I was under the impression that ivy league financial aid would be the best.
However, out of my acceptances they are the more expensive choices.
Northwestern: $5,400/year
Brown: $ 7,370/year
URochester: $8,500/ year
Cornell: $10.300/ year
My family of 6 made $69 k last year. I have one brother in college, but he is on a full tuition scholarship- Brown said they won’t count him in my aid.
My top choice was Cornell for Chemical Engineering. Would other school’s increase their offers?
Generally, ivy league schools match the offers of other ivy league schools. In addition, you can always contact the financial aid office, and ask if they’ll match a non ivy. They have huge endowment funds, and though they are a bit stingy to begin with, they’d rather give out a few thousand dollars to protect their yield if they have to. Assuming Brown and Cornell are about the same price to begin which, and all the aid is purely need based, Cornell should match that of brown, no questions asked.
@Sugoi15 --I’m not sure what the dollar figures you listed mean? Is that the net cost for each school AFTER grants and scholarships? That’s the most helpful number to consider.
@jamesjunkers That’s what I was planning on doing. Hopefully they will match Northwestern’s as well?
@arabrab Net Cost after All Grant aid/Federal aid/Work Study. No loans for Northwestern or Brown, but Cornell wants me to take out 5k in loans/year for 5,300 k in Family contribution (10,300k net cost)
I was confused about getting loans from Cornell b/c website says “Students from families with a total annual income under $60,000 will have no student loans”. For a family of 6 w/ 69k, I thought I fit within this bracket? Our family owns a home, but we do not own any other assets, so I’m not really sure.
$69k > $60k
The Ivy League is comprised of 8 very different schools,. They do NOT use the same financial aid formulas. Some are more generous than others. Also, some financial situations can hit the sweet spot of some financial aid polices, and others get the muck. You can just miss a cut off or have some exception to a general rule. Running NPCs is your best bet. But those owning businesses, having NCP in the family or some unusual situation will likely not get accurate results.
@MiddKid86 Lol, I understand that. But usually those numbers are based off of family of 4.
@cptofthehouse Definitely. But I just thought as a whole, Ivy league would give more aid than my other schools.
Thanks for the wealth of information everyone! I will appeal and see what happens.
From Cornell’s website regarding reasons for appeal, for clarification purposes…
http://www.finaid.cornell.edu/sites/finaid.cornell.edu/files/2015-16-Appeal-Application.pdf
@jamesjunkers Thanks! Do you think Northwestern would count as well?
I think those amounts seem high for your family and its income. but, I think Cornell will match others aid.
Is your sibling in a service academy? If not…is his aid truly a “full ride”?
Is Northwestern only need based? If so, you can make an argument - be honest, and tell them you really want to attend, but financially it wouldn’t be possible. The worst that can happen is they say no
I think you should only negotiate with the school that you decide you would absolutely attend if they can meet your FA goal. In other words, I would not contact Brown and try to get them to meet the Northwestern price if you aren’t committed to going there. It’s harsh to make a school go through the effort of lowering your bill - only for you to choose a different college in the end. Just my opinion on this.
My sons aid package from Princeton is almost the same as MIT. Rice is better, JHU a little less, Duke even less and WUSTL was a joke. UT is full pay and would end costing us only $1000 less per year than MIT.
We got NMScholarship today, so that is 2500 less he has to contribute.
Schools have different ways of calculating contributions. Some years ago, at most schools generous with financial aid, when there were two kids in college, the expected parental contribution for a given school was 60% of the expected parental contribution for one kid in college. Period. Now some schools do check to see what that other kid is costing at his/her college and if that cost is not as much as that 60% assumed amount, then an adjustment is made. Also, colleges assess home equity values with different caps and when it comes to home businesses, it’s all over the map. The fact of the matter is that even if a college does give better financial aid than another college overall, it doesn’t mean that’s the case for any individual. SOmeone could get more from Brown than Northwestern due to how that personal finacial profile happens to fit the aid formulas for Brown than yours does. Break points for income percentages, and all sorts of things in that formula can make the differnce.
As for the the $60K figure being a break point for no loans,…well, it does not make stipulations as to how many dependents or other things. If you are at $61 K, then you didn’t make the cut. Not all formulas phase in. THey have lines that are drawn and break points.
@mom2collegekids My brother attends Ohio State University. He is a commuter, lives at home. He is on a full-tuition scholarship (plus 7k extra/year of Federal aid). So my parents pay 0 out of pocket for his college costs, but they support him fully for living at home (food, shelter) and his car/gas.
@jamesjunkers— Yes, I only received need-based aid.
@prospect1-- Yes, I agree. Unfortunately, appeal deadlines are mid-april, and Brown’s visit days are April 21-23.
@cptofthehouse- Thanks for the explanation!
Also- Just wondering…does getting a likely letter for Cornell help with fin aid at all? (I’m assuming it does not)
The loans they are talking about are the Direct Loans. The amount is $5500 for your freshman year. If you had that in your package, and received aid to cover most of the other costs…you would be getting a fabulous financial aid package.
@thumper1 The loans from Cornell are $5,000= ($1,500 perkins and $3,500 Direct subsidized loan)
Sugo, you can likely take out another $2K in Direct loans on an unsubsidized basis.
The fact of the matter is that any given individual with a particular set of financials may not do well at schools with the rep of giving the best aid. Really, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what the practice and rep of any school is, regarding aid , in general, but what the school is offering YOU. That’s all that counts. So what, if the school gives free tuition to X% of the students. If you don’t qualify for it, its not helping you.
NYU has the rep of poor fin aid, and they absolutely do not guarantee to meet full need and few students with high need get it met. But I"ve known kids whose best aid package came from NYU. Apparently they have some merit within need awards and if they really want you, you can do quite well there in terms of awards, better than ivy.
I’m not sure I understand your issue. Are you saying you got a great financial aid package from Cornell, but you are disappointed because YOU have some loans in it?
I’m not sure I see your issue…if all the loans you will need are $5000 or so a year, you are getting a great deal from Cornell.