<p>1) you can still apply now - my frosh year i never applied, but got a lovely phonecall encouraging me to apply for finaid even after i got my admission. and then got some help. you could also apply in future years if things change.
2) i was in a similar situation (actually above the harvard figure by quite a bit) - columbia has no cut off for income at the upper level, it all depends on your personal circumstances (including who else in your family is in college, how many total members are in your family, your family’s assets (or lack thereof)). i received as much as 10k and as little as 3k over the years as my family’s circumstances changed.
3) it was still expensive, and my mom often would moonlight at the hospital to earn extra money because she didn’t want me to take out loans, we sacrificed some things. but in the end it was worth it - completely. i could have gone to great state institutions, or even top tier private institutions that gave out decent aid - but i felt no connection/attraction to them the way i did to columbia. most folks think finaid is some panacea - it is help often, but in the end paying for college is a big expense, not something that you do on the side, and like anything big, it requires some degree of sacrifice.</p>
<p>in the end it is your family’s decision, and each family will come to it on their own based on what they think is possible. i remember late in april actually making a presentation where i projected the costs over 4 years (it was funny right as i did that, i got a phone call from columbia asking if finaid was a reason i hadn’t deposited). the finaid wasn’t much, but it put our mind at ease.</p>
<p>So…some of you may know that on March 1st (the day financial forms were due) their fax machines were busy for hours. I kept trying for about 2 hours and finally decided that it would be better for the admissions office to receive it, at least. I didn’t think enough because I was too worried I would miss the deadline and not receive any aid and so I went ahead and faxed my financial forms to the admissions office (not the FA office)…now come to think of it, the admissions people will know that I applied for aid…</p>
<p>is that necessarily bad? I am a Canadian, btw. I know Columbia treats Canadians the same as domestic applicants in terms of aid, but I am worried that they might see that I am going to be another student that they have to spend money on and reject me. </p>
<p>@admissionsgeek
wow… they even called you for FA even though you didn’t apply? that’s amazzing…did you get that aid for freshman year though? Also, how did they know about your financial circumstances to call and ask if you wanted FA, or did they just have a huge sum of leftover money ?</p>
<p>I doubt likelies will be sent anymore. There’s only 3 weeks before decisions come out, and I’m sure they’ve looked at every application already. They are probably just deciding between borderline applicants. But you never know!!</p>
<p>admissionsgeek…thanks a lot for the insight! I will definitely apply for aid should I choose to go to Columbia :)</p>
<p>Powerbomb…I think you’re over thinking this. The wealthier schools could care less about fin aid…they have to distribute their endowment in some way. This won’t affect your decision.</p>
<p>well need blind meaning they won’t consider need as an admission factor…this makes sense. If they were so worried about money they wouldn’t have such a generous financial aid program</p>
<p>c) well they didn’t know how much my family made cause we never sent in any documents - the convo went like this: we have noticed you haven’t applied for financial aid and haven’t deposited, we don’t want you to not choose columbia because of financial reasons so 1) you can still submit documents, 2) we will be willing to push back your deposit deadline to get you an appropriate financial aid award letter if that will ease you and your family’s decision. </p>
<p>needless to say, i sent in my deposit that day, it was without question one of the sweetest gestures. and my 4 years at columbia were equally wonderful working with finaid.</p>
<p>admissionsgeek, hm… then it seems to me that either Columbia wanted to extend help for ALL admitted students, or you were one of their favorite applicants and didn’t want to take the chance of losing you to another college.</p>
<p>@powerbomb: Columbia specifically says that they are needblind to Canadian and mexican citizens as well, so being a Canadian/Mexican citizen who needs aid should be no different from being a US citizen/permanent resident.</p>
<p>admissionsgeek… I said that I accidentally sent in my financial aid forms to the ADMISSIONS office…and was worried that they might see that I need aid and reject me.</p>