<p>Average beginning teacher salaries. Alaska had the highest average beginning salary in 2002-03, at $37,401. States joining Alaska in the top tier were New Jersey, at $35,673; District of Columbia, at $35,260; New York, at $35,259; and California, at $34,805.</p>
<p>Montana had the lowest average beginning salary in 2002-03, at $23,052. The other states in the bottom tier were Maine, at $24,631; South Dakota, at $24,311; North Dakota, at $23,591; and Arizona, at $23,548.</p>
<p>The Century Foundation published a short study by Don Heller listing the Pell Grant recipients at selective colleges. The year provided was 1999-2000, so things could have changed a bit. Of Penn's student body, 9.8% were Pell-eligible. Harvard was 6.8%, Yale was 10.1%, Princeton 7.4% Columbia had a relatively high 14.9%, but this still fell short of the national average which was 20% for that same year.</p>
<p>While this doesn't speak to the entire distribution of students at Penn and schools like it, it certainly suggests it's not the case that there are high numbers of students clustered in the lower income categories.</p>
<p>Financial aid budgets go up automatically as college list prices go up at a rate higher than inflation. The bulk of people who benefit will be those in the $92-$160k category, who might otherwise be drawn away by scholarships from the Vanderbilts of the world. </p>
<p>It's nice lip-service, but only has impact if they start admitting sizeable numbers of students in that category. For decades, Penn hasn't done that - but that could change. Here's hopin'!</p>
<p>Can someone tell me if this $50k figure is gross or net income?Thanks!</p>
<p><a href="http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2005/09/04/the_chosen_few?mode=PF%5B/url%5D">http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2005/09/04/the_chosen_few?mode=PF</a>
"While 'paying customers' still constituted the majority of students in 2000, students from modest backgrounds continued to be vastly underrepresented not only at the Big Three but also at highly selective colleges nationwide. At Princeton, which offered the most generous financial-aid packages in the Ivy League, students from families in the bottom 50 percent of the income distribution made up just 10 percent of the freshman class. At Harvard, the number was a bit higher, at roughly 12 percent, but the median family income for 2004 freshmen was roughly $150,000. At Yale, though no statistics are available on the income distribution of the freshman class, the paucity of students from families with limited education suggests a similar pattern; in 2001, 8 percent of Yale freshmen came from homes where neither parent had attended college.</p>
<p>Despite their consistent emphasis on 'diversity,' highlighted in an amicus brief submitted to the US Supreme Court in the landmark University of Michigan case on affirmative action, the Big Three are notoriously lacking one of its most critical dimensions: class diversity. In a study of the percentage of low-income students in 2000 (as measured by the proportion of federal Pell Grants - need-based awards that do not have to be repaid and make up the bulk of many poorer students' aid) at the nation's leading universities, the Big Three were found to be among the nation's least economically diverse schools. Of the 40 universities studied, Harvard and Princeton ranked 39th and 38th respectively, with Yale at 25th. While the three top universities in economic diversity were all public institutions (the University of California at Los Angeles, UC-Berkeley, and UC-San Diego), the next two - the University of Southern California and New York University - were private. And one university in the top 10, California Institute of Technology, is among the most selective private institutions in the nation."</p>
<p>Oh well, the internationals never qualify. Heh.</p>
<p>That would suck if someone made 51K</p>
<p>Penn's financial aid is probably great anways, so i doubt it matters...</p>
<p>penn financial aid is probably not great...at least comparatively</p>
<p>is that 50k before or after taxes and whatnot?</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure it's gross income.</p>
<p>this sucks! the only reason why I did not apply was because I could not afford it in the least. I now could have gone for free! :(</p>
<p>don't worry about it... as it turns out, they aren't paying tuition and board for those families but rather only eliminating loans for them</p>
<p>Eliminating loans will do a lot for those families. Now, they are only responsible for their EFC, and their financial aid package will include work and grants. Before, they would have been responsible for some very sizable loans as part of their aid. Juniors and seniors would be expected to take out at $5500 in subsidized loans, if they qualified for them. That's at least $11,000 savings for two years...</p>
<p>Why not $60,000???? WHYYYY!?!?!?! lol</p>
<p>The idea of someone whose family makes around $50,000 not applying at all because of a perception that they could never afford it--well, that's one good reason why institutions instigate programs like this.</p>
<p>
[quote]
this sucks! the only reason why I did not apply was because I could not afford it in the least. I now could have gone for free!
[/quote]
if you could go for free now, I'm sure even before they instituted this policy, you could have gone for a few thousand dollars with their finaid program...</p>
<p>I think this is great. Even if it won't benefit a lot of students, the ones that are benefited will be so grateful. Tuition isn't a reason students with low income families should rule out colleges. Some poor students work very hard in school because they want to prove they're worth something. It's a dream come true to get tuition and room/board paid. Students don't have to take loans, neither do their parent/s.</p>
<p>My daughter is a college sophmore, and we discovered the hard way that the Ivy League's system of determining need is flawed, and results in students pooled at both extremes with not much hope for those in the middle. She had no problem getting accepted to several Ivys, with her top choice being Princeton. They offered 6,000 need based aid. With both parents working, our income is over 100,00, but not much. We had saved some for her college, and we live within our means, and were completely honest and ethical in filling out all forms. These things put us at a disadvantage in garnering more tuition help. We were not looking for a free ride, and some debt for her is acceptable, but we could not see her graduating 90,000 in debt, which is what Princeton would have meant. We know many familys in a similar situation. On the other hand, I know of a couple of students receiving complete free rides at a couple of Ivys. The Ivys say the policy is so that students will not be discriminated against because of their parent's income status, but that is exactly what happens under the current system whereby students from middle, and upper middle income families are expected to take on huge debt burdens, while students whose families show lower income on paper get to graduate debt free. Why not expect everyone to assume a reasonable debt, and work with families who can document real need, as we did? (She is not the only child we have to send to college, just the first.) I don't quite understand this policy. It seems elitist. Anyhow, it shows that you generally do need to be in a pretty high or low income bracket to send your child to an Ivy. That is unless you or your child want to take on lots of debt, or you figure out a way to lower your EFC on the FAFSA, like living beyond your means, and carrying a lot of debt. Why is everyone so reluctant to admit that this is the case? This is not just theory, it is my actual experience. As an aside, I am not whining, as my daughter got a great merit scholarship at a fine school, and is quite happy. It's just that our experience, and those of several people I know prove that the Ivys are not within financial reach of many middle income families. Their aid policies are somewhat discrimanitory against this group. That's just the way it is, so why not just be honest about it?</p>
<p>single parent and my mom makes under 40K! i guess i qualify!</p>
<p>Penn fin aid is great anyway. Another feather in the committment cap at Penn.</p>
<p>Signed-
Satisfied Penn Mom</p>