<p>@Impoverished - </p>
<p>Please call. That does not sound right AT ALL. Our FinAid folks are very understanding, and the situation that you describe does not sound like how it should be working. It is possible that they missed something, or something from you isn’t in, or some combination of the above, or whatever. I already know some students this year who have called and gotten their packages adjusted after the same thing happened.</p>
<p>@Impoverished: Our experience is similar to yours. Not $2000 under taxable income, but more than $10,000/yr over what the Net Price Calculator told us to expect and 2.5x the EFC of Yale’s fin aid package.</p>
<p>^ Similar situation here, $13-$14k difference between the NPC and actual award.</p>
<p>Our EFC was almost exactly what the NPC had. I would think there was a mistake somewhere.</p>
<p>Son has same problem, $12K difference from Net Price Calculator, and 2X EFC compared to Caltech’s fin aid package. Really disappointing. Was told it won’t be reviewed until appeal process starts on April 1st. Is someone making mistakes entering the numbers?</p>
<p>Did you get the actual Caltech FA package or just the email estimate? We got an estimate back in January, but that was based on estimated numbers, not the actual tax returns. Haven’t heard anything since then and looking forward to comparing. Ours were pretty similar between the schools - a bit more aid from MIT but it’s also listed as a bit more expensive. I never did the NPC so don’t know how that would have worked for us.</p>
<p>Final Caltech FA packages won’t start going out until 3/30. He was accepted early action at Caltech and got an estimated award back in December, then it was informally updated based on actual tax figures via email in Jan. We were really surprised MIT and Caltech were so far apart, but we’ll wait and see the outcome of the appeal…</p>
<p>I have to add that it’s more than a bit surreal to have the excitement of acceptance be immediately crushed by the impossible cost. My son had to go to school the next day and inform his two teachers who had written his amazing rec’s and were anxious to hear the results that, yes, he got accepted, but he likely won’t be able to afford to go.</p>
<p>It seems we are in that no-man’s land of income where we are neither poor enough to get decent aid nor wealthy enough to afford nearly full-tuition. I wonder if the eventual make-up of the class of 2016 with be a barbell of all rich and poor with the middle-$100K type families squeezed out? So disappointing.</p>
<p>Last year the financial aid packages from Caltech and Stanford were $10k apart… they have different institutional formulas they use so it is possible that Caltech can be a better package. Cornell was somewhere in the middle of those schools.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t necessarily expect much more money. I know of a few people who’ve gotten the amount of financial aid that they thought they needed from MIT, but I don’t know that I know anyone who has comparatively gotten a better deal from MIT. Personally, my package at CalTech was almost 15k more than here (which is a lot of money :/). It also went up a few thousand from the initial estimated amount of aid to the final amount. I feel like other universities have less self-help and a lesser student contribution which can really add up. </p>
<p>MIT didn’t really adjust my award much after I asked them about it too. I was told that they won’t reconsider your aid at all unless you give them a specific reason (i.e. you overassessed my property values based on my neighborhood). It is what it is and is definitely something to consider when you make your decision. Overall, I think I’m glad I came here but there are definitely times when I wonder if I would have been better off taking the money offered elsewhere and not putting so much financial strain on my family.</p>
<p>That’s a tough call, wellthatsok. My son will have to consider this, as well. MIT is very generous but it would still require my son to take out quite a bit in loans. I just don’t know…Princeton is, by far, the most generous of the offers. S will weigh his options carefully and not rush into a decision. Wonderful choices of schools, to be sure!!</p>
<p>I don’t know if it’s useful for anyone, but I graduated with a larger-than-average loan burden – about $15,000 in federally-subsidized loans, and about $20,000 in private unsubsidized loans. </p>
<p>I’m now six years past graduation, and have been a graduate student the entire time. Although I haven’t been required to pay on the loans (since I am still in school), I have been paying them down the whole time I’ve been in grad school, without any difficulties. I have paid off the federal loans (yay!) and have about $10,000 left on the private loans.</p>
<p>For me, attending MIT was unequivocally worth the loan burden.</p>