Ivy or Free Ride

Isn’t Yale a need based scholarship college? In that case EFC is still $20K/year? My son goes to a need based scholarship college and all said and done we are paying less than going to a state university (including room and board). He works as an RA this year, so this term we are paying $1078 after all the scholarships/stipend are paid (the bill for this term was $24K).

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If Yale is charging only $20k/year it means the family income is well into the $200K range. $20K/year seems a lot, but the kid is going to make that just from a summer internship he can find at Yale.

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Our income is not in the 200,000. As a matter of fact Yale is coming in at the most expensive of the 3 at around 27,000. Penn is coming in at around 20,000.

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If you can go to Yale for $27K, it’s cheaper than going to a UC school. But full ride to Pitts is great too.

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Families whose incomes are “well into” the $200k range are not paying $20,000 a year for Yale.

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Couldn’t you ask for reconsideration at Yale based on the Penn offer, if that was the preferred option?

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There is no negotiation when the college offers a need based financial aid. They use a formula to calculate EFC. Matter fact, for those colleges, even if the student gets an outside scholarship(s) to off set the cost, unless it’s a cash scholarship, it won’t reduce the family contribution/out of pocket. The scholarship money is sent directly to the college and they (college) reduces the scholarship amount to the student so the amount the family will pay stays the same.

It depends on the school and the applicant. I wouldn’t say it is always a hard “no”

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Actually, that’s not true all the time. These schools might review their need based award if you got a better one at a peer school.

@sybbie719

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Yea some schools will come down a bit. Also outside scholarships can knock off the students work study and student contribution but won’t lower parents contribution.

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yes we use ours for the student contribution so my kid doesn’t have to work on campus.

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Sorry but I had to do this since it’s ringing in my ear now… But here’s your answer…

https://g.co/kgs/4CTUpY

If your son really doesn’t know what he wants to do say hello to Pitt… It’s impressive what he was offered and he can set himself up for his future.

Congrats to your son.

If he balks, he’s not going to make much and will spend a alot of his income on paying back the loan vs saving it for his future.

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OK, so leaving aside the cost/benefit analysis (which is not insignificant), what does your son list as the pros and cons?

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This is not a correct response. When it comes to financial reviews, Yale will definitely consider (and probably will meet) the Penn offer.

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sorry about that we dealt with two need based financial aid colleges and neither of them did not negotiate.

but, were they 2 IVY league schools? I know that Middlebury is very forward that they will not entertain financial aid offers from other schools. I have not come across an Ivy yet, that will not entertain a financial aid package from their IVY peers, Stanford, MIT, AWS

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The Ivies we have experience with, and actually other colleges as well, will change the financial aid based on “special circumstances” like a family health crisis, loss of job etc.

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Did you run the Net Price Calculator (NPC) before your child applied to these colleges? What was your plan for paying your expected parent contribution?

80k is a lot to borrow for undergrad especially if grad school is a possibility. I still say go with the full ride to Pitt.

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We did any the amounts are coming in close. We had no idea that he would get these free rides when he applied. 20,000 a year is cheaper then most of our state schools.

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They don’t just look at income - they look at assets. I make less than $200K and not a single school would offer me aid. I called two of them. Cornell said if you have “above” normal assets - you won’t get anything - she said if you have a million (which is a lot but not really today), no school will give you anything.

As an example, I asked the top school my daughter got into which showed 88% of people in my income range get a grant on average of $38K. We got nada. They said “normal” assets are 2x your salary - excluding retirement but including home equity.

These schools expect you to “invest” in your child, not take a handout.

It’s why my child will end up in a “lesser pedigree” school - because I’m not spending $80K a year when she can go for $30K to a top Honors college. The $80K is a better school - but to put myself at that level of strain - for me personally and it’s an individual call - is insane.

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