<p>Personally, I was very surprised (in a good way). My parents make about 140k / year. Duke gave me around 38K/year in aid (5000 are loans).</p>
<p>This means my parents will pay around 20K a year, I'll contribute 2K from summer earnings, and I'll graduate 20K in debt. According to me, that's pretty good (unless I'm being oblivious to something...)!</p>
<p>What do you guys think about Duke's aid?</p>
<p>It was almost identical to the net price calculator, so no surprises.</p>
<p>Duke gave me the best financial aid of any school thus far, tied with WUSTL. It exceeded Columbia, Brown, U Chicago, etc…Pleasantly surprised.</p>
<p>40k/year grants+work study then 5k in loans. Parents make 100-120k and have a sibling in college (graduating next year so I’m worried that I might get significantly less financial aid in future years)</p>
<p>Emc2Fma, that is great financial aid. We are on the other end. We made $150k because of a bonus. My daughter only received $13,000 including the loan. Did your parents have savings for college?
The only complaint I have is that any outside scholarships won’t count toward EFC. They subtract them from your Duke aid.</p>
<p>delaney05 - if you aren’t aware - if Duke is awarding any federal aid (subsidized loan or work study), by law they have to reduce your aid if you receive outside scholarships. Otherwise they would be guilty of giving you an “overaward”, which would run afoul of federal aid policies. However, you should know that Duke will let you determine how to apply your outside scholarships to their aid package. They will let you reduce self-help aid first (loans and work study) before they will, at last resort, reduce their grant money.</p>
<p>Would Duke apply the $2500 from NMS toward the the loan rather than the work study?</p>
<p>ace550 - Yes, Duke will let you choose the self-help aid to which you want to apply the NMF scholarship. I believe their default policy is to apply it towards reducing the loan first, then the work study. But you should clarify with them and let them know what your preference is.</p>
<p>Dukedad, Thanks. That is great and we will confirm that. I would like my boy to work if it is not too overwhelming.</p>
<p>EMC2, That is a great package if you do not have sibling in college.</p>
<p>Emc2Fma, does your family have another sibling in college, or any significant debt? My parents make about $160k/year, and only received an aid package of $7500/year, entirely in the form of loans and work-study money. I’m wondering if we filled out something wrong on the forms, or if the aid levels really do drop that quickly after a certain point. With our current aid package, I’m not certain if attendance is a worthwhile investment, which kills me because Duke is far and away the college I most want to attend. :/</p>
<p>Be careful when you talk about how much y’all make, especially if your parents own their own business or put away significant money for retirement. I am fairly certain (based on how my loan was awarded), that Duke adds in retirement contributions and business deductions into AGI for your ‘actual’ income.</p>
<p>Asong,</p>
<p>Did you compare your package with NPC?</p>
<p>Duke was the worst FA package - awarded zero. Princeton and Vandy each offered over 30k. All on the same numbers. Strange, but it totally knocked Duke from consideration for us.</p>
<p>@Delaney & asong,</p>
<p>I talked to my parents and it turns out I overestimated our income after taxes. After taxes, our income is closer to 120k / year. I don’t have another sibling in college. My parents have about 75k in savings but they don’t plan on using them for college. </p>
<p>We have a mortgage on our house if that’s what you mean by “significant debt”.</p>
<p>^^FYI, “after-tax” income is meaningless when it comes to financial aid evaluation. Schools look at pre-tax income, specifically Adjusted Gross Income (AGI), while also adding back in current-year retirement contributions and business losses. Also, they don’t consider debt when evaluating need either. They look at home equity when evaluating assets, but consumer debt (whether it be credit card, mortgage, etc) is not a factor in the financial aid formulas</p>
<p>While Duke considers home equity in assets, other colleges don’t. Some colleges look at assets as a % of income others have dollar amount limits before they consider assets. You really have to go to each college net price calculator to get a feel for their policies. And even then some college calculators aren’t as accurate as they should be. My dad put me through the process for each and every school I was considering and it was a great learning experience.</p>
<p>I tried to use DUKE calculator with mortgage and without mortgage (Payoff), got same net price, I really don’t know how DUKE considers home equity in assets.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I’m fairly certain Duke does not consider home equity in assets when it’s the primary residence. However, they consider it if it’s a second home or non-primary residence of the student.</p>
<p>We are a two-income family with both parents employed in W-2 positions with relatively stable income. We have two children in college and no exceptionally unusual financial circumstances.</p>
<p>We found Duke’s FA package to be the most generous need-based package offered from a field of eight acceptances.</p>
<p>We also found Duke’s NPC to be accurate within a few hundred dollars.</p>
<p>For what it is worth, my understanding is that Duke includes home equity for the primary residence in FA calculations, but only after a fairly large exemption (perhaps $500k).</p>
<p>^Ok, I was really curious, so I looked it up:</p>
<p>“Home equity is included in the institutional methodology asset analysis, although it is excluded from the federal methodology analysis. The amount of home equity considered is capped based on the parent income level . Retirement funds such as 401k, 403b, and IRA accounts are excluded from consideration under both methodologies.”</p>
<p><a href=“http://dukefinancialaid.duke.edu/documents/policies/policies_ch6.pdf[/url]”>http://dukefinancialaid.duke.edu/documents/policies/policies_ch6.pdf</a></p>
<p>I guess it is included in the institutional methodology but not federal. There is some cap used though…Looks like rmldad knows what he’s talking about. ;)</p>