<p>I've heard that if you check off the box on your application indicating that you will be applying for financial aid, that goes against you. Is it true that you have a better chance of getting in if you say that you're not applying for aid? Any comments on this?</p>
<p>That's not true; Harvard is need-blind.</p>
<p>The way things are going these days, it might even be a point in your favor!</p>
<p>In my opinion, I think this only discourages families from saving. Had my father known that he would have been able to take advantage of this, he would have blown his savings away and we could have enjoyed ourselves while Harvard picked up the tab. Instead, he worked tirelessly to save up to pay for an ivy league education while those who didn't have the forsight to do so are now being rewarded. Also there really is no incentive to work hard -the difference between making 60k and 110k are virtually insignificant. In one case the parent pays nothing, in the latter case the parent ends up paying almost all of it.</p>
<p>Obviously there are exceptions to this rule but someone making 60-80k a year has no excuse for not saving up for their child's college.</p>
<p>Also, it encourages the hiding of assets and playing with the FAFSA - I know of people here whose parents have BMWs and a big house but gets 20k/yr in aid while someone much worse off gets nothing. Granted, I don't know everything about their financial situation but they must doing something to their assets to evade detection.</p>
<p>chewy, while I would argue with your blanket statement that "someone making 60-80k a year has no excuse for not saving up for their child's college" (circumstances vary much too widely for that to hold, and in any case, the saving you can do at that level may be just a drop in the bucket), in principle you are absolutely right. The poor and the rich come out okay in this. The responsible and thrifty middle class is stung hard for their efforts, while those of the same income level who are either simply spendthrift or who plan ahead and arrange their assets as "non-includable" can come out okay, too. </p>
<p>I know of a case very similar to your dad's. A friend and his wife with relatively meager income managed to put away $80,000 for their son's college. Super grades, super ACT scores, etc, so he was accepted at every first-tier private that he applied to. No merit, they all saw the $80,000 on the forms, and claimed it as theirs. Fair enough, it was clearly earmarked for college. But then the schools wanted <em>more</em>, and there was nothing left to get that more from. They ended up going rather severely in debt. As their retirement looms, they feel like fools for being so thrifty and above board with the college funds.</p>
<p>Something is wrong here, because the financial aid methods only "claim" a rather small percentage of a PARENT's total assets. (A much larger percentage of a child's total assets are considered to be available for college expenses.) If the parents worked hard, and saved, and put all those assets in their child's name, that was simply a financial planning mistake, as anyone advising them would have told them to keep those assets in their own name. See </p>
<p>and </p>
<p><a href="http://568group.org/%5B/url%5D">http://568group.org/</a> </p>
<p>for possibly more detail than anyone wants to know about the general principles of financial aid. And, DEFINITELY, don't give up until making your own specific application to the best school your child is admitted to--let the financial aid office there show what is possible in your particular financial circumstances. There is a HUGE difference between the schools that offer "merit" aid to some applicants (Harvard is not one of those schools, and this is the Harvard forum) and schools like Harvard that offer financial aid (that is, reductions of list price) on the basis of financial need). There aren't a lot of admitted Harvard applicants at any level of income who turn down their offers of admission, and there aren't a lot of admitted students who fail to graduate, and there aren't a lot of Harvard graduates who have very much debt when they graduate.</p>
<p>
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Something is wrong here, because the financial aid methods only "claim" a rather small percentage of a PARENT's total assets.
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Unfortunately, I can recount from my own experience as a parent that that is definitely not the case, certainly not always. The EFC we've been given by several schools would drain our savings to near nil, and make for unpleasant retirement.</p>
<p>As for the bit about poor financial planning, you're right, and that was my point. The parents went the "straight" route of earmarking savings for college. Had those same savings been handled differently, they would have been available if needed, but far less exposed.</p>
<p>Financial experts tell us we should have 6 months of living expenses saved for emergencies ( layoffs , etc) . Those funds can't really be sheltered in "retirement" accounts because then what good would they be in an emergency. The EFC basically expects you to deplete your savings to pay for college - very shortsighted because what happens in the 2, 3 or 4th year and with additional children. They act like all of the savings just appeared overnight rather than the result of years of scrimping. I am sure my efc would be lower in future years, but my security is not worth blowing it all in a year or two.
I just think that everybody assumes that those who do not qualify for financial aid have it easy - and that isn't exactly reality.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The EFC basically expects you to deplete your savings to pay for college - very shortsighted because what happens in the 2, 3 or 4th year and with additional children. They act like all of the savings just appeared overnight rather than the result of years of scrimping. I am sure my efc would be lower in future years, but my security is not worth blowing it all in a year or two.
I just think that everybody assumes that those who do not qualify for financial aid have it easy - and that isn't exactly reality.
[/quote]
It sure isn't. There are breaks built in for years 2-3-4, and also for number of children. But neither is large enough to completely avoid financial misfortune, and as far as I've been able to tell, no account is taken of possible education expenses post-bachelor.</p>
<p>How many of the people posting in this thread are speaking specifically of Harvard offers of financial aid for student applicants to Harvard admitted this year? Is there possibly a big difference between what Harvard offers for class of 2010 and what is offered by other schools? (Many other schools are known to "gap," while Harvard purports to meet demonstrated financial need fully.)</p>
<p>Why couldn't Harvard have made this announcement before 2006-2007 application deadlines?</p>
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Why couldn't Harvard have made this announcement before 2006-2007 application deadlines?
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Good question.</p>
<p>All the schools (including Yale, Stanford, Penn, MIT, etc) that announced changes in financial aid plans for next year did so in conjunction with signoffs for the FY 2007 budget year beginning 7.1.2006</p>
<p>While these announced changes were too late to affect applications for the Class of 2010, they WERE made in time for 2010 admits to evaluate when deciding where to enroll.</p>
<p>hmm.. over $120,000.. do you pay full amount?</p>
<p>Harvard financial aid has been good enough to be worth applying for for years. Apply and find out what the results is in your particular case has been a good strategy for a long time.</p>
<p>great, i might apply Harvard ED instead of Princeton then.</p>
<p>Harvard isn't even ED. Harvard lets you apply early to Harvard on a nonbinding basis. Harvard's way of doing things is called "single-choice early action" (SCEA), and is the same way Yale and Stanford do early round admission applications.</p>
<p>betterday55, before deciding that Harvard is a better deal financially consider whether your family has assets in addition to income. Harvard portrays itself as having an income-based test, when in fact in takes assets into consideration. That is, Harvard's representation that families earning less than $60,000 go to Harvard for free is not true -- families under this income level with some undisclosed level of assets go to Harvard for free. I believe that Princeton may be significantly more favorable from a financial viewpoint if your family has assets. but followup research would tell you this.</p>
<p>The only way to know for sure what school "A" will give you vs, school "B" is to apply to both, gain admission, and compare the aid offers side by side. </p>
<p>I have been collecting reports from applicants, and so far this year, it looks like the Harvard offers are hard to beat.</p>
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The only way to know for sure what school "A" will give you vs, school "B" is to apply to both, gain admission, and compare the aid offers side by side.
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</p>
<p>Amen to that. Actuality trumps theory every time. Rather than trade anecdotes about different families with different circumstances who weren't even admitted to the school you desire, apply to the school(s) you desire and then see exactly what is on offer in your case.</p>