<p>Yes. No one has filed fafsa yet, but you should file the css profile as soon as possible given as its already due.</p>
<p>I've had several of my friends go the negotiation route and have come out very pleased after starting out with what was a pretty sub-par offer (according to them). Call the FinAid office, explain your situation and what you were expecting vs. what you received, and be polite, and I'm guessing you'll see some changes.</p>
<p>harvard wins most of the dual-admits (H&S). i wonder if it is due to financial aid or name-brandedness....actually, i guess it could also be somewhat geographical because most likely a disproportionate number of dual-admits come from the northeast.</p>
<p>I'm refering to a question someone else posted. </p>
<p>I was admitted SCEA but I haven't submitted the CSS yet.
Does this mean that I can't get financial aid?</p>
<p>My parents make less than 60k ... </p>
<p>But I didn't file the CSS and I'm waiting to file the FAFSA when it becomes available.</p>
<p>Can I still get the benefits?</p>
<p>Yes. Just file it sometime before March/April. You'll get aid don't worry =)</p>
<p>Baelor, did you run family income and assets on an EFC calculator? Our expected FAFSA and PROFILE EFC were both about 30% of gross income for one student in college. Yes, it is a real shock getting those numbers. I hope you and your parents have discussed finances before now -- or if you haven't, better do it immediately so you have some financial safeties to apply to before deadlines hit in 10 days or so.</p>
<p>Thanks Morsmordre ! : ]</p>
<p>
[quote]
Harvard promises that any family making below 180k only has to pay 10 percent of the total cost (quoting what I remember from an admission officer here, so I don't know if that is exactly right). But of course, getting into Harvard in the first place is probably getting too far ahead of myself.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure that the policy is that a family making under 180k pays a maximum of 10% of its annual income.</p>
<p>For families making in excess of 100k both Harvard and Yale are CLEARLY SUPERIOR to Stanford. On the other hand, Stanford is better than MIT Duke and Northwestern. BTW the negotiating and offer matching thing is disturbing. Why should what you get depend on where else you applied and how much you b***h?</p>
<p>
[quote]
For families making in excess of 100k both Harvard and Yale are CLEARLY SUPERIOR to Stanford.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>No, that's not necessarily true. Stanford doesn't have an explicit, institutionalized policy on families making above 100k, but it does remain competitive with HYP there. Before, Stanford had said families making even 150k would have significantly reduced tuition. Just look at past Yale vs. Stanford threads or Harvard vs. Stanford threads; you won't see "better financial aid" as a reason very much, if at all.</p>
<p>The OP should understand that at "Profile" schools income may not be the main determinant of aid. Assets, including retirement accounts, are taken into account. If your parents have significant home equity or investment assets somewhere, or if they own a business especially, EFC may have little or nothing to do with family income.</p>
<p>Stanford is a "Profile" school, but does not include formal retirement assets in the calculation of the parent contribution. Home equity is capped at 1.2 times income. I agree with JHS that the amount of investment assets and/or owning of a business can give you more than the typical assets for a family's income range, thus causing aid to be lower, or even non-existent.</p>
<p>The OP said that he was offered basically no aid, and that his family would have to pay over 1/4 of their income. If COA is around $52K, it sounds like the family income is around $200K.</p>
<p>It is assumed that most families, especially those with higher incomes, have been saving money for a college fund in previous years to help with tuition/room, board, etc. </p>
<p>If our family had that income, we could have saved up for our S's Stanford education in two years.</p>
<p>Thank you gladmom and JHS.</p>
<p>As I said, my parents were not surprised. We have a 529 plan that will cover almost an entire year.</p>
<p>However, it is difficult for us to 'save' per se because my sister and I are both in private schools (this is because the public education system is somewhat lacking). But we already have the equivalent of the tuition "saved" for each year.</p>
<p>If we add one-fourth of the 529 plan, we have about 25k per year remaining to pay.</p>
<p>That theoretically shouldn't be hard to come up with, but the area in which we live still has inflated real estate (the whole region). So our huge house loan (we moved here somewhat recently) needs to be paid off, and dipping into the equity is possible, but risky.</p>
<p>gladmom, a Stanford education is 200k. What do you mean, you could have saved up in two years? Spend nothing? I don't understand.</p>
<p>Baelor, What I meant was that our income is around $100K. If our income was $200K and we still lived as frugally as we do, we would have $100K extra a year for college expenses, which would mean that we could have $200K saved up in 2 years. </p>
<p>I realize that when income is higher, people usually spend more. It is difficult to save, and most people don't save much at all.</p>
<p>Because we saved money for college funds, our assets are somewhat above the Stanford assigned typical assets for our income, we don't get the zero tuition that Stanford offers for incomes $100K and below. It is a substantial cut, however, and we are able to pay the bill with our savings and not cut into our monthly income.</p>
<p>As I said before, if my S were attending our state flagship, he'd be paying the full COA of about $27K per year. So it is cheaper for him to attend Stanford. There are only a few other schools in this country that could offer him such great FA.</p>
<p>Best of luck to you in being able to pay for the college of your choice.</p>
<p>Many who "saved" money for college tuition, though, are being hit if that money was almost anywhere except under their pillowcases. (Yes, there were money markets, etc., but the safe havens generallt didn't keep pace with the annual tuition increases.)</p>
<p>gladmom: If your income was $200K, and you lived as frugally as you do, you would likely have around $55,000 extra savings per year, not $100,000. Remember, you would have state and federal income taxes, social security taxes, and phase-out of tax benefits.</p>
<p>True, CM, and that happened to us also. However, the reduction means that our assets will be smaller, and we may get more FA from Stanford because of it. Again, that wouldn't be the case with most other colleges, so we are grateful that our S is attending Stanford with it's excellent FA for middle income families.</p>
<p>OK, JHS, then it would have taken us 4 years to save for Stanford as a full-pay family.</p>
<p>"Assets, including retirement accounts, are taken into account."</p>
<p>I was not aware that retirement assets can decrease your f.a.
I might be naive, and I admit I'm just starting to fill out the CSS now...but anyways, is this def. true? Is there a limit below which ret. assets are ignored?</p>
<p>kyledavid80 : I looked at the blogs at your suggestion and it appears that Stanford selectively departs from its own finaid program and guidelines by negotiating better deals with some individual cross admits who have offers from Harvard and Yale. I have a huge problem with this. Why should your aid package depend on whether you applied to and got into Harvard? Is the cost of Stanford any easier to bear if you didnt?</p>
<p>The fact remains, that, on their face, and without haggling, the financial aid programs at Harvard and Yale are CLEARLY superior to Stanford, although Stanford is better than MIT and Duke. Dont know about Princeton.</p>