<p>Am I right in believing that it is usually middle class families who get the most varying need-based financial aid package results from different schools and that working class families will typically not see much difference at all?</p>
<p>So if Princeton's financial aid estimator gave me a result of around $1000 in EFC (I haven't actually tried it. I'm guessing it will be even less, probably around $500), I shouldn't have to worry about Penn expecting my parents to pay $10,000 a year or more, right?</p>
<p>I'm just posting this because there have been comments saying that Penn is stingy and it worries me a bit. I'm pretty sure this won't affect me (considering how poor I am) but I wanted to make sure.</p>
<p>UPenn gave me the least fin aid of all my colleges (I got accepted to Vandy, WashU, Cornell, Emory, UMich, and Hopkins)… but I appealed… when I met with a fin aid counselor I mentioned other schools giving me more money they only cared about Cornell and actually copied their letter and said they usually dont match offers from other schools…</p>
<p>Two days later they matched the amount Cornell gave me.</p>
<p>So I suggest applying to alot of ivies and use their packages as leeway if UPenn doesnt give you what it wants.</p>
<p>Yeah, the FA was disappointing. My family is not rich but my parents are extremely frugal. They began saving for retirement before I was born. They paid off their house early. We don’t go on vacations and my parents drive Honda cars made in the early 90s. Although my parents income is not that high I received no FA because of my parents other assets. Penn counted those towards the EFC much more than did the federal form. It’s pretty depressing.</p>