Financial Aid for Upper-Middle Class

Which top universities offer the most financial aid to upper-middle class students (Income Bracket: $120k-$140k)? I am interested in Ivies and colleges such as Stanford, Duke, etc. Can I get tuition for less than $50,000?

The top Ivies and Stanford are all good. Do you know about the net price calculators? They are on each college website on the financial aid page. Have your parents help run those, and you can see your likely cost for each college.

Top universities don’t offer fin-aid to upper income bracket individuals–but they might offer merit aid. I checked your other thread and you have very competitive stats–you should aim for merit aid at private schools known for giving it to high stats students. That’s not going to be the Ivies to tippy-top tier schools, however–everyone there has crazy high stats; those schools don’t need to offer merit to attract students.

But if 50K per year is reasonable for your family (or do you mean 50K total over 4 years?) you can shoot for schools where you might get half tuition to full tuition. You’d definitely qualify for Alabama’s full scholarship with your stats. I know BU sometimes gives good merit to high stat students, regardless of parental income. Other posters can help you identify target schools, depending on what you want to major in. I’m not sure what the merit aid likelihood is with Duke.

You are likely to get aid from many schools, but it does depend on other factors, such as assets and how many dependents in the family.

The best way to see is to run the NPC at any college you are interested in because they all define ‘need’ and ‘aid’ a bit differently.

Compare Net Prices, and pay attention to the differences in loan amounts (and work study).

@proudterrier

With all due respect, you are not correct. There are a number of top universities where need based aid is offered to families with incomes of up to $180,000 a year. The most generous are Yale, Harvard, Stanford, and Princeton, from what I understand.

This student could very well get need based aid at these schools if accepted.

On another thread, this student asked about admission chances at Stanford. If accepted, and income is $140,000 a year or less, I believe he will see some need based aid.

Ditto for Yale, Harvard, and Princeton.

none of the Ivies offer merit aid…at all. And neither does Stanford.

I was playing with the Amherst npc yesterday and with $250k income and a family of 3, one in college, there was still aid offered. Even with modest assets.