<p>I've heard that schools (like Stanford, the Ivies, etc.) all give generous aid only to freshmen and sophomores, and that the amount of aid is drastically reduced during your junior and senior years. Is this true?</p>
<p>I know that statement is untrue for Stanford. My son is a senior there this year, and his aid has remained fairly constant over the four years. Even when he did overseas study for a year, although they did up the loans, they also increased his grant. The only time it would be reduced drastically would be if parent or student income rose drastically.</p>
<p>I know that is untrue for at least one well-known private university in Texas. Every year for four years now the aid has been generous and the same, varying only by the amounts the government allows for subsidized loans.</p>
<p>My pet peeve, though, is at this school, and others I hear, they wait until the middle of the summer to send the continuing students their award letters for the coming fall. I understand they are overwhelmed with putting together the next freshman class and that is the priority. But if they were going to jack a continuing student's aid, the news would come so late that transfer to somewhere else would be nearly impossible.</p>
<p>Our son's fin aid office said their first priority is putting together the aid packages for the incoming freshmen. When those have been accepted/declined, then they know what they have to work with for the upperclassmen. They also said that we could expect the grant to remain the same, and possibly increase (we have two in next year, so the EFC changes) depending on what the freshman class accepts. And yes, the stafford will max each year, and we expect work study.</p>