<p>Son was admitted and we're waiting on the financial aid piece. I am aware of Kiplinger's and other publications extolling the virtues of Caltech's financial aid office. </p>
<p>However, I am very concerned about what the reality may bring with the financial aid packet. In doing a search in previous year's threads, it would seem that I should be concerned. </p>
<p>We have another kid in school (state school). I really want to find a way to send my son to Caltech because I feel he belongs there, but I'm worried that we will have "no life" at all for four or five years and I am worried about incurring more debt. A divorce set me back in terms of saving a lot for college. </p>
<p>Like probably many others accepted to Caltech, my son can go to a state school virtually free. I have told my son that everything depends on the money; if it is reasonable, we will do everything we can to find a way.</p>
<p>Am I the only parent out there with similar angst? Any reality stories for what I can expect the financial aid packet to bring?</p>
<p>It depends, and keep in mind that few people will start a thread to say "Our Caltech aid offer was fine. I'll end up having to pay a decent amount per year, but it's within what I can afford and they were decent to us." This, I think, is the most common situation, but there is a selection bias in who posts opinions on the boards.</p>
<p>Especially if there has been a somewhat recent change in your financial situation, the finaid office is understanding if you call them and talk to them about it. Sometimes they can change the package and sometimes they can't, but people can expect a fair hearing from them.</p>
<p>If going to Caltech means incurring a lot more debt, I wouldn't do it. Most of the value your son will get out of his education depends on your son and honestly will not be hugely different at Caltech vs. a state school. Sure, at Caltech he'll have brighter peers and more famous professors, but in the end it comes down to personal initiative and plenty of amazing people have come out of state schools.</p>
<p>That's just my general opinion from observing things, but if parents have personal opinions about the adequacy of the financial aid offers, please chime in.</p>
<p>For me, when the dust cleared, Caltech offered better (need-based) financial aid than all of my other schools...it was a little above Cornell, and Michigan (OOS public) didn't give any aid. That said, I'm not sure you can expect anything <em>really</em> spectacular (aside from an Axline) - probably the offer will be better described as "reasonable" or "fair." Although, having almost no experience with this stuff, don't take my word for it :P</p>
<p>I could've gone to a state school for free, but chose not too because I didn't like it...what state are you from? </p>
<p>Oh, I'm also sure any dissatisfaction with the offer can be taken up via appeal with the FinAid office, I don't know about results...most likely it will be significantly more burdensome than free state school, but it might be worth it anyway. P Hope that somewhat helps.</p>
<p>Caltech offered me a crappy financial aid package. Even Amherst offered me a better one. I'm going to try to persuade them to give me a better one, but we'll see.</p>
<p>My FAFSA estimated FC was 20k. Caltech wanted 32k. And we don't own real estate etc, no divorced parents, so weird how that worked out. Obviously I won't be going to Caltech if they don't at least lower their offer to at least around 25k.</p>
<p>I truly appreciate any insight. Our EFC for son was pretty high and I'm nervous about that. How can parents who can't afford BMWs and the like be expected to have the actual EFC available? I just don't "get" the EFC piece: I feel that I'm on Fantasy Island or something like that.</p>
<p>Weird, Caltech wanted us to pay slightly less than (but somewhat close to) our EFC, which was a full $10K/year better than the MIT offer. My good friend whose family income for the year before was fairly high but whose dad had just retired explained their situation to Caltech and ended up having to pay something like $7K a year only... on the other hand he said that MIT appeared to have "taken their current assets and divided by 4" to reach their figure!</p>
<p>I know it was expensive for my family for those first two years (college is, of course!) but it was manageable.</p>
<p>I think the EFC also accounts for the student earning some amount of money working in the summer, right?</p>
<p>Ahhh, so that's the trick. I just have to get my parents to retire, and then I'll get some financial aid! Either that, or bill myself as a mini-Joe Caltech, which might be a tad difficult....
For the record, over a week ago I appealed Caltech's financial aid decision , but I have yet to receive a response. Doesn't look too good for me -- but best of luck to KenJ and Kamikazewave.</p>
<p>Aww! If you have other need-based offers that are better (especially from comparable schools) sending them in as documentation/justification for asking for more money could really help.</p>
<p>For our family, Caltech's finaid package was better than the offers my son received from either UC Berkeley or MIT or any of the other schools he was accepted at. The big difference between Caltech & MIT for us was how it was split between student's contribution and family contribution. At Caltech my son has a small student loan. If he'd chosen MIT he would have had no student loans but the family(parent) contribution would have been higher. At UC he would have had a lot more in loans than Caltech but because UC only looks at the custodial parent, the parent contribution would have been different (but my contribution would have been about the same but his non-custodial parent would have been required to pay nothing). Caltech was my son's clear choice and he felt it was worth it to take on a little bit of debt.</p>