Pleeeease Help Us Decide!!!

<p>I was wrong, it was the 14th largest endowment in 2003. I believe it has crept up the ladder after a large recent fundraiser.</p>

<p>I have posted this link before; I simply think it is the best treatment of the "Aims of Education" I have ever read. It also contains a great deal of research info on the "effects of college." It should be required reading for all parents.</p>

<p><a href="http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0310/features/zen.shtml%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0310/features/zen.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>jack,
did you get the finaid package yet? Ours was very much what the various calculators lead us to expect. Mistakes do occur - have you talked to them?</p>

<p>idad: Thanks for the link; I had read that earlier, along with O'Neill's convocation speech that's on their site. All very impressive--as were all of their mailings, including the beautifully written acceptance letter! </p>

<p>ohio_mom: Well...we knew we wouldn't qualify greatly for financial aid, so I suspect they are correct. Still...zero aid? Not even work-study? Maybe I'll call. I gather these people think you should just take out a 2nd mortgage or tons of loans. We could do that, certainly. And if she desperately felt this is where she really wanted to go (or that other school that gave her zero aid), then we'd do it. I don't think any of us are completely sure, though, that $180,000+ for undergraduate school is worth it. Maybe. And, certainly, if they were putting up some of it. Our child, like so many others who post here, is not stopping her formal education at the undergraduate level, so we're thinking about that, too.</p>

<p>It would be interesting, Jack, to see how they defined their EFC as opposed to, say, Duke, since you did get some aid from there. The schools do not use a fixed method for EFC, switching between methods in order to give preferential packaging, I know, but since you do have some aid from a like quality school, you are owed some explanation. And do ask about the work study, specifically. But, you know the ones who admit the kid and give the aid are not ones who get to know him and work with him.</p>