<p>So, I've been looking at some colleges and NW and UC are my top picks. However, their tuition, room and board, etc. add up to more than $50,000. How do their financial aid packages compare? I'm the oldest from a family of five, only one parent works, and makes a little less than 100,000 a year.</p>
<p>Can’t speak for UC but our income was considerably less than that and my son was offered about 86% of COA in grants/scholarships at NU (not NW) last year. At the time, we only had one wage earner as well. He did receive a better offer at another private where he is attending. I heard UC is not very generous so I would guess NU’s fin aid would be better. FYI, if my son didn’t get the once in a lifetime opportunity he would be at Northwestern as he loved the school. Good luck.</p>
<p>According to College Navigator, a tool from the National Center for Education Statiatics, the annual net price for Chicago (my grad school) is $24k, 3k less than NW.</p>
<p>Also, the average UC grant is $27k, $4k more than NW. </p>
<p>So, Go Maroons! (and the students at UC are way nerdier).</p>
<p>[College</a> Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics](<a href=“http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/]College”>College Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics)</p>
<p>UChicago’s aid is about the same as that of the Lower Ivies. Northwestern’s aid can also be quite good, but statistically a few thousand less on average per year than UChicago.</p>
<p>Well, I don’t know how accurate the UC fin aid calculator is but when I ran it the numbers do back up the last poster’s comments. The difference in grants/scholarships between the two was just over $6K. </p>
<p>I would also add that NU had a Perkins loan component to their aid where UC did not have any loans as part of theirs.</p>