Ivy leagues...incredible financial aid!

Applying to College
1

<p>My friends just got accepted into Dartmouth and Cornell</p>

<p>they're sisters and same grade</p>

<p>one of them got 40,000 for darthmouth, EACH YEAR, and she doesn't have to pay it back after college. She says she only has to pay like 3000 a year.</p>

<p>The other one got 32,000 for cornell, each year, and doesn't have to pay back after college either. She only pays like 5000 a year.</p>

<p>That is crazy! I know ivies don't give merit scholarships</p>

<p>but the thing is</p>

<p>their parents make ~80,000 a year. Their parents ALREADY have 200,000 SAVED UP for their daughters to go to college.</p>

<p>And now they get all of this FREE money every year, almost the whole tuition.</p>

<p>Is that how ivy leagues really do their financial aid?</p>

<p>Coz at first they told me , i was like WOAH! thats a lot of money..i didnt really believe them</p>

2

<p>Wow that is great. Yea, there is a myth that Ivies cost more than other colleges, but they usually end up costing less! My mom had this preconception, and I recently showed her that Princeton (applying ED in the fall) will be less expensive for our family than most other mid-level schools.</p>

3

<p>ivies have more resources and endowment (120 billion for harvard) so they definitely can give better finaid (more grants, less loans, etc)</p>

4

<p>sounds like their parents did some excellent fudging on the FAFSA/PROFILE</p>

5

<p>Harvard ONLY (lol) has a 25.9 billion dollar endowment.</p>

<p>They're so poor.</p>

6

<p>Bing,</p>

<p>No, that's Yale's. Harvard's endowment has like $999 trillion in it. Or maybe that's the interest it makes each year. j/k, much love.</p>

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7

<p>This is a really misleading post. Sure with an $80K income and 2 in college, a lot of financial aid will be given. Especially if they don't have a lot of assets. But the parents, if they reported honestly, w8ill have to pay ab0ut 5.5% 0f ass4ets each year. Also, while these schools will give mostly grants to students they want5 and ivies limit loans, they will usually require some work study and summer earnings.</p>

<p>Yes, ivies are far more generous than most schools if you have demonstrated neeed. But they don't just5 give away money when parents have assets.</p>

8

<p>If you are admitted into a ivy school you are obviously talented. They want to make an education affordable to your family so they give generous aid. In my case Dartmouth will be cheaper than the University of Alaska Anchorage. I think that many people are unaware of the fact that ives will try to make an education affordable. My mother and many other people where so worried about the cost simply because they do not know much about financial aid. I really think that numerous schools have been doing an incredible job telling people about their fin-aid. It certainly has been helping get people from a diverse backgroud who always thought an ivy was out of their grasp because of financial constraints.</p>

9

<p>but the thing is, their parents ALREADY HAVE MONEY SAVED UP for their college years</p>

<p>...i dont get why ivies still give them THAT much money , for free.</p>

10

<p>The question is, did their parents report all the savings to the schools? I would doubt it.</p>

11

<p>Brown wasn't that amazing for me.
But PRINCETON. PrincetonPrincetonPrinceton, how I love your financial aid. I get $41765 in aid, all but $2000 of that coming in the form of grants. My parents pay $3k a year for me to get arguably the best undergraduate education in the world.</p>

12

<p>My brother's got essentially the same thing going for him at Yale, quirkily. I think that HYP can pretty much rock the financial aid with their ridiculous endowments.</p>

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<p>I think you people are refering to a 120 "million" (not BILLION) endowment for financial aid every year, since that would be like 120 "Billion" USD would be like 20 times the annual revenue of multinational cooporations like microsoft, or in other words, 120 BILLION USD almost equals the United States "trade deficit" with China last year... That's ALOT of money "harvard gives out for financial aid every year."</p>

14

<p>Still, people need to understand this can only happen if your family has very low income and no significant assets. Look nat the number of kids on this board who were accepted to ivies but not going because many middle class parents can't afford their EFC. The ivies and all $45K schools squeeze out the middle class. You need to be poor or wealthy unless yor parents are unusual savers.</p>

15

<p>First of all concerning money people are only going to tell you so much about their finances and only what they want you to know. When it comes to money take everything with a grain of salt, as many student do not know all of the intricacies of their parents financial situation. At the end you don’t know what part of their story is the truth (no offense, but nor should you know)</p>

<p>Regarding the 2 schools, It is possible that your friends got this package, but I agree with those that state it may be unlikely (unless as suze stated, they have very little if any assets) as there would be a lot of factors that they are not telling you </p>

<p>If the family makes 80,000 what ever their EFC comes out to, the 2 girls will divide this amount because they have 2 kids in college at the same time (it could be further if divided if they have more than 2 – we don’t know and you don’t state)</p>

<p>Other things to consider in the FA process,
The total number of people in the family, 80,000 for a family of 4 looks very different than 80,000 for a family of 8 (and there are posters here who have 4, 5, 6, even 8 kids)</p>

<p>They take into consideration the age (if one parent is considerably older) it is an advantage as a portion of the income is automatically “protected in the FA process)</p>

<p>They look at equity in the home. I think Dartmouth maxes out equity at 2.5x income (making the maximum home equity ~ $200,000)</p>

<p>They look at if the parents have unreimbursed medical expenses, which need to be paid.</p>

<p>FA looks at if the parents are paying high school tuition for any of their other children.</p>

<p>About the $200,000 - it depends on whose account the money is in and the type of account the money is in. IF the money is in the parent’s name, it will be assessed at a lower amount than it would be if the money were in the kid’s name. For example: if each kid had $100,000 each in his or her name, they would both be assessed 35% or would have a minimum EFC of $35,000.</p>

<p>But if the money is in the bank in the parent’s name, it will be assessed at a lower amount (read suze’s comment about this). If the money is already in a 401k or retirement plan, it is not counted as an asset but any new monies placed in the account would be added back to the parents income to determine the EFC.</p>

<p>I agree with suze as I doubt that there is a true free ride going on here because all schools have a self help component, where as students must contribute a certain amount of money from summer earnings, and that there is most likely a loan, work study component in their need based FA package (you are right, that loans do not have to be repaid until after graduation).</p>

<p>Some parents with the help of very good and savvy Financial advisors can and do find ways to shelter their money so that they can end up with a low EFC.</p>

16

<p>Your theory makes sense, but you are underestimating the willingness of HYP to give a little extra to middle class families that <em>ask</em> for more aid.</p>

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17

<p>yeah even tho Johns Hopkins isn't an Ivy, it gives great money....lol
I don't have to pay anything....that's $47000...hella lot</p>