<p>I read on a post here on CC about someone who got full/near-full financial aid to all three of these schools, and the applicant was from a middle-class family. I thought these schools, while their financial aid is usually great for middle-class families, still didn't offer full financial aid.</p>
<p>** I just realized the title is misleading; it should be financial aid, not scholarships.</p>
<p>Harvard tends to offer full financial aid to students of families with an income under $60k (or more, if there are other factors, like multiple children in college). Many parts of the country would consider that middle class, depending on a particular situation.</p>
<p>It can also depend on what you consider to be “middle class”. Income $50k per year? $70k per year? $125k per year?</p>
<p>Also, the student may have had a sibling in college.</p>
<p>Harvard’s general rule of thumb is that you will pay 10% of parents’ income if it is between $60,000 and $180,000.</p>
<p>I knew a family whose student did get a generous financial aid package from Harvard even though they seemed well to do… The student had two half siblings, a step sibling and a sibling all in college. That reduced the contribution quite a bit the student. Many people were unaware of the steps and the halves and when word got out, it caused a stir.</p>
<p>Oh, I see. Where I live, people consider middle class to be around the $100k range, so I get it now. Thanks, everyone!</p>
<p>Really, trying to count other people’s money is a rather futile pursuit since it doesn’t get you anything and you never know if you have all of the fact or the correct facts. I have friends who are very cavalier about college expenses. They live a good upper middle class life and seem to be able to afford things very easily. Yet their kids got financial aid. Puzzling since we are struggling to meet our commitments and my DH has a high paying job, we live in similar cost homes, have many similar situations and I don’t spend money on nice things, cars, vacations, decor as she does.</p>
<p>The thing is, her family, and her husband’s family help out a lot. Need a new car? Get grandmoms 3 year old one since she gets a new one each year. Vacation is on grandparent’s tab. The down payment on the house was probably heavily subsidized by grandparents and who knows if they even own the house? We went out for a lovely birthday lunch last month, and she wanted to go to a very expensive place downtown. I wanted a $10 lunch. She had gotten a $1000 check to spend on herself from her sister. So she can afford a day in the city, a top drawer lunch place complete with cocktails, a spa day, her hair done, her nails manicured and a new outfit to boot. And treat me to lunch as well. We are not on the same playing field. </p>
<p>They have 2 in college who are at top full need met schools and the girls are getting financial aid. The older one will do a fifth year, so they will have 3 in college next year, and the one applying to college now who is a great candidate for highly selective school will probably get a nice financial aid package. My sons will get very little, if anything. We only qualify for need if my younger son picks a school with a COA over $50K. Realistically, what do you think we are going to get? The boys will get some subsidy on Staffords maybe. We just are not on the same financial playing field.</p>
<p>Sigh. $100,000 is not middle-class income. It’s 85th percentile. Well, well above “middle.”</p>
<p>The middle quintile is $35,000-$55,000.</p>
<p>Middle class income for parents with college aged kids is a different set of statistics than the country as a whole. But, yes, families who make $100K are not considered middle income. But look at what the incomes are for those families who are paying $50K+ per year for college without financial or merit money.</p>
<p>Those are household income statistics, not individual.</p>
<p>I’m really sorry if I came off the wrong way; I didn’t mean to put down people or elevate my community, nor was I intending to attack those who did get full financial aid to such schools. Many people perceive the middle class differently in my community and I’d incorrectly assumed that those qualities more or less constituted the middle class throughout the nation, but I know better now. Thanks for your help in answering my question.</p>
<p>That’s all I wanted to do, correct the misconception re: middle class lines :)</p>
<p>It’s income AND assets…so you could have have two families…both have income of $100,000 and they could get entirely different aid even from HYP. ONe family might own a business and one family could have just income from salaries. One family could have saved in non-retirement vehicles like real estate and the other family could have saved only in retirement vehicles. Don’t mistake what that statement from HYP actually means.</p>
<p>
Why do you insist on defining the “middle” in middle class in rigid mathematical terms of the 40th-60th percentiles of income spread?</p>
<p>Economists and sociologists don’t use this as a definition. I doubt people making $35K self-identify as “middle-class”. In many parts of this country you cannot live what is typically considered a “middle-class” lifestyle on $35K, or even $55K.</p>
<p>From <a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_middle_class[/url]:”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_middle_class:</a>
</p>
<p>These all put “middle class” in the $75,000-$100,000 range.</p>
<p>
Not technically accurate. At 60k it starts at 0%, then slowly increases, until it reaches 10% at 120k, then stays at that point for a while.</p>
<p>Everyone likes to think of self as middle class. It’s a broad range and it depends on a lot of thing. I have middle class friends whose kids qualified for PELL and lived in a half million dollar house. Some considered them rich, some considered them poor.</p>