<p>My parents make around $190-200k, and i don't have any siblings in college yet (not for a significant amount of time). I'm just wondering if it's realistic for me to get any sort of financial aid from Yale at all (even if its just 5k or even 1k for that matter). On my application, I just put down that I would apply for FA, I'm trying to figure out if it's even worth it to apply for financial need. Obviously, I'm in no desperate need of aid, but it would definitely lower the burden on my parents if I could get some money, even if it's just a few thousand dollars. Hopefully, I can take a big chunk of the fee out with scholarships.</p>
<p>Probably unrealistic if your parents have the assets typical of a family with an income like that, no expensive medical emergencies, no parents who they support, etc…</p>
<p>Talk to jumper (xfcjumper89 - something like that). Apparently he got quite a bit with a similar income. Just look around the Y boards, he has posted quite a bit.</p>
<p>Edit: xfxjumper is the username</p>
<p>Two years ago, Yale announced, with great fanfare, that it was going to help middle class students and their parents pay for college. Many news articles detailed how Yale families who made between $120,000 and $200,000 — just like those at Harvard — would now pay, on average, about 10% of their AGI for tuition, room and board. See [YALE</a> FOLLOWS HARVARD IN SWEEPING FINANCIAL-AID REFORM TARGETING MIDDLE-CLASS FAMILIES | Yale Daily News](<a href=“http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2008/jan/15/yale-follows-harvard-in-sweeping-financial-aid]YALE”>http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2008/jan/15/yale-follows-harvard-in-sweeping-financial-aid).</p>
<p>Two weeks ago, on December 15th, my son was accepted Early Action to Yale. He was elated, and so were we. As a middle class family making less than 200k, we assumed we would be paying Yale 10% of our gross income, which would make Yale just as affordable as our state schools.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, one day later, Yale announced a change to their financial aid policy. See: <a href=“http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2010/dec/16/financial-aid-budget-increase-8-percent[/url]”>http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2010/dec/16/financial-aid-budget-increase-8-percent</a>.</p>
<p>This change, which touted an 8% increase of financial aid seems to have been made at the expense of middle class parents making more than 130k. The financial aid package we received from Yale, along with my son’s acceptance notice, was for approximately 20% of our income — double what we thought the tuition would be when my son sent in his application.</p>
<p>Needless to say, our family’s enthusiasm for Yale has been dampened by what appears to be a bait-and-switch tactic on the middle class. At least at other colleges, such as Dartmouth and Williams, the scaling back of their financial aid policies was done in advance of the application season. See: <a href=“http://chronicle.com/article/Williams-College-Nixes-No-Loan/63851/[/url]”>http://chronicle.com/article/Williams-College-Nixes-No-Loan/63851/</a> and <a href=“http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/02/09/dartmouth[/url]”>http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/02/09/dartmouth</a>.</p>
<p>Our family will need to compare financial aid offers from other colleges in April and make a determination then as to what we can afford.</p>
<p>^One possible difference between the general policy and what you received is that the 10% policy is based on ‘customary assets’. While our family income is around 100k, our assets are relatively high due to home equity and savings. While we pay considerably more than the 10%, Y is still much more generous than any other school in the country except HPS. For instance, while Y offered us a good FA package (grants & WS), for the same financial numbers, Brown, Dartmouth and Amherst (and others) said that we had no financial need whatsoever.</p>
<p>^ Thanks for the input entomom, but that’s not it. We have an older child at Harvard and pay about 10% of our AGI there for tuition, room and board. Yale’s offer for next year – with 2 kids in college – was still more than we are paying at Harvard with 1 child in college. I called the Yale FA office before break to find out what it would cost our family with 1 child in college (when my older child graduates) and the quoted price was 20% of our income – basically double what we are paying Harvard.</p>
<p>Don’t forget the “on average” families will pay 10%. That does not mean that everyone can assume they will pay 10%. Yale takes the following into account:
Parents’ income
• Parents’ assets (cash, savings, home equity, other
real estate and investments)
• Family size
• Number of children attending college
• Student’s income
• Student’s assets (cash, savings, trusts, and other
investments)</p>
<p>Good luck to you and your son. I hope you are pleasantly surprised by other financial aid packages you receive - I know they can be all over the map. A friend’s son had an EFC of 25K at a prominent LAC, and had an ivy say they had an EFC of 52K!</p>
<p>Nice to read this thread, I am considering the financial aid as well as a parent whose son is just accepted by Yale. Our AGI is above the $200K, say ~$250K, does my son still qualify for any sort of aid? I don’t expect to get too much, I would pay 60%~70%, I wish they could give my son 10~20%. Is my wish realistic? Does Yale cut off all the aid exactly at $200K?
By the way, what is EFC and LAC?</p>
<p>No, I don’t believe that is realistic, unless there are extenating circumstances such as siblings in college, extreme medical bills, etc. You need to read the new Yale guidelines, <a href=“http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/20...ease-8-percent[/url]”>http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/20...ease-8-percent</a>. From that announcement:</p>
<p>“The press release said families earning between $65,000 and $130,000 will continue to pay an average of 1 percent to 10 percent of annual family income.”</p>
<p>This $130,000 figure is down from $160,000 orior to Dec. 16th. Based on this, it is very unrealistic to expect any amount of financial aid from Yale. I believe the cap for Harvard and Princeton is $200,000.</p>
<p>EFC is estimated family contribution, and LAC is liberal arts college. There used to be a calculator on the Yale financial aid website that you could use to estimate your projected financial aid. I can’t find it anymore, but you could try some calculators on other websites and/or find out if they will have a new one available soon.</p>
<p>@Idiosyncracy, I got around 36k in Finaid, but I also have a sister in college with a mother who filed for bankruptcy around a year ago, which they said was considered when estimating my package.</p>
<p>Hey, ah, interesting. </p>
<p>Sorry to be referring people to you :)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Interesting, that is a substantial difference. My only personal comparison is that when D1 was a fr applicant, H&P offered us about 15k/yr in FA, while Y gave us 10k, they later matched H&P. This was the year before HYPS changed their FA policies to help out mid-upper income families.</p>
<p>The new financial aid policy try to attract kids from middle class family, but it only works for the family with income < $130K, family with higher income will pay full amout which seems like a big burden. Especially for California residence, the $250K income equivalent to lower middle class. I believe most of the middle class family kids in California would choose to go to local public college as a better choice. Last year my son’s school had one kid choose UC Berkley instead of Yale.</p>
<p>Good heavens. The median income for U.S. households is $46K. Regardless where you live, a family with annual income of $250K is not “lower middle class.” Yale is not a bottomless pit.</p>
<p>Our experience with Yale financial aid was disappointing: our AGI was less than $200K, but we were given NO financial aid (as in goose egg) and instead expected to pay the full $57,000 per year. So, rather than the 15% of ANNUAL INCOME we expected to pay, the cost of four years would have been 15% of our NET WORTH. What bachelor’s degree is worth a quarter of a million dollars in this economy??? Sorry, Yale…Carolina, here we come.</p>
<p>Does Yale check AGI only or it also checks your untaxed money ( contribution to 401K)?</p>
<p>BG,
An income of 200k is at the upper end of getting any FA from HYPS, which are the most generous colleges in the country. Those percentages do not include assets which also affect your FA package. AGI is not the only factor in calculating your FA package.</p>
<p>Untaxed current year contributions to retirement plans are added back in on the Profile.</p>
<p>See: <a href=“Welcome | Student Financial and Administrative Services”>Welcome | Student Financial and Administrative Services;
<p>Included in Yale’s FA calculation
- Parents’ total income, both taxable and non-taxable
- Parents’ assets (cash, savings, home equity, other real estate and investments)
- Family size and number of children attending college</p>
<p>BamGal59</p>
<p>According to your calculations you have a net worth of nearly 1.7 million dollars and it was a surprise to you that you were given no financial aid? According to the latest published CDS, Yale awarded some aid to 57% of incoming freshman. Surely you can’t believe that your net worth is not solidly within the 43% with full-pay status? As suggested by others frequently, it is helpful to run a financial aid calculator before doing the applications. If parents are not prepared to meet their estimated financial contribution, it is pointless to apply to schools like Yale that clearly state they only give need-based financial aid. It is reasonable to assume that the many hundreds of full-pay Yale students would have been bought with full merit scholarships elsewhere if that was their priority and their families did think a Yale education was worth the quarter of a million dollars with less income and certainly less net worth than you reported.</p>