<p>Someone on a thread over in the Financial Aid forum posted a link to the following chart that lists the net cost to students at various schools which have pledged to meet full need: Project</a> on Student Debt: What's the Bottom Line?</p>
<p>Frankly, MIT doesn't look so good, at least for upper middle income people such as my family. We have an AGI of about $124K and according to the FAFSA formula we will have an EFC of around $25K. That, we can live with.</p>
<p>However, if the chart in the link above is to be believed, by MIT's institutional methodology we will have an EFC which will be around 50K. That, we can't live with.</p>
<p>DS is in the applicant pool and I have been rooting for him to get an acceptance, but now I'm not so sure he wouldn't be a lot better off at a second tier school with some merit money instead.</p>
<p>If anyone from the admissions or FinAid office can allay my fears I sure would appreciate it.</p>
<p>(For anyone who wants to argue about whether $124K is upper middle income, we live on Long Island where the average home costs around $350K. For this area, that kind of money does not make one rich.)</p>
<p>If you haven’t used it yet, it might be a good first step, just to see how the results compare to FAFSA.</p>
<p>The financial aid offer will arrive with the acceptance, so if your son is accepted, you’ll know fairly soon what MIT will expect you to pay. In the offer, you’ll also see that MIT expects your son to contribute some of his own earnings each year. And one good piece of news, is that at MIT, your son will actually be able to earn some money each year, if he so chooses.</p>
<p>Our family doesn’t qualify for any aid. Our daughter’s now a junior, and she’s been working each semester since she started at MIT and through the summers. The work has entailed some great paid research projects that provide wonderful experience. Projecting the same sort of earnings through next year, we calculate that by the time she graduates, she will have contributed around $25,000 from her net earnings. In addition to this, when she was a senior, we asked her to apply to a dozen merit scholarships, and she won around five of these, which helped even more.</p>
<p>Thanks very much for reminding me of that calculator. I just sat down with my actual 2009 forms and found that MIT estimates an EFC of 18K, which is really good news. </p>
<p>After seeing the information on the link in my first post I was starting to dread Sunday – while a rejection will sting, it would be far worse for him to get in only for us not be able to afford it.</p>
<p>Still, I do think the MIT official folks who are on this board should attempt to correct the information that is listed on the link. If we had seen it before DS applied I would have discouraged him from doing so.</p>
<p>I’m glad you used our calculator and that you’re happy with our EFC numbers (and thanks CalAlum for the link!). I’m not sure where that website came from or where they’re getting those numbers, but I’ll pass the link along to our FinAid team and we can sort it out. You’re absolutely correct - we don’t want misleading numbers out there. Our financial aid policies are very generous and we certainly don’t want people being scared off by inaccurate information!</p>
<p>oh ok, too bad. It was looking like a great deal for me. Oh well maybe I can still convince them that it’s a good investment, if I get in that is.</p>
<p>If that chart was a good deal for you, than we’ll probably offer you a better one. But you’ll have to use the calculator. Your parents will have to fill out the FASFA in any case (should’ve already actually) so it shouldn’t be difficult to do. Good luck!</p>