MIT is Cheap - go to Harvard or Stanford

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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<p>See </p>

<p><a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/highered/fa/Economics-Primer-2004.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/highered/fa/Economics-Primer-2004.pdf&lt;/a> </p>

<p>and</p>

<p><a href="http://568group.org/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://568group.org/&lt;/a> </p>

<p>for more information on the details of how financial aid awards are calculated.</p>

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<p>Spartan, a portion of savings & assets are expected as contribution if you have enough saved up. If you have $20M in the bank, then you probably have to pay full tuition for your kid.</p>

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<p>The truth is, sadly, there are ways for you to game the financial aid system to make yourself look poor enough to qualify for aid while actually having plenty of assets. In fact, there is a whole cottage industry of 'asset-shifting' to help people squirrel away their money into accounts that the financial aid system will not count. I'm not a lawyer, so I don't pretend to know what these tricks are, but I know that there are people out there who do that, and it is all legal under the letter of the law.</p>

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<p>Goats actually turn out to be a fairly standard asset-shelter.</p>

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<p>Has anybody already said this thing?</p>

<p>Stanford New Financial Aid Policy for Undergraduates</p>

<p>"Beginning in academic year 2006-2007, parents of undergraduate financial aid applicants whose total annual income is less than $45,000 will not be expected to pay for their children’s educational costs at Stanford. Parents with income between $45,000 and $60,000 can expect a pro-rated reduction in their expected parent contribution."</p>

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<p>Harvard>MIT</p>

<p>Therefore, you don’t make sense to me because I wouldn’t pay 30 K more to go to a school that I like less. Silly silly. MIT grads(lacking social skills) work for Harvard grads anyway.</p>

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<p>You posted this 4 weeks ago. What changed?</p>

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<p>Well, yes, I did post this. But then MIT was cheap on me. Money changes my mind surprisingly fast.</p>

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<p>So I walked into the elevator in the Student Center today and saw a list of the top universities, ordered by the average salary of a graduate with a bachelor’s degree from that university. MIT topped the list, at 71k or so.</p>

<p>It might be more expensive to go here…but if all you care about is money, it might be worth it in the end anyway.</p>

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<p>Yeah, so like, um, the difference between MIT and Harvard’s starting salaries are negligible. You should also have noticed that Harvard has a larger range of salaries that covers higher values. Ivy league babay. Also, the people who major in less-useful majors (ex philosophy, english, roman studies) are at Harvard, and tend to have lower starting salaries for obvious reasons. So pick your major wisely and you’re set.</p>

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<p>Like I said, money changes my mind. Duhr</p>

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<p>What happened to this dream?</p>

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<p>Goodness gracious. My course 22 dream is too damn expensive so I said bye bye to it.</p>

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<p>For me, Harvard’s financial aid was absolutely amazing (parental contribution= 0), whereas for MIT we have to pay slightly more, but still less than some of the other very selective schools.</p>

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<p><em>shrug</em> You think biology majors are making 71k right out of school? Have fun being bitter from your ivory tower down the road.</p>

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<p>Yeah you won’t start making a good salary until your 30s if you are a regular run of the mill prof…which most are.</p>

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<p>Please ask yourself if the amount of money you will save <em>really</em> justify throwing away your dream? </p>

<p>But your tone (and ignorant, broad, defensive statements like “MIT grads just end up working for Harvard grads anyway”) indicates that you will fit in at Harvard quite nicely.</p>

<p>Money is a perfectly legitimate reason to pick one school over the other, but it is uncalled for to turn around with the attitude that MIT is the evil empire of college land. It is certainly not a personal attack on you that MIT has a significantly smaller endowment and chooses to spend their money differently than Harvard, so don’t act like it is.</p>

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<p>It’s like spending more money to go to a less prestigious school. That doesn’t make sense to me.</p>

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<p>iCalculus, personally, I’m finding it hard believing you are admitted to Harvard. I can’t remember any other Harvard admits over the past 4 years or so who felt the need to hang around on the MIT website and bash the school, simply because they decided to go elsewhere. As biased as I am in favor of MIT, I believe the typical Harvard student is above this sort of pettiness.</p>

<p>Just to cover my bases though, in case it’s true, let me be the first to congratulate you on having opened up a spot on the MIT waitlist to someone else.</p>