<p>After hearing about Duke's generous financial aid packages, I'll admit that I was a bit shocked to see mine. My parents had a gross income around 135K last year, with an adjusted gross income was around 90K, and all we received was 5.5K in loans and 2.2K in work/study. We have some assets and a reasonably large home value (~500K), but I feel that this package is almost unjustifiably low, especially given much higher grant awards from other schools (10K/year at a peer institution). Duke has been a dream of mine for a long time, but this may make it very difficult to pursue. Am I correct in my surprise here, or am I missing something?</p>
<p>Duke should not have given you 5.5k in loans… are you sure that’s not 5k? Duke caps initial student loan debt at 5k, and then if a student requests it, they will give more. Duke probably added back in a lot of the deducations into the AGI (a bit of CSS profiles do).</p>
<p>You can always ask, but Duke has on their website a policy that they do not match awards from other schools-- a higher award from a peer school is not a reason for them (they say) to reconsider your aid offer.</p>
<p>[Duke</a> Financial Aid: The Financial Aid Guide to Special Circumstances](<a href=“http://www.finaid.duke.edu/forms/online_forms/specialpart1.html]Duke”>http://www.finaid.duke.edu/forms/online_forms/specialpart1.html)</p>
<p>If I had to guess, I would expect that they expect a bit out of savings and that they most definitely gave you a higher ‘need-based’ income than 90k. Look through their policies on special circumstances, and see if any of them apply to your family. Try the NPC on their website again, and if the numbers are way off, review your data again. If you are still puzzled, call your fin aid counselor and ask what they added back in to consider your EFC.</p>
<p>If your parents’ Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) is really $90K, then something is not right. The financial aid formula is primarily income-driven and a good rule of thumb is that your EFC will be 25-30% of AGI. So, with an AGI of $90K, your EFC should not have been higher than approx. $25K. I believe that Duke caps home equity at either 1.5 or 2.5 times your AGI, so even with $200K in HE, you’d still have an EFC of, at worst, $35K, which would give you an FA package of around $25K. There must be something else going on. Are your parent’s small business owners? If so, and if they are reporting a business loss, Duke may be adding back in losses or expenses into your parent’s AGI.</p>
<p>Duke is very straightforward with their FA policies and methods for evaluating need. I would suggest having your parents call the FA office to explain how your need was determined.</p>