<p>How much can I expect to receive if my parents earn about 140,000 combined? The thing is, the income hasn't been like this for a long time so savings are not as high as they would have been.</p>
<p>When in doubt apply and see. But my guess is that the answer could be -- not much, if anything, unless there are other countervailing factors (significant debt and expenses , other kids in college, medicals, and no other assets). SFS tries to be helpful though so see what they have to say. </p>
<p>I don't know what my family's circumstances were other than income, but when I applied, my parents had about that income and I attended at about half cost of attendance. Some of my package was composed of grants and some was composed of loans.</p>
<p>My family makes ~$200k, I think, I don't know exact numbers, but paying full tuition for MIT really would put a strain on the finances as my sister and I both attend private school at 30k per year (and she's still in middle school). Also, we live in a really really expensive area where the cost of living is one of the highest in the country.</p>
<p>Do you think MIT would take all of this into consideration and possibly give me some financial aid, including loans/job?</p>
<p>I am no expert or FinAid counselor, but I believe MIT is very generous for students from families with incomes of about $150,000 or less. I think it's unlikely to expect help otherwise. My son is a freshman, and I have three other children including a junior at the University of Florida; I was told by a counselor at MIT that we would be very unlikely to qualify for aid because of the mutiplicity of children; the decision seems to be primarily income-based. However, you should try to emphasize special circumstances like this, also a significant decrease in assets due to the economic crisis, etc. There's always "private" loans, but these are more difficult to get in today's environment.</p>
<p>I agree with neuron39 about likely aid for families earning above $150,000, but I still urge you to contact Financial Aid directly. Also, regardless of family earnings, it's a great idea to apply for financial aid, because then the entire family will be able to see what MIT thinks the family should contribute and what the student should contribute. There are many employment opportunities on the MIT campus, so students can always work. My daughter took a deskworker job the first semester, checking out hockey equipment. Things were so slow that she was able to complete her entire math psets during work hours (while earning a bit over $9 per hour). In the spring, she landed a paid UROP at $12 per hour. She worked 9-10 hours per week as a freshman.</p>
<p>To underline what CalAlum is saying, you don't have to be on financial aid to get a paying campus job at MIT. I made enough at my campus jobs all four years (library freshman year, then UROP afterward) to pay for most of my food and all of my entertainment expenses.</p>
<p>If a family earns about $150,000/year and ask 50K a year how do they expect people to pay for this? And what is the 36K tuition actually paying for? All I can think of is teacher salaries, maintainence, and smaller random little things. Is there just like a group of people who just keep the rest for themselves? I just don't understand where all this money is going to.</p>
<p>No, MIT, like other universities, is a nonprofit organization.</p>
<p>Educating undergraduates actually costs a lot more than the tuition charged at a university, so everybody's education is subsidized, even if they aren't on financial aid.</p>
<p>Susan Hockfield, the MIT president, says
<p>Eighty-five percent of our undergraduates major in science or engineering, with course work that requires state-of-the-art laboratories. Most also engage in hands-on research, side-by-side with our faculty: 85% of undergraduates participated directly in research at the frontiers of knowledge through the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP). Needless to say, this is a labor-intensive, equipment-rich and inherently expensive proposition, so expensive that our full "sticker price" tuition actually represents less than half of what it costs to educate an undergraduate at MIT.
</p>
<p>More from Dr. Hockfield can be found [url=<a href="http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/finaid/financial_aid/mits_president_announces_our_p.shtml%5Dhere%5B/url">http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/finaid/financial_aid/mits_president_announces_our_p.shtml]here[/url</a>].</p>
<p>Seriously contact the Financial Aid office, if you do not think that you can afford to go to MIT on what they are offering you. The one key success factor for the Financial Aid office is to ensure that everyone who gets accepted to MIT can afford to go there. </p>
<p>They take a wide variety of factors into account. Indeed the MIT office has been leading the world in taking local environment into account in working out family circumstances (eg USD$100,000 in annual income means different things in Lima, Peru (where you would live very well) than it does in say London, England or Tokyo, Japan. </p>
<p>If you do not feel that you can afford to go to MIT given the FA offer you can (and probably should) challenge the award offer. If however, you could afford to pay that sum, but would rather not do so, then you are unlikely to get much support.</p>