<p>And it is also important that the reality check be reality. See my post in response to the MIT disappointing aid offer in the thread captioned above.</p>
<p>Regardless, it's really hard to justify to my parents an additional $60000 over my second-choice college for the "dream of an MIT education." Don't get me wrong-- MIT IS my dream school and I would love love love to go there. But falling in love with a school won't get rid of the guilt I would feel for making my parents pay that kind of money. $200000 is a LOT of money, and my family isn't so wealthy that spending that kind of money wouldn't be a problem. </p>
<p>It just feels so...stupid that money is the only thing keeping me from going to MIT. My FAFSA shows my EFC to be really high-- but not really because of my parents' income. A lot of it is because my parents save money instead of buying new cars or whatever. Once we spend that money-- on an MIT education?-- it isn't coming back with the next paycheck. I want to appeal, but I'm not sure what to say..."Hi, my family's world doesn't revolve around my undergraduate education. The money we have saved isn't just for me-- my parents have been saving money for things other than their daughter's exorbitantly expensive private school..." To which the reply would be, "Well, if MIT were REALLY your dream school, you would find some way to afford it, and your FAFSA says you can get the money from somewhere..." </p>
<p>I think that if I did end up going to MIT, the pressure of performing well enough academically and majoring in something or multiple somethings leading to high-paying careers to "get our money's worth", and maybe even trying to graduate early in an effort to save my family 50K, would completely defeat the purpose of why I want to go to MIT in the first place. I don't want every decision I make in college to be based on money problems. </p>
<p>Mr. Barkowitz, is there any possibility of an appeal having a significant affect on the amount of aid I'm getting? I've stated my position but I don't know if the above kind of argument will really do me any good.
Please answer, I'm kind of struggling with this.</p>
<p>
[quote]
And it is also important that the reality check be reality.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Yes, Mr. Barkowitz, the general thread on the other forum </p>
<p>seems to give a reality check most on what people's expectations are, but maybe not so much on what colleges are affordable in general. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around what colleges would be the best risk to apply for a family in the below-national-median income range, but I rather suspect most of the surprise and shock is coming from families with double that level of income or more.</p>
<p>bananaland, you should be in touch with your financial aid officer before you make any final decision about attending. S/he can talk with you about the options and strategies for making this work.</p>
<p>^ As Mr. Barkowitz has said, contact those people in the folder.</p>
<p>I can see both sides pretty clearly. I mean, I'm an admit senior that got an MIT EFC that definitely seems out of reach for my family. So on the one hand, I sympathize with everyone in this thread (heck, go back a page or two and you'll see my own post in this thread about freaking out over FinAid).</p>
<p>Yet it should be obvious to anyone that ever reads the MIT blogs that MIT and specifically Mr. Barkowitz DO really care about getting kids to be able to afford MIT.</p>
<p>So where does that leave people like me/us?</p>
<p>Contact the FinAid office. Even if you have no idea where to start, sending a (POLITE!) e-mail to your specific FinAid person (as indicated by last names in the FinAid packet sent to us) asking how to best go forward, naming why you think your EFC just isn't attainable is a good idea. I'm communicating with mine.</p>
<p>I cannot guarantee that you'll hear what you want to hear, or that you'll even hear what you think is fair. (You can PM or e-mail me if you want to know my specific case and what I'm doing about it). But I definitely guarantee there's a better chance of you being helped if you contact them than if you just post here.</p>
<p>Speaker, thanks for the comment. You've hit exactly the point I wanted to raise, which is to be in touch with us.</p>
<p>(and by the way, please call me Daniel)...</p>
<p>MIT aid sucks, compared with what I got from other schools. No rational behind here, just an observation of my own facts. Don't want a heated argument or long-winded discussions. I am going elsewhere.</p>
<p>ricky, sorry to hear it.</p>
<p>Let me know if I can be of any help.</p>
<p>So far, all the Ivy's and Caltech have all beaten MIT's aid by quite a bit. In fact, Princeton expects my family to pay half of what MIT wants as a contribution. I really don't want the finances to affect my decision, and I hope MIT will be able to work with me come CPW--I just don't know what concrete financial arguments I have against reducing the cost of attendance besides "Other schools gave me more money!!"</p>
<p>Any advice?</p>
<p>Wow, ricky, kind of bullheaded and narrow-minded on your behalf, but whatever.</p>
<p>Prospective, couldn't you use that argument anyway with SFS at CPW? Is that going against your beliefs or something? If you really want MIT that badly, I don't see why you couldn't tell SFS that, I'm sure they would want you to attend when they hear about all the other schools clamoring to get you with all their aid. And if that doesn't work, maybe you can give Princeton a chance? =</p>
<p>MIT was extremely generous with my package, it made my day when I received my FA package in the mail!</p>
<p>Daniel,
If I called FA, would they be able to tell me if adjustments were made to our EFC in the initial package based on a special circumstances letter I provided w/PROFILE? I would like to find out if that has already been accounted for, and if not, what additional info I can provide that might be helpful.
Thanks!</p>
<p>Sure, just call up and ask to speak with your counselor.</p>
<p>Is it true that MIT will match any other schools offer? Say Harvard?</p>
<p>From Daniel's blog (FASU2(3D))</p>
<p>"#3 Recognize that we are unable to “negotiate“ aid offers, although we may ask you to send us a copy of another institution's award letter. We are interested in seeing other institutions' EFCs for you (if you are willing to share them) and may be able to tell you why our contribution is different than theirs. "</p>
<p>I was hopeful that the intent of this post was to identify which segments of the student population are being well served by the present financial aid policies and which are being potentially under-served . </p>
<p>Comments that insinuate "I got mine so shut up, you're rich, the financial aid is great" are extremely unproductive and do nothing except inject social tension, if not economic class warfare, into the financial aid debate.</p>
<p>Similarly, while it is certainly good advice to contact the financial aid office with questions, and MIT's financial aid officers clearly try their best to help, they can only operate within the confines of the schools' present policies, and are therefore limited in what they can do if those policies do not serve a particular segment of the population.</p>
<p>To the extent that people are willing to post comparative financial aid information here, good and bad, that would be helpful. The top schools usually have found it to be in their self interest to compete among themselves solely on non-price bases. However, Harvard's new policy has disrupted that status quo at least temporarily and it would be useful to get a bearing on where things stand. Just one opinion.</p>