<p>Those who have been through the application process, which Ivy league offers the best financial aid? </p>
<p>I always thought it was Harvard, but according to the PR rankings that came out today, both Princeton and Yale beat Harvard this year. Is it because the cost of attending those two schools is higher, or is it really cheaper to go to Princeton and Yale than it is to go to Harvard?</p>
<p>All three of these schools offer peerless financial aid.</p>
<p>PR’s rankings are based entirely on student surveys–perhaps, two or three Harvard students who come from families making 300,000 dollars a year felt cheated out of that to which they felt entitled, and were therefore outspoken in their criticism of Harvard’s generosity in PR’s survey?</p>
<p>Harvard can’t win them all, but no one in her right mind would doubt that Harvard is a winner–with regards to FA, at any rate.</p>
<p>I say this loosely, but all Ivy League schools are very well able to provide plenty of financial aid to those who need it. This is not to say that Columbia would be willing to dish out a full ride to a student coming from a household income of over 80k, but in a lot of cases, these schools make themselves similarly expensive as the average state school.</p>
<p>Our D2 got financial aid packages from both Harvard and Yale, and chose Harvard since her cost of attendance would be >$20,000 a year lower after aid than at Yale. She’s a senior now, and due to an inheritance our EFC has risen above the cost of attendance. But Harvard is still giving her >$12,000 this year.</p>
<p>HYPS all have the rep of giving great aid. It is a mystery that H gave that much more than Y for GADad’s D, but maybe each school has a unique formula for certain types of income/assets or family size or number of kids in school??? </p>
<p>As GADad points out, even these schools that give great aid, aren’t going to get big aid if your financial situation is such that it’s not warranted. </p>
<p>That can be a shock for some who expect to get big aid from these schools (based on these schools’ FA reputations) only to find out that their families are not considered to have great need by these schools. </p>
<p>My nephew got nothing from Stanford after expecting that they would get at least something. :(</p>
<p>Thank you for the replies! </p>
<p>Sorry to hear that, mom2collegekids!<br>
What is (usually) the cutoff range for financial aid at the Ivys?</p>
<p>^ There is none
Columbia reports that a student this year with household income of 237,000 received aid. 60,000 and lower (at Columbia at least) you pay no tuition or room and board.</p>
<p>Interesting. Does the parental contribution increase by a certain percentage per $10,000(?) of income after $60,000?</p>
<p>[Harvard</a> College Admissions § Financial Aid](<a href=“http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/financial_aid/index.html]Harvard”>http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/financial_aid/index.html)</p>
<p>180,000 at Harvard. A household that earns more money than 94 percent of households would be eligible for financial aid at Harvard.</p>
<p>Nope, a lot more than just combined earnings go into the equation. They allow you to challenge it if you feel you need more. In some cases you get more in others you don’t.</p>
<p>*Columbia reports that a student this year with household income of 237,000 received aid. *</p>
<p>I suspect a very special circumstance with this…such as 2-3 sibs in college…large uncovered medical expenses, large family and/or some other situation. And, we don’t know how much aid. They may have gotten $5k.</p>
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<p>We were naive enough to put our kids’ college savings in their own names when they were young. Most schools tax student assets toward the EFC at 4X - 5X the rate they do parental assets; Harvard treats them the same as parental assets. I think that was the main reason for the discrepancy in our case.</p>