https://admission.princeton.edu/cost-aid/financial-aid-estimator
With $200,000 income, $36,000 federal income tax, California, homeowner, family of 3, 48 year old parents, 1 in college…
… with $603,300 in financial assets => $10 in grants
… with $600,000 in financial assets => $810 in grants
… with $500,000 in financial assets => $7,210 in grants
… with $300,000 in financial assets => $19,910 in grants
… with $100,000 in financial assets => $32,610 in grants
It’s a misconception that either you’d have to be super rich or super poor to be able to afford a place like Princeton or other elite schools with large endowments and that those in the middle are squeezed with financial burden. Sure, the middle and upper middle class are financially burdened, but it’s often not more than what it cost at in-state public schools.
As a personal example, we had an atypical financial situation that ballooned our income to around $250K when my son was applying to colleges. We were worried that we reached the “full-pay” status with that level of income. However, to our surprise, Princeton gave us approximately $25K in grant money. What’s even more surprising is that Princeton’s offer wasn’t the most generous. Out of seven private schools that accepted my son, Princeton came in at 4th. Another Ivy was the most generous with the EFC that was only $5K more than our flagship in-state school. My son is taking a gap year and therefore we’re reapplying for FA come January but this time with our typical income, which should lower our EFC. My estimation is that our EFC for Princeton, which is the school that my son committed to, should be about the same as our in–state public school.
Oops, I forgot to add that what I wrote above was with one sibling in college.
Here’s a related article, “Pell Grant shares at top-ranked colleges: A sortable chart”
I believe Princeton doesn’t take into consideration equity on a primary home as well. And @ucbalumnus once a parent is over 50 retirement assets are computed differently - but don’t quote me on that.
Tigger – in your examples, does “financial assets” include home equity or not? Does it include retirement assets or not?
$500k excluding those things (basically cash in the bank) is a very different picture than $500k including those things.
Because I had to do two or three separate FA applications for multiple schools at the time, one of which was Princeton’s own FA, I’m all mixed up right now. In fact, I didn’t even know Princeton had their own FA application until they notified me some time in late Feb or March. I’ve been meaning to do NPC for Princeton, so I’ll give you an update in a few days.
Looking at what ucbalumnus posted above, however, I’m inclined to think that “financial assets” is more like income in order to make a sense of my experience. If by financial assets that include both our retirement savings, investments and home equity, there’s simply no way that Princeton would have given us $25K. The assets must have been computed differently, say, certain percentage. I’ll be able to give you more accurate info once I’m done with the NPC.
Mega-rich HYPS may provide some meaningful aid up at the $200k income level, but there’s few other places that do that.
Let’s take a look at top 20 Notre Dame, which is rich but not Princeton rich. They present their data (link below) in a pretty helpful way for purposes of this discussion. And ND’s data clearly shows you where the donut hole is.
According to that NY Times database, the median parent income level at ND is $191k (Princeton’s is $186k). Both schools have 44% of their students from the top 5% in income.
According to ND’s numbers, 51% of ND 2020 freshmen were full payors at $65k a year. That tells you that median income families ($191k) is around where the full pay line begins.
No one at $250k income gets FA with only one kid in college. And the median aid for $200-250k is $22k (25/75 aid range is $11-29k). While ND does not count retirement assets, it does count home equity as an asset. So the ND formulas expect that those $200k families will be borrowing against home equity to send Junior to South Bend.
The donut hole begins at around $175-200k and probably lasts until $400k or so.
http://financialaid.nd.edu/prospective-students/funding/parent-income-range-over-200-000/
Just filled out the Princeton estimator for family of 4 in TN, both parents working full time making combined $200K, with one child in private school, owning their own home, with $20K in total savings, no other assets or income.
Total Aid: $0
By the way, they don’t even ask total retirement savings or home value.
“By the way, they don’t even ask total retirement savings or home value.”
That was my vague recollection, but I didn’t want to say anything without a full knowledge. But I’m surprised that your total aid is $0. I’ll do my NPC asap.
Amherst has a similar policy and they call it “High-Need Affirmative”.
https://www.amherst.edu/amherst-story/magazine/issues/2011summer/nationalinterest
As @tiggerdad alluded to, the definition of “need blind” there is:
No not “blind” but rather, “does not count against”. But it’s gone further since then to it being an actual admissions tip.
Perhaps Princeton is trying to do something similar to
I think Princeton is a little late to the party, as Amherst, Vassar, Columbia and others led the way earlier, but hey, glad to see it there now.
@NashvilletoTexas I’d double check your inputs because that doesn’t sound correct unless there is something else we don’t like your child having large monetary assets. See ucbalumnus post above. It would seem you’d fall into the 32Kish realm. Did you do FAFSA and what was your EFC?
I did $200k income ($170k AGI); family of 4 in CA; $36k in taxes; one kid in college. $130k in assets (excluding home equity and excluding retirement).
$31k scholarship. $37k EFC.
Still not easy though. Princeton doesn’t require the family to tap home equity (which most schools would) or drain retirement accounts. But the family does have to spend its current savings down to zero. Since the family now has zero savings, a good chunk of current income has to be used to save for college for kid #2.
The family could do that. But many would take a merit money deal somewhere else instead. And recognize that Princeton would be about as good as the aid would ever get.
P.S. If the annual income goes up to $250k, scholarship is $14k.
Full pay at $300k.
The games admissions play is all about stats and window dressing. They calculate how many pell grant kids they want to accept to make the stats or prove a narrative they wish to put forth but deny a whole bunch of middle class kids who just cannot afford the price. So you have what mirrors society. Poor and rich together but very few in the middle.
FWIW, our hypothetical $200k family above gets a $12.5k scholarship at Notre Dame vs. $31k at Princeton (which schools basically cost the same). The difference is almost entirely that ND counts home equity as an asset (I used $300k) and Princeton doesn’t.
The donut hole exists at HYPS, but it really exists once you come down from the tippy top heights.
I’m actually a little surprised at how much P does for families up at this income level. Looks like they have pushed the full pay line to more like $300k as compared to the $200k line you see at most other top 20 schools.
I guess that’s what a gazillion dollar endowment will do for you.
https://admission.princeton.edu/cost-aid/financial-aid-numbers
Financial Aid by the Numbers
Students admitted to the Class of 2021 who applied for aid with family incomes up to $160,000 typically pay no tuition.
Approximately 60 percent of undergraduates receive financial aid.
An estimated 161 million in grant funds will be awarded to over 3,100 undergraduates in 2017-18.
The average grant for the Class of 2021 was $50,600, which covers 100 percent of Princeton tuition.
For families making up to $65,000 per year, the aid package covers full tuition, residential college fee, room and board.
22 percent of students in the Class of 2021 receive Federal Pell Grants.
For the Class of 2021, 100 percent of families making up to $180,000 per year qualified for financial aid.
In the last decade, the amount of our average need-based grant increased by more than 90 percent, about twice as much as the amount of tuition increases for the same period.
82 percent of recent seniors graduated debt free. For seniors who borrowed, the average total indebtedness at graduation was $8,900.
By the way, Princeton’s endowment is $1.6B richer from the previous year due to 12.5% investment gain. Some of that money will go toward their planned increase (8.7%) in undergrad financial aid:
https://www.princeton.edu/news/2017/10/09/princeton-endowment-earns-125-percent-return
Very interesting comment considering nowhere in @3puppies post, or anywhere previous was race mentioned. Thanks for the solid data based on the one URM that you know there though. And way to conflate “Pell eligible” with “URM”.
Let me say that @3puppies URM got that boost almost certainly for football, not his URM status, as the latter is carefully measured and codified in Ivy athletic recruiting rules. Stats are no doubt way low for many recruited football players. The AI wouldn’t exist if they all had Ivy stats.