<p>I have fairly low income (<60k, definitely can't afford to pay 52k a year for Columbia), but have high assets, as my current house is almost paid off, and we were never able to sell our old house. If I apply Early Decision next year, do you think I have a chance at getting enough aid? Or should I not risk it and apply ED. Columbia is my top choice (by far), and I'd like to maximize my chances at getting in.</p>
<p>You can always turn down an ED offer for financial reasons. My honest advice is sell that second house and use it to fund a Columbia education. Family income of 60K + normal (very small) assets gets a successful applicant full financial aid so like 50k/year in FA. With your supernormal assets, it will be less. If your old house is worth like ~100k then you should still get great aid, if it is worth ~500k, probably get bad aid.</p>
<p>the other house is around 250k. I think my parents will be fine if the price doesn’t exceed 25k, which is what my sister paid at another school. We’ve tried selling the other house for about four years now, but we haven’t really gotten anywhere.</p>
<p>Based on the aid package I got and comparing your situation to mine, I’d be surprised if you had to pay more than 25k. Also, are you completely against loans, because if you would also consider a (federal) loan, then I would be very, very surprised if the yearly bill is <25k. But that’s just based on my anecdotal experience, so no guarantees. Also, maybe try explaining that you’ve been trying and can’t sell the house in your finaid app? I know they don’t consider high mortgage payments or whatever, but I would assume that they would take the bad economy into consideration.</p>
<p>Regardless, you always have the option of backing out of the ED agreement due to finances.</p>
<p>As financial aid is really the ONLY reason I could possibly not go to Columbia if I get accepted, I think that ED would be a good option for me, as both ConColl and Silverchris have said I can back out bc of finances.</p>
<p>Another question I have: Does ED/RD affect the amount of aid I get? If I was to apply with the same exact financial situation RD, would it be more/less than ED?</p>
<p>My dad really dislikes loans, so I don’t think that would be an option. Still, Silverchris, when you say you’d be surprised if the yearly bill with loans is <25k, doesn’t that mean that it’ll be OVER 25k? Did you mean >25k?</p>
<p>Btw, is Columbia truly need-blind when admitting? Just wanted to know how legitimate their claim on that was.</p>
<p>hehe, oops. Yeah, I meant >25k. There’s a reason I’m not a math major.</p>
<p>Yes, I believe Columbia is legitimately need blind in their admissions. Columbia is a really diverse school, and socioeconomic diversity is just as much a part of diversity as race. I have no data to back it up, but I think it’s true. As for ED/RD finaid advantage… I don’t really know, except that, should you find that the bill is too much and you want to appeal it, an RD student will have other finaid offers to send the adcoms (so if one of them is better than the Columbia offer, and that offer entirely need-based, there’s a somewhat better chance that Columbia will match the better offer, although I don’t know how much better the chance is). Also, you can appeal financial aid decisions. I don’t know how often that actually helps (probably comparatively rarely), but it is a possibility.</p>