@bluebayou You may be surprised to know that HYPS give FA up to $250k income or more (especially with multiple students in college).
For example, 99% of Yale families in the $150k-200k income range qualify for FA, with an average grant of $29k! The link below also shows that nearly 60% of Yale families have more than $200k income. http://admissions.yale.edu/financial-aid-prospective-students
(HYP have more money than Congress, and more importantly, they spend it for political and branding reasons; it gets the NYT off of their back. S has to compete)
Are you suggesting that other colleges should follow suit?
(Hint: even the other Ivies can’t afford to compete at the $180k threshold, particularly Cornell.)
Just to get this thread back to the situation at BC… The financial advisors brought in to BC several years ago changed the approach from “discounting” tuition through financial aid and scholarships for a large percentage of admitted students to a smaller number of the ones they most want attending. Money magazine and Forbes have written about BC becoming a stronger institution financially as a result.
I called earlier in school today, and talked to my financial aid counselor. She is sending two forms for my family to fill out, and to possibly reconsider and look at the income and assets differently.
My counselor did say that the ASSESTS are counted less than the INCOME.
My parents’ income is around 25k, and they said that the contribution from the income would be around 3,500 (which is very resonable). However, the contribution from the assests would be 49,000) ( which I calculated it, and they took around 12.5% value of assets). I did explain to my counselor that my parents receive their income from the estates, and she told me to fill out the forms she will send to me, and they will reconsider my financial aid package. In addition, I told her that Northeastern is giving me 26,000 a year in need based scholarship, and that I am giving up 5,000 a year of my lottery scholarship, since I am going out of state.
I hope this is helpful and give you guys some hope and answers. I wish all of us the best, and hopefully see you guys at BC in August!
Be careful that you properly calculated the value of the extra properties. It’s not assessed value or what another nearby house sold for. And zillow or other online sites are often off. You’d need to figure what each could actually sell for, its conditions, etc.
In general, assets are counted at ~5.6% of total, so if they calculated a contribution of $49,000, you/they must have estimated the net value (after mortgage debt) of the properties at $875k, no?
@LKnomad Thank you so much for sharing that eye opening article! I actually ran the net price calculator again not factoring in my family’s home equity, and with just my parents income it said I would get a grant of 43,000! While I think home equity should account for a portion of financial aid, its astonishing that with home equity my grant was 1,300 and without it would be over 40,000. My parents have worked for 22 years to pay off our home, and I really don’t see any reason they should have to borrow against their home to finance my education.
@HRSMom actually BC is possibly the worst college for penalizing home equity. Other schools put a cap on the amount of equity they use in their calculations. Some, I think CalTech for example, don’t use equity in their calculations at all. So yes, it is not fair. If that family had spent more money on fancy cars and expensive vacations, they would have received more aid.
@em1998 Love the school that loves you. Sounds like you have some great affordable options. I don’t think BC is going to change their longstanding financial aid policy of counting all home equity for you, so even if they change your package, it may not be for alot. Anyway, you should wait and see what they come back with, but in the meantime - try and revisit the schools that have shown you the financial love.
Northeastern NPC was off by $30,000/year for us. After reading this, it looks like BC is going to be another unaffordable school. We have $70,000 of equity in our home… We had another school that was a financial reach according to their NPC and recently they sent us an email estimating about $5-6,000 more per year than their NPC estimated. That school is now out of the running. I wish the NPC’s were at least close to accurate. We could have saved a lot of money in appIication fees and sending SAT scores as well as CSS Profiles.
What I don’t get is the OP says NEU is giving her $26,000 in aid. The cost is $60,000/year. That is a $34,000 difference. If she takes $10,000/year from the $40,000 her parents saved the cost is still $24,000/year. After four years she is still $100,000 in debt.
@Mysosdad We just got S’s financial aid package. In the context of NEU, BC wasn’t as attractive, although it wasn’t as bad as we thought. We would have to come up with 32K+ out of the 68K+ cost of attendance.
NEU remains the most attractive choice, as S is getting full-tuition. We have to come up with 18K+
NEU means no student loan vs. BC at least 60K+ student loan.
We were not as horrified as we thought we would. Things might turn out better than you think.
Full tuition is a really good deal. 'Grats to your S.
btw: don’t forget that the numbers can change if in later years, you have siblings in college at the same time. Since NEU is offering merit aid, the FinAid calculus will be much different than at BC if two were in the school. In BC’s case, the $32k would be approximately the same for two in private college, or at least two at BC at the same time.
For many of us, BCs financial aid is a preposterous, deal-breaking joke, but hey, its their school and they get yo compute F.A. any way they want. Dont lose any sleep over it.
BCs financial aid is a preposterous, deal-breaking joke
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Is that a fair statement?
I ask that because when I read through past year’s BC threads on this subject, I do see many replies saying BC’s financial aid was as expected or more generous than expected.
With more applicants wanting money than they have available funds to give out, is there something they should be doing differently? I can only imagine it’s a challenging position to be in.