<p>We have an opportunity to pay off our home mortgage, with a gift. We're wondering how this would affect our family's Wellesley financial aid package. Does anyone have an idea? Would it probably reduce our financial aid approximately the same amount of the yearly mortgage payment? Is this something that Wellesley would be honest in giving us an idea about?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Contact the Financial Aid office and ask. My D goes to Wellesley, but I work at another university and support the Financial Aid office in their IT needs. Financial Aid is not arbitrary; it is federally regulated and there are rules/formulas for determining need. Our Financial Aid office is required to be audited annually by outside auditors to make sure we are doing everything fairly and consistently; they probably are too.</p>
<p>It is my understanding that Wellesley is a 568 group member and members of this group have agreed to limit their consideration of home equity to 1.2 times yearly income. As suggested, you should confirm this by contacting the financial aid office. Last November I emailed a number of college financial aid offices regarding this issue and received timely responses from most of them.</p>