare apples with apples.</p>
<p>under normal circumstances (like 1 or 2 siblings) and normal assets, 100k probably gets 30-45 k discount. 140 K probably gets 10-30k discount. But these are very rough, I’m just going by what i’ve seen on here and spoken with close friends about. Financial aid at almost all schools are not very generous to upper middle income households. Columbia is good for middle class and low incomes.</p>
<p>Thank you for offering useful information confidentialcoll!
The 30-35k seems quite generous – is upper middle the 140k or higher?</p>
<p>Anyhow, it seems like quite fair.</p>
<p>[Affluence</a> in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affluence_in_the_United_States]Affluence”>Affluence in the United States - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>to pull out the quote: </p>
<p>“Sociologists such as Dennis Gilbert, William Thompson, and Joseph Hickey estimate the upper middle class to constitute roughly 15% of the population. Using this figure, one may conclude that the American upper middle class consist of professionals making more than $62,500.”</p>
<p>Where upper middle class means, the ‘professional class.’</p>
<p>Above upper middle are the upper class according to the same definitions that usually is the top 1% of earners beginning at 500k. Which would mean the upper middle class income range is from 62500-500000. </p>
<p>Point being that the range for the upper middle class is high, the percentage of families though is quite low.</p>
<p>My parents’ combined income is in your range. For the first year, I barely got any financial aid. I applied ED, and work study was in my initial financial aid package. When I got the finalized version, they’d taken away the ED and given me a student loan instead. We ended up paying something like 42k that year. I got more financial aid in the next two years but not much. I think we paid something like 38-42k/year in those two years.</p>
<p>But, I’m an only child.</p>
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<p>Typical question based on a false premise. The dorms are subsidized and cost about what dorms cost at non-NYC schools. They’re not based on the prevailing NYC rent prices. In contrast, NYU housing seems to be closer to the latter. Many things in NYC are expensive because NYC has things you can’t do in other cities, but that doesn’t mean essentials are that much more.</p>
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<p>WHAT?! They can take away ED by themselves?? Or did you request for a FA review?</p>
<p>Stars - what happens in December for ED is you get an initial FA statement (which is what Demeter is mentioning), but it makes it clear that it is not final, it wont be final until they get copies of your and your parents taxes for the year (so in this case your 2010 taxes). So you may be admitted early, receive a preliminary package early, but not get your final package until April with the other students.</p>
<p>In general it stays the same, but like most things it depends on ‘all things being equal,’ and if they are not, then your package could change.</p>
<p>Regardless now, Columbia is no loans so you won’t have to worry about receiving a loan package, if you qualify for FA it will be grants and work study money.</p>
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<p>this is a great explanation (and true) - it is easy to blow up a LOT of money in one night, so be careful what you choose to spend on and always ask how much a form of entertainment is going to cost.</p>
<p>My family income is a bit higher than yours, ~$160K. My initial financial aid estimate was about 16K/year (including grants, work-study, etc.), but that was cut to a little less than 9K/year (again, including grants, work-study, summer jobs, and all that) after I submitted my FAFSA. If you’re at the higher end of 100K-140K, I’d aim to pay around $30K-40K/year for Columbia (total cost for 2010-11 is $57K by the way).</p>
<p>^ wow final was only half of prelim package!
Thanks for the info though. As an international, I don’t think I will have to file FAFSA.</p>
<p>Oh ****, you’re an international applicant? Columbia doesn’t guarantee any aid for them, which is why international applicants tend to be rich. Expect to pay full freight and treat any financial aid as a gift.</p>
<p>Haha it’s OK pwoods! I’m Canadian!</p>
<p><em>breathe</em> :D</p>
<p>@StarsAligned
So you’re a pseudo-international applicant? Columbia will guarantee 100% of demonstrated need, but I’m not sure how they figure out that need. You might need to complete the CSS Profile or FAFSA, but I’m not sure.</p>
<p>Yup! 
On their website it just says CSS and Tax returns for past 2 years before deadline.</p>
<p>I thought FAFSA was only for Americans?</p>
<p>As you know, Columbia’s need-based financial aid is very generous compared to that of most colleges. My family income is $170k, and we ended up getting ~$25k in grants (making our EFC ~30k). To give you the whole picture, I have 3 siblings (none of them are in college though) and our assets are normal.</p>