<p>I am considering applying to Penn ED in November (I absolutely love the school), but I'm worried about financial aid.</p>
<p>My parents are divorced, and I live with my mom (no siblings). Last year, my mom made about 75k in salary and 25k in investments (she'll probably make less this year).</p>
<p>I'm not sure how much my dad makes, but it's at least 130k in salary (he also lives in the OC while we live in an Ohio suburb, so his cost of living is higher than ours). However, he only contributes to our household income through child support.</p>
<p>How does Penn deal with divorced parents, especially the income of the noncustodial parent? My dad is most likely going to help pay for some of my college costs. Do they take situations like that into account or do they assume that the noncustodial parent won't contribute anything besides child support?</p>
<p>Also, I remember at the Penn info session that they said that incomes of less than 90k (I forgot if that was salary only or also investments) don't have to pay tuition, only room and board, etc. Do we qualify for that?</p>
<p>check out the penn website I am sure they have a EFC calculator. You should be able to fill in the data and see what would be expected. I also think Penn uses the Profile form. If they do they certainly will consider your dads income in the equation. The will reconfiquere your parents income as if they were both supporting you and your college costs. They will also take into account any signifficant assests that your parents may own, and if they had 25K in investment income, there is likely significant assests that will come into play. Use the calculators on either the Penn website or at collegeboard. Keep in mind income includes all sources, taxable or not, and in this case it would be from both parents.</p>
<p>Penn will require both your parents to file a profile describing both their incomes and assets … in addition, if either has remarried then Penn will also require your step parents to provide information for you to be eligible for financial aid. One last comment … at an annual income of $230k between your two parents you are unlikely to qualify for aid unless there are some unusual circumstances (multiple kids in college at the same time, huge medical bills, unusual situation in family owned business, etc). </p>
<p>You need your parents to tell you how much they are willing to pay (combined) for college for you. In addition you should run a financial aid forecastor to see if you are likely to qualify for aid. Then you and your parents can develop a plan for your applications. If your parents can/will not pay your expected family contribution then you’ll need to look at less expensive options such as your in-state state schools or schools that give merit aid (none of the Ivies give merit aid).</p>
<p>I’ll try to look more into this, but it seems like I won’t be able to afford Penn. But it was my dream school… well, it’s good that I learned this early on. </p>
<p>Can people who were accepted to Penn tell me how much aid they were offered and what their family circumstances were like?</p>
<p>Dont assume that you wont be able to afford it. Get involved…ask your parents to sit and help with the estimator. You will not know the CORRECT answer until you have the complete financial picture. Also, you still have the option of applying to PENN RD so you can see what the aid is. Ask your parents for help… Financial decisions involve the whole family and they should understand the implications also. Good luck…</p>
<p>Well, I’m pretty sure I’m going to go to medical school. If not, I’ll probably go to at least some form of graduate/professional school. That will be another major expense, and I heard the name of the undergraduate school for premed doesn’t matter as long as you have a good GPA & MCAT score. I wanted to go to Penn though because I thought it would be almost as affordable as a state school, but I guess not.</p>
<p>I think I’ll still apply RD. Is it harder to get in RD, even if you’re not a legacy or recruited athlete? I know they fill up 50% of the class ED, and the ED acceptance rate is higher. I don’t know if that’s because of the legacies & athletes and because more qualified applicants apply early or because they’re actually more lenient.</p>
<p>I was in the same situation, decided not to apply ED, and am still waiting on the waitlist, but it seems like my Penn dream is something I’ll have to save for grad school. I only got into two other schools that used the CSS Profile (most of the schools that I applied to were public) and received no need-based financial aid from either because of my father’s high income. One of the schools is notoriously stingy and the other gave me a scholarship, but I doubt I would have received aid from Penn. However, I did receive need-based financial aid from all the public schools that I applied to as an out-of-state applicant, even though those schools do not meet full need for out-of-state students. When your parents are divorced and your custodial parent has a lower income, FAFSA vs. CSS Profile makes a huge difference.</p>
<p>If I were you, I’d definitely apply to Penn regular decision but also keep my eyes open for out-of-state public schools that are of Penn’s academic caliber that may offer you more financial aid because of the FAFSA. The only OOS public that I applied to that I wanted to attend was William and Mary (which I will be attending next year =) but had I known my financial aid from the FAFSA would be so much better, I probably would have considered and applied to UVa, UNC-Chapel Hill, UCLA and UC-Berkely. How far you want to go from home should be a consideration, but if your parents are divorced, I highly suggest going the OOS public route if financial aid is a concern.</p>