<p>Today I got my acceptance from Yale, and along with it I checked online for my financial aid. My parent's EFC is around 12,000 (I don't remember the exact number off the top of my head); however, on my Yale financial aid letter it says my parent's contribution is to be 27,000!!! Am I crazy or was i told that Yale meets 100% of need, and that parents only have to pay their EFC? Am I missing something? Is there some mistake? Basically, I am getting a little scared, because this is quite a bit for my family. Should I call the financial aid office or any other ideas? Thanks.</p>
<p>Yeah, definitely sounds like there’s a problem. Call them up!</p>
<p>Probably some kind of mistake. Call them.</p>
<p>Are you taking the EFC from FAFSA? If so, FAFSA is only for Federal funds, Y uses Profile for institutional funds. While EFCs can be higher or lower on the Profile compared to FAFSA, for many families it is higher due to the Profile taking into account the value of your home and other factors.</p>
<p>Remember, while they provide 100% of need, your need is determined by each individual school.</p>
<p>Definitely call for a clarification, the FA people I’ve talked to are all very helpful.</p>
<p>I do plan on calling Monday when the office opens, but yes I am only talking about my FAFSA EFC. I know that profile also adds in extra assets, but I don’t have any idea how this could have more than DOUBLED my parent’s contribution.
Also, I just received my financial aid packet from Columbia today, and my parent’s contribution there would only be 11,000 (compared to Yale’s 27,000!). Do you think if it is like this at Columbia that Yale possibly made a mistake, considering their similar financial aid philosophies?</p>
<p>Since you have the Columbia offer in hand, frankly you have leverage. Say that another Ivy used the $11K EFC and their FA package reflects this fact. A $16K difference would make Yale untenable. Let them know that nicely and can they re-examine the FA information. Good luck to you. Go Yale!</p>
<p>I agree with T26E4 that the C offer gives you room to ask for a FA review from Y. But I am under the impression that Y generally has a more generous FA policy than C, given the changes they made for middle & upper income families a couple of years ago. That makes me wonder if indeed there was a mistake made somewhere in the Y calculations.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I think there may have been a mistake. I got a financial aid from yale while it said I didn’t qualify for Columbia.</p>
<p>My daughters aid was pretty generous, beat any other “full need” school and I think that is partly because of the no loan, 10% ratio, Yale has. I would call to check on it on Monday to be sure all your paperwork was accurate.</p>
<p>It really sounds like there was a mistake. </p>
<p>Call Monday, be respectful, and explain that you were hoping the package would be better and that when you received Columbia’s you wondered if there had been a mistake. </p>
<p>When DD applied, she had cashed in some savings bonds which made it look like she had received a lot of interest - suggesting a large savings account. One school (not Yale) clearly thought she had tons of money and her expected contribution was very high (She had also worked full-time for a half year, so her salary looked high as well). A quick call and some verification of bonds sold changed the package.</p>
<p>I called this morning, and the lady was actually very rude and annoyed, claiming there was no way they could have made a mistake. But, in the end she said she would check on some things and call back later today. She never called back today, so my mom just ended up writing a formal letter and sending it along with the financial aid review form through email about an hour ago. Hopefully something is done and they don’t get too angry :/</p>
<p>Don’t just write a letter. Call tomorrow and ask to speak with a supervisor. Be prepared to discuss any special circumstances that may have been overlooked or substantive new information that has arisen since you applied.</p>
<p>We will probably call again tomorrow if they don’t call back. We just wrote the letter (actually email) as a supplement. Nothing has changed in my circumstances though. That’s why I find it so weird. We actually brought up that Columbia would only cost 11k, and the lady promptly said we do not care what any other school does. I am just a little put off by the whole thing. I still love Yale of course. I just find it so unfortunate and unexpected from such and amazing institution.</p>
<p>Financial aid is ridiculous, and schools that claim to meet 100% need rarely do. For example, my EFC was around 6-7K. Brown wanted 30 K from me. Columbia and Dartmouth wanted 17K. By comparing my financial aid packages, I can see that they are all significantly off from my EFC, and I did not make any mistakes on my financial aid forms. Obviously, schools determine what your need is. You don’t.</p>
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<p>Absolutely right, and nobody ever said otherwise.</p>
<p>When applying to Private colleges that use the Profile, you don’t have a single EFC, your EFC is whatever each college determines it to be based on their FA policies and calculations. </p>
<p>You may be talking about your EFC as determined by FAFSA, but that only applies to Federal funds. Institutional funds are given using data from the Profile and each school can use your FA information differently, for instance, some cap home equity while others don’t.</p>
<p>As far as meeting 100% of need, they can do so with any combination of grants, WS and loans (although some schools don’t use loans as part of their FA package for some or all students).</p>
<p>I have somewhat of a similar problem, though less extreme (a problem nonetheless!)</p>
<p>My EFC from the FAFSA reported approximately 15k or so, and at Harvard, my parents are expected to pay 16k a year (totally fine with that!). Yale’s expecting ~22k a year, while Princeton is expecting ~28k or so. </p>
<p>Until I received my Harvard FA information, I had been leaning towards Yale, and although I still am 60/40 in favor of Yale, but the extra 5k a year does change up the decision. </p>
<p>Seeing as I’ve gotten into HYP, would I have any leverage to perhaps ask for Yale to match Harvard’s aid scholarship? (I also have a Likely Letter from Yale, if that helps)</p>
<p>I’ve heard stories about people leveraging different schools to get free plane tickets for admit days, but I consider them to be just stories. Your thoughts on my situation?</p>
<p>Edit: Whoa, I didn’t realize how much of a brat I sounded until I read solar18’s appeal thread. I apologize in advance for sounding like some whiny kid!</p>
<p>If you want a plane ticket to Bulldog Days, call your admissions officer and explain that you’re choosing between HYP and don’t have the money to visit. They definitely give plane tickets to BDD to people with financial need.</p>
<p>Harvard and Yale have slightly different FA parameters and Yale will not match Harvard just to match Harvard. BUT you should call the FA office, tell them about the 5K difference and explain why you really can’t afford the extra money. Be respectful and calm and have your parents ready if you don’t have the command of family finances they do. This is one time where it’s OK for your parents to take the lead.</p>
<p>larmonely – you don’t sound whiny at all. Congratulations on those fabulous acceptances. I’ve heard that need based offers from other schools will help you negotiate for more financial aid from the school you would really like to attend.</p>
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<p>I absolutely stunned. I thought the financial aid offices were used to people calling about their financial aid packages. I can’t believe it. I was thinking that the other posters who were telling you to be respectful were doing an overkill but apparently not. All the other stories I’ve heard about contacting financial aid offices regarding packages have made it sound like you could be direct and not ■■■■■ foot around and the interaction could be very straight forward.</p>
<p>Continue with what you are doing. Work with them but if you continue to get this kind of treatment you might want to seriously consider Columbia.</p>
<p>During fr admissions for D1, I called up Y and asked them to review her FA package and mentioned that H & P had offered her more money. They asked me to FAX the other FA offers and ended up increasing their offer by 10k to essentially match the others. If Y really does want you to attend, and the likely letter implies that they do, they may very well match H. </p>
<p>Again, your FAFSA EFC means nothing, don’t bring that up as a reason you want a financial review. My advice would be to concentrate on the FA situation and forget about the plane ticket. That’s a drop in the bucket compared to possibly getting a substantial increase in FA for the next 4 years.</p>
<p>We have found the FA people at Yale to be amazingly helpful. </p>
<p>I am so sorry that you had such a bad experience. I hope you can talk to someone else.</p>