<p>re uchicagoalum's 12:58pm post: The upper income limits for families of students receiving FA at Harvard are $180K, Yale-$200K, Princeton-$200K, and Stanford puts the limit for free tuition at $100K but still helps to some degree above $100K. I don't think that any of these top schools allow the child of a $700K family to pay "next to nothing," as you say. On the contrary, they (and most families with above $180K) will be paying full everything. Some families under these limits won't get any FA if their assets are too high. These school's endowments are higher that of UofC's, and they are choosing to give extra money to their low/middle income admits. Believe me, those of us with middle incomes are extraordinarily grateful for the chance to send our child to a top school without debt, because the school is paying a portion and because we saved for 17 years to pay our portion.</p>
<p>Sorry that UofC's FA doesn't equal those mentioned. Hope things get better.</p>
<p>I hear ya on the "saving for 17 years concept".......it's like a slow bleed that turns itself into a transfusion for the next generation.</p>
<p>Gladmom: I am sadly aware of the present caps the Ivies are using. I find the, upper income limits for families of students receiving FA at Harvard [at] $180K, Yale-$200K, Princeton-$200K already to be abhorrently high, given the many other uses such money could be going to (university driven cancer research, more debt write down for graduates in fields like public health, so on). But when I refer to the route they are going, there is now a lot of discussion afoot about deeply cutting the cost of attendance for every student by engaging in tactics like eliminating UG tuition or offering free housing across the board (as their endowments begin to dwarf many developing countries GDP). While no doubt the leader in this approach would likely pull down many more cross admits, this would also be cash indiscriminately placed into the pockets of parents and students that do not need it (the aforementioned doctor / lawyer example). It is fine for Oxbridge to more or less give away their educational offerings to high net worth students, since their parents have paid bundles into the UK tax system. But John Q Consultant whose kid gets into Yale is unlikely to have sent along his own students tuition many times over in donations before little Johnny ever gets to New Haven. In this vein, I am glad to see Chicago has been able to limit its merit funds to, 20 full tuition rides
and about 100, $10k/yr. rides, since merit aid again correlates highly with family income. </p>
<p>CountingDown: Merit aid constitutes and earmark if the school does not elect to do it generally. Some donors only care broadly that the students receiving funds are chosen on strictly on academic merit or promise rather than with a collective consideration to their socio-economic or prior educational circumstances. I would presume this covers most of the awards going out, but bear in mind that this approach in contrary to the general holistic tenor of the admissions office. However, I personally had a good friend whose was informed that his merit funds were largely in light of winning a major science prize in high school, and he was encouraged to write a letter of thanks to a donor who has been a long term patron of the sciences at Chicago.</p>
<p>Gladmom: I am sadly aware of the present caps the Ivies are using. I find the, “upper income limits for families of students receiving FA at Harvard [at] $180K, Yale-$200K, Princeton-$200K” already to be abhorrently high, given the many other uses such money could be going to (university driven cancer research, more debt write down for graduates in fields like public health, so on). But when I refer to the “route they are going,” there is now a lot of discussion afoot about deeply cutting the cost of attendance for every student by engaging in tactics like eliminating UG tuition or offering free housing across the board (as their endowments begin to dwarf many developing countries’ GDP). While no doubt the leader in this approach would likely pull down many more cross admits, this would also be cash indiscriminately placed into the pockets of parents and students that do not need it (the aforementioned doctor / lawyer example). It is fine for Oxbridge to more or less give away their educational offerings to high net worth students, since their parents have paid bundles into the UK tax system. But John Q Consultant whose kid gets into Yale is unlikely to have sent along his own student’s tuition many times over in donations before little Johnny ever gets to New Haven. In this vein, I am glad to see Chicago has been able to limit its merit funds to, “20 full tuition rides… and about 100, $10k/yr. rides,” since merit aid again correlates highly with family income. </p>
<p>CountingDown: Merit aid constitutes an earmark if the school does not elect to do it generally. Some donors only care broadly that the students receiving funds are chosen on strictly on academic merit or promise rather than with a collective consideration towards their socio-economic or prior educational circumstances. I would presume this covers most of the awards going out, but bear in mind that this system is contrary to the general holistic tenor of the admissions office. However, I personally had a good friend whose was informed that his merit funds were largely in light of winning a major science prize in high school, and he was encouraged to write a letter of thanks to a donor who has been a long term patron of the sciences at Chicago. Did he have to win the Westinghouse? No. But he likely had to have shown himself to be brilliant in the hard sciences.</p>
<p>I personally was presently surprised with my fin. aid package. In fact, it turned out in the end that I could go to U of C for just $500 dollars more per year than my safety state school. It still is going to be pretty expensive as I have a twin which means my parnets will have to be dishing out twice as much, but I think we'll be able to manage.</p>
<p>Good luck with your petition!</p>
<p>What makes you think the administration will care about the student petition? What student or parent would not be in favor of more financial aid?</p>
<p>"In this vein, I am glad to see Chicago has been able to limit its merit funds to, “20 full tuition rides… and about 100, $10k/yr. rides,” since merit aid again correlates highly with family income. "</p>
<p>chicagoalum, I agree. We are on financial aid, and would like to have more ... but the fact of the matter is that we can (sort of) manage it (with loans and some serious budget cutting). I do not like the dilution of needs-based aid for those who truly cannot afford it to benefit those who can.</p>