<p>I think this is a new policy, but apparently MIT will cover all costs (100%) for families making under ~$75,000/year. Do you think it will be something like 80% for 100,000 and 50% for up to 200,000 (just guessing)? How much have they given out in the past?</p>
<p>You are NOT going to get grant money with $200k family income (unless there are 5 other college kids in your family).
iono for $100k, but from what i heard, the curve of grant money drops pretty steeply after $80k or so family income.</p>
<p>Fat chance.</p>
<p>Um, my parents make $90K and we did not get much this year. ^ she's got the right idea. It's actually kind of upsetting how sharply the "new financial aid initiative" quits on you after 80K. Actually, we used to get better finaid before the change in policy. Don't know if it has anything to do with it.</p>
<p>You are not going to get money from MIT if your parents make >100k. My parents make about 90k a year before taxes and we get nothing due to their retirement funds. When my little brother enters college, I think we're eligible for 5k in financial aid, which is basically all covered by my self-help.</p>
<p>MIT finaid is terrible for middle-class students - our financial aid officer told my family that 'it should be hard to pay for MIT.' Try Harvard or Yale.</p>
<p>Also, note the fine print on the 75k income - with typical assets. Your home equity also gets taken into account if your parents make more than 75k a year, I believe.</p>
<p>Dude, my parents made ~120k and I attended at about half COA. I'm not sure if that would be true under the new system, but income isn't the only thing that's considered.</p>
<p>Princeton is even better than Harvard for high middle ish class.
my friend's parents should earn at least $150k, most likely $200k + , their house is 1 mil+ (princeton doesn't consider equity... lucky them) he got $21k a year, and other people from silicon valley with family income of $150k + and houses of at least 700k ish got 20k grants.
my friend with 20k grant from princeton picked MIT anyways. It is just that awesome.</p>
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Your home equity also gets taken into account if your parents make more than 75k a year, I believe.
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</p>
<p>Under the new policy, home equity doesn't get taken into account until you hit the 100K/year mark.</p>
<p>In any case, as Mollie implied, it's not just about income, it's about assets.</p>
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MIT finaid is terrible for middle-class students
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</p>
<p>While I wish it was better for upper-middle class students...you surely aren't suggesting that 75K/year is lower class, are you? The median gross family income in the US for 2008 (according to however the IRS calculates it) is 61.5K.</p>
<p>In my part of the country, 75k/yr IS lower class due to the high cost of living.</p>
<p>My parents make slightly less than $200k and we're middle-class for our area, if even (we can't afford a house here). We didn't get any grants, even though every other [private] school I applied to gave me need-based grants (almost 1/2 COA for all the privates, ranging from liberal arts schools with tiny endowments to upper Ivy Leagues). I don't think I'd get any aid even if my dad "invested" all of his "income" into his business because my mom still makes >$100k (yea, I'm trying to work the system but it looks like it won't help at all).</p>
<p>If you need aid, don't expect much from MIT.</p>
<p>Because Princeton and other ivies got mentioned, what would be the typical financial aid for parents who make probably about 140k but are also paying for tuition and lives of 5 older sisters and 2 younger siblings (actually, the oldest is married and out of college, but then my parents still take care of 3 at home, myself included)? Where would I get more aid: Princeton, Harvard, Yale, other ivies, MIT, U of Chicago, and other schools of that sort of tier?</p>
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In my part of the country, 75k/yr IS lower class due to the high cost of living.
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<p>The Bay Area is an exception. We're talking about the country in general. And 75k/year is not lower class in the country in general (and anyone who thinks it is might need to get out of their bubble more).</p>
<p>And I'm not even convinced that 75k/year is lower class in the Bay Area. According to San</a> Francisco, California (CA) Detailed Profile - relocation, real estate, travel, jobs, hospitals, schools, crime, news, sex offenders the median household income in San Fransisco in 2005 was $57,496. In Berkeley, it was $48,123. In Mountain View, home of Google and its high salaries, it was $75,411. I will admit that Palo Alto, at $93,400, skews it up a bit, but still.</p>
<p>Dude **** palo alto. it's like so impossible to live there.</p>
<p>I use to be really angry about MIT's Financial Aid for my family (I still am pretty angry). But I came to a simple conclusion. Every year after I graduate I'll set aside a nice pot of money that I would like to donate back to MIT as an alumni. I will then go ahead and donate it back to myself. This will continue until I have <em>donated</em> what I consider would have been fair for MIT to have given me.</p>
<p>(Also, since I won't be given tax breaks for donating to myself, I will penalize MIT for that and my donations will grow slightly to compensate for that).</p>
<p>to make a correction to the interpretation of the new policy. to my understanding of the new policy, for families with annual income less than 75k, MIT covers tuition, not all the costs, so for us on the low, we may still pay up to 10k for room, board and other fees.</p>
<p>The federal poverty guideline is a joke in the California Bay Area. According to this morning's newspaper, the cheapest two-room apartment for rent in the South Bay will cost around $24,000 a year. The federal cut off is somewhere around $21,000. Thus, if you live here and make just one or two thousand a year above that level, you're not only homeless, you're starving to death.</p>
<p>And for a family of four looking to buy a house? It's not possible with an annual income of $75,000 per year here, although that income could provide rather nicely in small communities in Montana, Alabama, or Oklahoma.</p>
<p>In my opinion, FAFSA should take into consideration the local cost of living when calculating aid.</p>
<p>Quoting median household incomes from San Francisco and Berkeley is like declaring that Bay Area folks are "low-income" due to figures from East Palo Alto (East</a> Palo Alto, California - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) - obviously not the case. People live in SF/Berkeley/EPA/etc because they can't afford to live in south bay but work around here. Meanwhile, there are places like Saratoga (Saratoga</a>, California (CA) Detailed Profile - relocation, real estate, travel, jobs, hospitals, schools, crime, news, sex offenders) where houses/condos are 1.5mil on average.</p>
<p>I have teachers who make 75k/yr, and I go to a public high school. Granted, they have worked here for ~10 years, but if a teacher is making that much (alone) and teachers never really make enough to live in the area they're teaching...</p>
<p>Yeah, I'm still bitter.</p>