We’re all figuring that Yale will review the FA package and match Penn (although I’m wondering if there isn’t an issue with the Yale FA package because it typically is lower than Penn), hence, 20K a year, or 80k, from which we deduct 5k a year or 20K, hence 60K. However that’s assuming the student has no savings and does not plan on having a job this summer, in short, that the match will be exactly what Penn offered and that the whole thing will be borrowed. I’m quite uncertain on both counts.
Yes, Yale considers home equity in its calculation of FA. However, if an applicant has a better FA offer from a peer school as a result of that school not considering home equity (neither Columbia nor UPenn is in that category, though), Yale may reconsider.
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Sure, but for OP, he/she already said it was affordable. Also let’s be precise when we look at the debt load. It is not $100k or higher, it is $60k of which $33k is unsubsidized Plus debt. Assuming we don’t try to knock down the debt through expense reduction, family or kid, at the current rates of of 2.75% and 5.3% amortized over 10 years, it comes out to about $600 in monthly payments. That is not soul crushing, but yes, it is still $600 a month that could be applied elsewhere.
If we look at it from the expense reduction angle, the $15k in annual debt equates to $41/day; $288/wk. Not a big ask to knock off $50-100 a week net through not getting your $3-5 Starbucks fix so often, not eating out so often, going to the movies less or doing other “free” entertainment. For some who are already scrimping, I agree this may be hard. However, just for kicks, I ran the NPC for Yale. Assuming savings of $100k plus home equity of $150k, family of 4 with 1 to go to college, the AGI to get to a $20K EFC is about $110K. Again, not getting or wanting to get into OP’s personal situation, $110k AGI for a family of 4 with an existing net worth of $250k± excluding retirement assets does not strike me as a struggling family.
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You don’t know where this family lives. For example, in many MA communities, $110k , while not struggling, wouldn’t leave you a lot left over considering housing (and other) costs. As a complete aside, because people in the northeast generally make more in salary, parents are often surprised at how much colleges expect them to contribute each year and then find they or their kids will need to borrow a lot more than expected to finance school. Some schools (including Ivies) are very generous with financial aid even to people making up to $200k, but most schools are not - thus the unpleasant surprises.
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I am confused.
To me, affordable means that younger siblings will have the same choices, I can continue to fund my retirement, my kids can take the offer they want following graduation, they can study abroad etc. I fully recognize that affordable also means giving up a few “wants” such as choosing a less expensive dorm or off campus apt, possibly turning down an invitation etc.
If an Ivy is affordable, then this student should choose the school he likes best!
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Yes agree about different COLA’s affecting the relative values of AGI . I inputted my flyover state in the NPC. Again, was not commenting about this family as OP has already said $20k EFC was within their budget when they started the process
Yes, I agree. The decision should be driven by what the S wants, where he thinks he has the greatest chance of thriving, especially given his varied interests. College is the time to explore. My kid went in thinking he wanted to be a data scientist. He changed to economics sophomore year, but he has enjoyed his classes in astrophysics and philosophy the most. Exploring different areas with across the board great instruction and fellow students to me is what made his Ivy worth it. Going directly into a 6 figure job was just the icing on the cake.
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Ivy League grads do not necessarily graduate with six figure salaries. It depends on your major, etc.
Most of my daughter’s friends from HS and her current program attended Ivy League schools. None of them are making a six figure salary directly from undergrad. My sample is only 7, but their salaries range from $60,000 to about $80,000. This includes one from an Ivy business school. Her boyfriend graduated from an Ivy, works for a well known financial institution, and makes in the mid 70’s after 2 years.
How do I know this? Because they told her (unprompted) and are very open about it with others.
None of these young adults graduated with a job as a research assistant. My daughter had 2 of these offers following graduation. The pay was in the range of 40 ish, depending on experience. Nobody gets paid more if they attended an Ivy. They don’t care- they care about your experience.
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They certainly pay in the $20,000 range for high schools - even parochial high schools.
Though it wouldn’t hurt to ask Yale to match Penn’s offer I kind of doubt Yale considers Penn a peer school. Usually, one would have far better odds of getting Yale to match an offer from HPS.
However, because Yale’s formula is usually more generous than Penn’s, there may have been a hiccup somewhere. It doesn’t hurt to review it at home, ask for a review at Yale, and bring to light any situation that wasn’t reflected in the original Css Profile, especially since 2019 was often so different from 2020 for many families.
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Yes, I agree that Yale doesn’t usually deviate much from a fixed formula like Penn does.
No they do not. I just went to the only Catholic High School around and copied this directly from their page:
The full cost to educate one student at X Catholic is $8,790 for the 2020-21 school year. With base tuition for 2020-21 of $6,550 (for students in supporting parishes), every family actually receives some scholarship support even before applying for additional support.
ETA: This was also on their page for '21-'22:
$6,900 one student family enrolled
$10,900 two student family enrolled
$14,900 three student family enrolled
One could send three students there for a bit < 20K.
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I don’t know where you live, but I just checked the 2 closest Catholic High Schools to me, and they are $15,800 and $15,600 respectively, which is the same general financial neighborhood as we’ve been discussing. And I don’t live in an especially affluent area. Non-religious private schools in the area are double that. I know for sure of places where Catholic High School tuition is above $20K. See Fordham Prep in the Bronx as an example.
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Here is the section on the Yale NPC on primary residence:
Does the parent own a primary residence? I don’t think this means they count it as an asset, but would like to know:
Yes No
In what year was the primary residence purchased?
What was the purchase price of the primary residence?
What is the current value of the primary residence?
What is the current debt of the primary residence?
Does the parent own real estate other than a primary residence?
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Phew, lots of input here! Interesting choice. Our son is also interested in biology and we are likely to pay a similar difference for him to attend a top-15 LAC over our perfectly fine State U, but we see more striking differences between the experience, culture/fit, etc. between our options. The LAC will provide work study and has more structured undergrad research opportunities since there are no grad students. No doubt there are are likely plenty of great opps for your son, so perhaps culture/fit could be evaluated more?
I’ll defer to others who know the ins-and-outs of grad programs, but the general feedback is that research and grades are more important than the undergrad school itself. No point going to an Ivy if you end up miserable and a 2.5GPA. Plenty of ways to attend an Ivy as a grad student - esp as the sciences are a long road involving several more degrees to go. Yes, undergrad is their biggest decision they have made, yes, it’s for four years, etc. - but there’s a lot of living to do outside of school or after those 4 years. Travel, costs related to summer opportunities, down payment on a home/condo, maybe a car, moving across country, etc. etc… Paying top $ reminds me of being ‘house poor’ - be sure to enjoy it, but know there’s other things to forego.
Regardless of where he goes, it sounds like he will be successful - kudos to him and you! 
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Catholic school tuition in Orange Cty California was almost $16k - in 2010! It’s now $21k. That didn’t include sports which were another $1500 per sport, uniforms, books, parking (my kids didn’t have a car), etc.
In Denver the catholic high schools range from $10k to $22k, and private schools can be $32k. Those schools are all packed this year because the private schools were open/in person all year. Know a lot of people who transferred to private this year.
I haven’t read the entire thread but …
But $80k in debt or $60k if you will contribute $20k is a lot of debt. Unless your student wants IB, it’s too much, and even then, Fordham would get him there for free. I’m just not seeing the value here in that level of debt.
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Here is my advice from personal experience. My husband and I are both lawyers from not wealthy families. We owed an insane amount of money when we graduated even though I had a free ride to law school (he didn’t and we both had undergrad loans). It all “sounded” like it would work out to our naive 20-something selves - we would have great high-paying jobs! The reality was PAINFUL even with those good jobs. But we got extremely lucky because we bought our first house in the late 90’s for $200K and sold it 9 years later during the boom for $550k. Every dime of that profit went to paying off the loans (not toward equity in our new home) and it was the most freeing moment of my entire life. I would never let my kids have that kind of debt, it was so mentally taxing. Now as to whether the Ivy degree is worth more. In my professional experience, it really depends on your field. In law, it most definitely matters (although I don’t have that Ivy degree but somehow managed to break through). The high paying law firms are very “prestige” focused. But the undergrad doesn’t really matter. In politics and business, I think it is similar. Connections, Wall Street, etc. weigh in favor of an Ivy degree. For most other fields, including science, from what I’ve seen the Ivy degree just doesn’t justify debt. The reputation of the program is much more important. I would 100% go with the full ride in this situation. Good luck, sounds like an amazing kid who will do amazing things anywhere!
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Agree for science/stem majors, typically prestige is not as important. The other part of this is that Pitt is supposed to be excellent for pre-med, if that’s what the OP is interested in doing.
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