Financial Aid Help...

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
1

<p>So Dartmouth financial aid says my parents would have to pay about 7k a year just for me...</p>

<p>The other ivies have similar outlooks.</p>

<p>When I fill out Princeton's form though, I don't think I'm making any mistakes, but...</p>

<p>The calculator states that I will receive 1 to 3 thousand dollars. So... my parents have to pay 47k for me?</p>

<p>My parents are divorced, neither are remarried. We live in NJ, my father has 2 young little girls, and I have a brother. Both of us are identical twins, and we both are applying to ivies (both got likely to dart)</p>

<p>My father lives and pays A LOT for mortgage in NJ, I'm not sure how much but it's very high. 1/8ish of his income a year. He makes 110 grand before takes, 100ish after.</p>

<p>My mother lives in a house and pays only roughly a grand a month for her mortgage, receiving the other half from my relative, but she makes 34k a year before taxes and 30k after. COMBINED my parents have about 4-5k in savings. I have $87 in my bank account, my brother has none.</p>

<p>Combined they make about 130 grand a year after taxes with basically no benefits other than my father has dental. Now my brother and I are twins so we are going to college together next year. If we both got into Princeton, the calculator is saying that we would be expected to pay about 90-100k between the two of us. Obviously not even remotely possible. Could Princeton actually expect a family of 130k income, paying for two houses and 2 other children and 2 children are going to college, to pay 10/13th of their income to college? One of us wouldn't be allowed to go if this were true.</p>

<p>I'm not sure if I typed in something wrong, I'm typing this in a rush on a windows ME which is pretty darn laggy, but I'm just really panicky...</p>

<p>At least Dartmouth would expect us to pay 15k-20k... COMBINED...</p>

2

<p>I have come to the conclusion that financial aid is BS.</p>

<p>Someone making 100 grand in NJ is like the equivalant of making 30 grand in AL.</p>

<p>Don't believe me? I have grandparents who live in AL. They make 60k a year combined, pay UNDER A GRAND a year in property taxes, and own over 10 acres. The fact is the economy is different down there, everything is deflated. You can afford JUST AS MUCH, basically more, to live down in AL on 30 grand as you can in NJ on 75 grand. Do colleges take this into account? No, and someone who lives in AL and is relatively wealthy gets a full ride to all the ivies while those of us struggling in NJ have to pay extremely high amounts.</p>

3

<p>20 bucks says you made a mistake. I have a friend here from NJ whose family income is over 200k and he still gets 10k in fin aid. </p>

<p>Check this out, and then try again with the estimator (with a parent sitting next to you). If that yields the same results, call the FA office.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.princeton.edu/admission/financialaid/how_it_works/who_qualifies/PU-aid-appl3.jpg%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.princeton.edu/admission/financialaid/how_it_works/who_qualifies/PU-aid-appl3.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

4

<p>Yeah dude, I must be making a mistake. Even though I plug in all the right info into the calculator, or at least the same I plug into every other calculator.</p>

<p>I've seen that thing before, that's why this is getting me so concerned.</p>

<p>Either way what I said still stands =/ the fact that a 'wealthy' Alabama person gets a free ride while a lower middle-class NJ family can't afford it sometimes is silly =/</p>

<p>I understand it would be IMPOSSIBLE to pay for college if they had to pay the same, but that's the problem... There's no middle ground, you can't expect someone from Alabama to pay the northeast price...</p>

5

<p>I live in NJ, and I got considerably more than that financial aid calculator.</p>

<p>and im a student here now.</p>

6

<p>Princeton doesn't consider home equity in a primary residence. Are you plugging in numbers for that? There is something wrong somewhere. Do you have a grand second home?
Son is a recent Dartmouth grad and daughter is at Princeton. Expect Princeton's aid to be the same or better than Dartmouth's.</p>