I agree that this is odd, unless there is self-employment (that can absolutely make a difference) or a HUGE amount of equity in the home. I would suggest the OP call Yale to ask very politely for an explanation, with the intro being, “I just want to make sure that I understand exactly what has impacted my financial aid package in a way that I had not expected.” There is nothing wrong with seeking an explanation. I have often had to help students understand what impacted their EFC/awards. It’s part of the job.
We have approximately $430,000 in home equity, so I do not believe that Yale has made a mistake in their statement. From what I understand, the only Ivies that do not factor in home equity are Harvard and Princeton, and I did not apply to either school.
It’s unfortunate that we are essentially being penalized for being financially responsible over the past 15 years, but I also should have taken it upon myself to learn about these policies more deeply. Pragmatically, I didn’t anticipate receiving any Ivy acceptances so it was never our primary focus.
Thank you all very much for your speculation, advice, and kind words. I suppose all I can do is wait until the end of March when we’ll be able to contact the FA offices with a clear picture of my results. Even on the off-chance of a reduced package from any of the universities, I don’t want to place any huge financial burden on my family, especially when I have great affordable options elsewhere! If nothing else, I can always hope for grad school 
I wouldn’t really say you are being penalized for being financially responsible. Your family arranged their assets in a way that wasn’t favored by Yale. A person with an added $200,000 in investments and $230,000 in home equity isn’t really less responsible than your parents, nor is someone with an extra $200,000 in 401Ks and $230,000 in home equity. Many people with home equity might take a home equity line of credit to borrow against the equity at a low interest rate, but your parents are free to decide not to do that because of how expensive the college is… I do have an acquaintance who had a discussion with Princeton over need-based aid, and this led to more being offered (but perhaps this was due to recently divorced parents -one with much higher income and assets than the other.)
Nearly a half a million in the lottery of real estate is not to be sniffed at. Many people in good financial situations never encourage their kids to apply to no merit schools because they know that there will be no FA. Sure, it is a bummer any family is too rich for FA. It keeps the yield down at many a top school, I am sure. I Just read that Yale’s yield is 67%.
That’s very true. It was not my intention to imply that families who choose to allocate their money differently in that respect are any more or less responsible, so apologies if my statement came across that way.
As I stated above, I realize that we are to blame for not researching more deeply. I knew virtually nothing about the details of my family’s finances up until this year because they did not wish to disclose them. It is unfortunate that tuition is so expensive, but I also realize that given our circumstances, we ~technically~ have the means to make Yale/another Ivy happen at full price. It’s a matter benefit/cost. With another sibling who will be attending college in 3 years, and parents who hope to retire, it’s not worth it (to us) to take on so much debt.
Also, as a disclaimer, I’m not trying to trivialize those with less favorable financial situations at all. I acknowledge my privilege. My goal in creating the thread was simply to glean a better picture of what my options might be. I was hoping someone could weigh in that underwent a similar situation and emerged “victorious”, as I was wondering if leveraging offers was an actual thing, but I now realize that merit scholarships at other schools will not affect aid at Ivies, and leveraging really only comes into play in terms of need-based offers. In that respect, my questions have been answered (even if they were not the answers I’d hoped for). Thanks!
See if Yale can evaluate the price of the house more conservatively although it may not help as they limit the equity they consider to some multiple of AGI. Another thing they may take into account is Unreimbursed Employee Expenses.
If your parents have borrowing power they can take a home equity loan to pay for freshman year and next year you may qualify for finaid. If your parents cannot borrow against home equity for legitimate reason - make sure you tell Yale about it. It was a tactical mistake that you did not apply to HP. Finaid offer from any of them could make a big difference.
@CCDD14: I’ll forward this information to my parents. In hindsight, I do regret not applying to Harvard and Princeton, given my luck in admissions thus far, but it would still be pretty presumptuous to believe that I would’ve been accepted at either school RD (see Harvard’s 3% acceptance rate RD) -at least, that’s the logic I use to console myself
We were in the same situation with my D 4 years ago. Fortunately, she also applied to Princeton, and we found Princeton to be very understanding when we explained our situation to them. They increased her aid. Yale offered nothing, even after they asked to see the Princeton offer. So I don’t know if you’ll have any better luck than we did, but you should definitely try.
Good luck to you. It seems like wherever you land, you’ll do well. It’s not the institution that matters, it’s what you do with your time there, and you seem to be well aware of that.
Thanks so much everyone! I found out that I was accepted at Columbia today and they offered me 10k in financial aid as well, which makes attending more feasible. I still plan to call the financial aid offices of the other universities to request a reassessment, just so that I know I’ve covered all possible bases (for example, Dartmouth claims on their webpage that they will match the offer… but Dartmouth is also more expensive to begin with). This has been quite a process