Financial aid?

<p>Ive looked in a few places but found nothing solid about Chicago's financial aid. How is financial aid at U of C in comparison to say Brown or the other ivy leagues? I will give you some of my stats. 5 family, 90k combined, sister is full time student in college (sdsu) little 6 year old brother. Brown has offered me close to 42k (Im an athlete so I got an early read) Will Chicago be able to get some where close to this mark? Thanks!</p>

<p>Brown has offered you $42k/year? Chicago won't offer you nearly that much. The administration brags about having good financial aid, but frankly, I think it's crap. My family was making less than $20k my first year of college, and my tuition was $20k/year that year. That was before Odyssey, but seeing as how you wouldn't be receiving Odyssey, I doubt they'd give you more than $10k.</p>

<p>By offered I do not mean as in athletic scholarship but rather an offer of 42k in financial aid. That sucks. How in the world did they make your tuition the same price as the total income of your family? That's ridiculous. I really hope things have changed. I know I cant get any Odyssey money, I was just hoping for something around the level of ivies.</p>

<p>The only thing you can do is try and see how it works out. I may have been an unlucky one, and I've heard several cases in which parents or students requested lower tuition and received it. There's also always the possibility that you could receive a merit scholarship.</p>

<p>True but I heard those were reserved for the top of the top. I got the lucky chance of making an official visit to Chicago and on the floor where I stayed, there was a freshman who was working on a 6 page math problem (One problem!). To me that is amazing. I am not to much into math though. I doubt I can go up against someone such as that. Its just that my father hasn't been able to work because of heart problems. Do you believe that if I explain this to the aid office they may be able to take that into consideration? Thanks for all the help phuriku.</p>

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True but I heard those were reserved for the top of the top.

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<p>Not necessarily. Chicago wants students who want to learn. Such students aren't necessarily the smartest ones. Chicago recognizes that those who truly have a passion will make it much farther in the academic world than those with only IQ.</p>

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I got the lucky chance of making an official visit to Chicago and on the floor where I stayed, there was a freshman who was working on a 6 page math problem (One problem!). To me that is amazing. I am not to much into math though. I doubt I can go up against someone such as that.

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<p>Haha. Unless that was Honors Analysis, in which I've personally had the experience of being assigned problems that required 10-page proofs (not claiming that I actually did any of them; Sally's just a sadist), I don't think 6 pages would be necessary unless it were for some kind of research project. I'm a TA for Analysis here, and occasionally, I'll have someone write a 5-or-so-page proof for something that required little more than a few sentences. A friend in Honors Calculus once told me that someone in his class turned in his homework and it turned out to be 24 pages, whereas he proved all of the homework in less than 3 pages.</p>

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Its just that my father hasn't been able to work because of heart problems. Do you believe that if I explain this to the aid office they may be able to take that into consideration?

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<p>Absolutely.</p>

<p>Hahah that was the name of the class! Thanks for all the info.</p>

<p>Machiavelli, where did you stay while on campus?</p>

<p>I was on an official visit so I was able to stay with 2 athletes (i am not sure why but every official visit I have had they split the nights up with different people, prolly cause they get annoyed with recruits). The first night I was at Max. Max is amazing. No where, that I have visited, has such good dorms. And they have a ping pong table ;). The second night I was at BJ. Not as nice as Max but was still good.</p>