<p>I was admitted into both MIT and Caltech EA and just recieved my fiancial aid awards. Somehow I qualified for a great amount of financial aid from Caltech and absolutely no need-based aid from MIT. Is this normal? I know different schools handle their financial aid processes uniquely but is it normal for very similar schools with similar students and resources to differ by tens of thousands of dollars in aid money? I have checked and rechecked and the information submitted to both schools is identical so I am currently very perplexed.</p>
<p>you answered your own questions. fin aid is calculated based on institutional formula/procedure. one school may weigh certain things rather differently. </p>
<p>it’s not unusual that mit come out on the lower end in many scenarios, as has been reported by many in the past.</p>
<p>That said, if MIT is your first choice, you have nothing to lose by asking your FA counselor this question as well. In working with my sons’ counselor over the last two years, plus from what I’ve read here on CC, it seems like the FA numbers are just a starting point and are negotiable. Having an extremely different offer from a competing school can’t hurt you in making your case. I will say that my younger son’s FA from MIT and Caltech were very similar so it would be worth asking just in case there was a mistake and if not, seeing if there was anything they could do for you from there. </p>
<p>Our MIT FA advisor was very friendly and helpful, and even (without my asking) gave me projections for how our aid would change over the next 4 years (due to number of siblings in college) so I got a good picture that although S would be getting significant aid this year, it would drop dramatically (okay, totally!) once his older brothers both graduate and are no longer figured into the aid need a few years down the road.</p>
<p>Unless they made a mistake or something has changed in your family’s situation, your financial aid from MIT is unfortunately unlikely to change. It can’t hurt to try, of course, but telling MIT that Caltech gave you a better offer is unlikely to change anything.</p>
<p>With that said - there is also no harm in checking to see if FinAid missed something. AFAIK CalTech also has need based aid so the numbers should not be as far off as you describe.</p>
<p>MIT does often make mistakes, but I know of several successful financial aid appeals. Probably the best indicator is whether the expected aid and the final aid were close to each other. On the main MIT student financial services webpage ([MIT</a> - Student Financial Services](<a href=“MIT Student Financial Services”>MIT Student Financial Services)) you will find the “NET PRICE CALCULATOR” (or on almost every other university financial services website). There you can get an estimate of the MIT aid package. When your final package is very different from the estimate you got from the NPC, then you might well have a good case for an appeal.</p>
<p>However, MIT will not normally negotiate on the grounds that you got a better offer somewhere else. That is not normally a successful argument.</p>
<p>I have a son in the same situation as you. He got 48K from Carnegie-Mellon and only 18K from MIT. When we did the estimated EFC, it came to about 21K for MIT and 19K for Carnegie-Mellon - all the same info sent to both Universities. So, WHY is there such a big discrepancy in FA?? I have asked the FA advisor about it - however, he has not been very helpful in answering us. I wish we had someone who would be helpful in explaining this to us. My son has his HEART set on MIT. He was also accepted to Cornell, but we havn’t received the FA award/packet yet.</p>
<p>Thanks for some of the posts that I saw. Someone mentioned that you had a very helpful FA advisor - lucky you!!!</p>
<p>Also, I noticed MIT’s endowment is 8 million, while C-M’s is only 0.8 million. So, why the more at C-M. Could it be that MIT made a mistake. THe MIT estimator vs. the actual amount of EFC differs by close to 20K.</p>
<p>Please respond if you have any advice!!</p>
<p>Thanks!! This is what I wanted to know. About the disparity between estimated and actual ECF.</p>
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<p>You already made a mistake. MIT’s endowment is 8.5 billion.
Maybe you had some mistake on the FA paperwork.</p>
<p>@ladaniels–
Carnegie Mellon gives merit awards, whereas MIT does not, which probably explains the difference.
“Carnegie Mellon offers a Carnegie Scholarship to incoming first-year students. Carnegie Scholarships are awarded to academically and artistically talented middle income students who qualify for little to no need-based financial aid.” (Source: [Admission</a> > Grants and Scholarships](<a href=“Home - Computing Services - Office of the CIO - Carnegie Mellon University”>Home - Computing Services - Office of the CIO - Carnegie Mellon University))</p>
<p>I have personally seen several successful appeals along the lines of:
- I was hoping to go to MIT but cannot afford to go to MIT with the proposed aid award.
- Based on the Net Price calculator I was expecting to get enough to attend MIT
- However the awarded aid is substantially different from what the NPC led me to expect.
If this applies to you, then definitely contact your financial aid counselor, who is assigned on the basis of surname (see [MIT</a> - Student Financial Services](<a href=“MIT Student Financial Services”>MIT Student Financial Services)). </p>
<p>Even if the aid is in line with the NPC, you may still be able to successfully appeal an aid award. Keep in mind that the goal of the FA process is to ensure that those who the admissions office chooses to admit can all afford to come to MIT. The two most common reasons for an appeal to work in such circumstances is:</p>
<p>1) The award does not accurately reflect the families current financial circumstances. For example, if there is a significant difference in the current year’s income not reflected in last year’s tax return, or the unemployment of a parent (or spouse), or a change in marital status of a parent.</p>
<p>2) Although the income is correct, the FA office has not properly captured the family’s expenses. So if there are unusual medical expenses, or a number of family members paying tuition for schooling (either primary, secondary, or university), or high care costs for aging relatives, these (or others) might indicate why the award does not accurately capture the family’s financial services.</p>
<p>These all qualify as “special circumstances” in the parlance of SFS, and may mean that they will consider an appeal. </p>
<p>By contrast, the following definitely DO NOT qualify as special circumstances.
A) We can afford to attend given this aid award, but we were hoping for more. (Good, I was hoping for world peace).
B) We can afford to attend given this aid award, but the University of Lower Slobovia is offering more. Will you match that. (Usually no, particularly as MIT offers NO merit-based aid).</p>
<p>MIT SFS is made up of human beings with a difficult job to do. If you need to discuss this with your FA adviser than do so, but don’t go into that conversation confrontational or aggressive. If you treat them respectfully and you explain the facts then they will listen. MIT SFS does not often get it wrong, but they do rarely, and when they do, they are prepared to reconsider.</p>
<p>In 2008 a Caltech report said that it loses 90% of the cross-admits with Stanford and MIT, and had resolutions to improve financial aid to start winning more of these cross-admits. In the past 3 years, Caltech has become much more competitive in its financial aid, so this is probably a case of that increased competitiveness.</p>
<p>Actually, my ex-husband had the endowment wrong (8 billion sounds more like it).
ANYWAY, good news - the FA office got back to us telling us that they counted my ex’s assets twice.</p>
<p>To MIKALYE
THANK YOU FOR ALL THAT WONDERFUL INFORMATION!!! As you might have read in my prior post, the FA office calculated my ex-husband’s assets 2x and are calculating my son’s FA package again - which will be ready in about 2 days. Whew!!! Hopefully, it is around the estimated number we got from the MIT site. THANKS again.</p>
<p>thanks so much Mikalye</p>
<p>We have also experienced this difference. Caltech is by far the least expensive with about 6K out of pocket. Next comes Princeton (about $9,800), Mudd (about 11K), Penn (12k) and MIT (14K). I would say my son was deciding mostly between Princeton and MIT but MIT may be out of reach, unfortunately. My son will have some outside scholarships and plans on working but the MIT gap, for our family of 5 income of under 80K, may be too much. We’ll see what the final outside scholarship total is, but that might not come until after choosing time.</p>
<p>We feel strongly about not accumulating any or much debt, and that will probably be a deciding factor if all other things are equally wonderful about the schools. (And these are all fabulous schools, for sure!)</p>
<p>We received the new MIT FA package later that same day and there was an ENORMOUS difference between the one we received initially :)</p>
<p>NOW, my son will be able to attend MIT!!! So Happy!!!</p>
<p>I am really, really pleased to hear this. I know what it means to be accepted at MIT and I want every accepted candidate to be able to attend. Ideally, I would like a yield of 100%, even if it would totally stuff up the admissions office (grin).</p>
<p>The ethos is simple. The job of the FA office is to ensure that every candidate accepted by MIT can afford to attend. When someone has received a financial aid package where that is not possible, then an error has most likely been made, and our Student Financial Services team is very good at putting that right.</p>
<p>For the avoidance of doubt, there is a huge gap between “afford” and “comfortably afford”. The first is a deliverable goal, the second, a pipe dream.</p>
<p>Funny, I just spoke with the MIT FA advisor today. They considered our appeal. Nope. We chatted pleasantly about it, but he either couldn’t grasp the numbers or didn’t care. Either way, tough luck. The FA award was absurdly low, and the explanation for it nonsensical.</p>
<p>There was no anger. No antagonism. And no money. Anybody want to buy a kidney?</p>