<p>I am curious whether the financial aid that schools like Harvard give are something you have to pay all back later. I know that people who are in the income bracket lower than 60,000 American receive full financial aid at Harvard. Does this financial aid mean that I would have to pay all back, or partially, or none at all? Thanks for your help.</p>
<p>As long as it is a grant, you do not have to pay it back. To this, I would like to pose my own question. I have been accepted to Yale and want a ballpark figure for financial aid when my parent's gross annual income is around $80,000. What should be their EFC? If I have stupidly saved around $20,000 in my own name, what can I do to not be penalized, i.e., pay more?</p>
<p>jhkoreacanada: The answer to your question is that it depends on the how the school packages your aid (assuming you qualify for any). "Self help aid" (loans and work study) can run 20% to 50% of a total package. </p>
<p>rocket: You should encourage your parents to fill out the EFC calculator here:
<a href="http://www.finaid.org/calculators/finaidestimate.phtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.finaid.org/calculators/finaidestimate.phtml</a>
That's the only way you can estimate. You have to take into account assets (and other stuff) as well as income - that is why no one can give you an estimate on here.
Money saved in your name can legally be spent on your education expenses. That includes high school tuition, if applicable.</p>
<p>Most schools that give need based financial aid do not give out "full rides" because there is an expectation that the student is gong to be an active participant in the financing of his/her education. This means there will be a student contribution from summer earnings and self help once the student is on campus in the forms or work-study and/or subsidized loans.</p>
<p>At Stanford:</p>
<p>Does the new policy affect my student contribution or self-help expectation?</p>
<p>A. No. Students are still expected to contribute from their prior-year earnings (50% of after-tax income, minimum $1,700 for freshmen, $2,100 for all others) and from their own assets (35% of the current total value). Students are also expected to cover a self-help (student loan and/or work-study job) expectation of $5,500 for 2006-07. Some students from lower-income families will have a lower self-help expectation.</p>
<p>Princeton;</p>
<p>While Princeton has eliminated student loand, the student will still have a self help component in the form of a job and will still have an EFC where they will have to contribute from summer earnings.</p>
<p>Under Princeton’s financial aid policy student loans are not included in the initial financial aid award. However, student loans are available to help cover expenses beyond the standard student budget, or to replace a shortfall in expected summer or term earnings for aid recipients. Non-aid students may also consider taking a loan to assume responsibility for a portion of their expenses. In addition, parents can borrow to help cover their share of Princeton’s costs.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that there will be other miscellaneous cost associated with attending college. These include: travel, books, computers, etc. which are not covered by the school.</p>
<p>Harvard states:</p>
<p>You will also have non-billed (out-of-pocket)nexpenses for books, personal and travel expenses — costs which will vary depending on your own
style and habits. For purposes of determining your eligibility for financial aid, we are using a combined book and personal expense allowance
of $2,795.</p>
<p>Student Contribution</p>
<p>We normally expect that incoming students willnearn money for college expenses by working during the summer. We believe a reasonable goal for
this summer in most cases is $1,500, or approximately $150 per week during the summer vacation period. (Summer expectations for upperclass
students are higher due to a longer summer working period.)</p>
<p>If you are not able to save enough from your summer earnings
to meet part or all of the expectation, it may be possible for you to borrow an additional amount.</p>
<p>Bumping this older thread (used the search function to find some helpful posts, but this was the peak of that little mountain I think).</p>
<p>On their website, Yale states that for families earning below $48000, there is no EFC. My parents earn $20000 combined; I have around ~$900 saved away, and I'm in student loan debt to a tune of $36000 (I'm an international student and have been at a community college - far more expensive for non-residents, unfortunately - for the past two years. So the debt comes from tuition, travel and rent as the cc is in a very expensive area).</p>
<p>I'm still waiting for my finaid package to arrive and all, but I'd just like to know general experiences people have had with Yale and EFC/finaid. Is my already accumulated debt taken into account when assigning help in the form of loans? Will there really be no EFC? </p>
<p>I understand and really welcome the idea of expected student contribution, as long as they can guarantee on-campus work. The student visa makes it illegal for me to work off-campus unless sponsored, so that's been and is out of the question - getting a short-term summer job in my "home" country has turned out to be even trickier. While unemployment is ridiculously high as is, getting a clean, over-the-table job is even harder the younger you are: long-term unemployed applicants take precedence for the jobs my age and current state of education allows for, as much of official job listings are run through a government employment agency. I did manage to land two jobs despite of this, but it's turned out to be 200% harder when short-term summer employment is what I have to limit myself to. Do finaid offices know about this kind of stuff, the current labor market situation in different countries? Should I explain this if they expect me to contribute money from a job I realistically speaking won't land? I'm hoping it'll be easier now that I'll be at a fancy-schmancy school, but I just don't know.</p>
<p>The whole situation isn't made any better by being from a culture where parents obessively protect kids from working while studying. I know my parents mean well, but they take it as almost a personal offense when I suggest I need to work instead of going back with them to our home country again. I feel I've missed out on a lot by not having the opportunity for some solid work experience beyond simple nursing and some freelance webdesign work. I WANT to work; but I'm also realistic about getting employment back there. My family lacks connections, apartment openings (governmentally run) for the cities where jobs do exist require years of standing in line or having a foot in the door... for all the things that are right with welfare, I still find myself wishing I could just work here and accept all the job offers people spontaneously throw at me. There's no such culture of "hey, you're here, you want this job, you can do this job - get to work!" in Sweden.</p>
<p>What should I expect? What should I do if the finaid isn't realistic for my situation? Anybody have any similar fears and/or experiences?</p>
<p>Just to add, my parents did have money saved up for me and my sibling to go to college, but lost it all. Now we're really starting off from scratch, does the finaid office take things like this into consideration? I.e. is one expected to have big amounts of money already saved up?</p>
<p>I am not sure that Yale's financial aid initiative for low-income students applies to international students -- I was under the impression that it was aimed at US residents.</p>
<p>I think you are just going to have to wait and see what the FA package will have -- and I would definitely communicate your issues with the FA office, it certainly couldn't hurt and it might help your package better meet your needs.</p>
<p>Well, I'm getting it in the mail today, but need to check with another school to exend my reply deadline. It's all a little stressful right now and I was hoping you guys could relieve some of that.</p>
<p>Actually one of the reason I applied to Yale was because they, alongside Harvard, do offer substantial aid to intls. I'm crossing my fingers that's true in practice as well.</p>
<p>as I understand it, Yale does have good financial aid to internationals -- I just think the low initiative thing doesn't necessarily apply.</p>
<p>once you get your package -- you can always call and ask for an adjustment based on your extenuating circumstances.</p>
<p>So I got my offer in the mail today, and it's about $4000 more than we could conceivably afford. I'm not sure how they even came up with the EFC they did, we were stretching it even with the $3000 we'd planned on being able to contribute. My parents are both economists so poor budget planning isn't the issue either, we simply don't have the money (a lot of previous student loan debt though)!</p>
<p>It feels a little depressing right now, I suppose my only hope is that the finaid review turns out a more realistic sum for us. Are there any other options I can look into as an international student? How would having two student loans at once and in two different countries work out? "Help, I need somebody... not just anybody..."</p>
<p>does the package include work-study and a student contribution from summer earnings?</p>
<p>It sounds like you ended up with an EFC of $7000 -- is that correct?</p>
<p>Yes, it does. Summer earnings would be very tough unless I can arrange some sort of on-campus summer work, since my F-1 visa doesn't allow for off-campus employment and I'm only really in Sweden for around a month over the year because of the travel dates that are the cheapest. Sigh.</p>
<p>I've explained this in my review request, so I'm hoping they'll understand we really were honest about what kind of money we had towards school. My parents have told me they'd be willing to take out a loan, but it just feels extremely bad having them do that since they're so deep into debt already.</p>
<p>Help cross your fingers for me you guys!</p>
<p>Shameless bump!</p>