Question from an EA admit.

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1

<p>To what degree do all of you accepted prefrosh (or did all of the current MIT students) take financial considerations into account when you made your decision to attend MIT? </p>

<p>I guess this is a question that comes up quite frequently, but I'm just curious. </p>

<p>Whenever I ask my friends about how much paying the tuition comes into their final college decisions, they normally say that their parents pay for it all or that financial aid covers a substantial amount of the tuition, so the cost isn't their primary concern. </p>

<p>Do the majority of you take out loans? Do your parents pay for any cost that financial aid doesn't cover? </p>

<p>I'll be applying to as many scholarships as I can get my hands on in the next few months, but my parents are doubtful that they'll come to much. There are so few merit-based scholarships out there and they're all quite competitive (not to keep me from trying). </p>

<p>Although I'll have the FAFSA and CSS profile submitted, I highly doubt I will receive much financial aid. I've heard that even people whose parents make six figure incomes can obtain at least some financial aid since MIT and any other private college, Ivy caliber or not, aren't cheap... but I'm doubtful, and my parents are downright pessimistic... at this point, they really don't seem to care to put much heart into doing any of the obligatory financial aid forms.</p>

<p>I was accepted to both MIT and Caltech early action (and decided not to finish applications to elsewhere). I love both schools, and choosing between the two is already difficult. At this point, I think MIT is a better fit (although I'd love to get a better and more balanced view of the two environments before I make my final decision). I want to be sure of where I want to go to college, and I don't want financial issues to have a final say in where I decide to spend the next 4 years of my life, even though it's reality. </p>

<p>My parents' objections to going to MIT are stifling. Cold, harsh winters aside, I'll have to take out loans if I go to MIT. </p>

<p>I wouldn't have to worry about tuition if I go to Caltech. </p>

<p>And I don't want to come out of undergraduate studies with a $100 k debt. </p>

<p>Haha, sorry for the semi-incoherent babbling. I'm just a bit glum.</p>

2

<p>Well, I was deferred not admitted, but in my case I will definitely take financial consideration into account. My parents have a fairly decent income so financial aid will be slim for me :( However, I will say, if I had gotten into MIT, financial aid would not have been a consideration for me, I would have found some way to make it work (even if that meant loans and jobs on my part). An education from MIT is worth every bit of the tuition (aid just makes it a value-deal ;) )</p>

3

<p>I am in the exact same boat- was accepted EA to Caltech and MIT, and am caught between the two. Financial matters will play an important part in making a final decision. I am also leaning towards MIT right now, but I'm afraid of getting my heart set on MIT in case MIT's financial aid is less than satisfying...</p>

4

<p>I didn't entirely take financial matters into account when deciding -- I was so excited, I just wanted to go to MIT at all costs. My parents paid a substantial amount for me to go, and it was difficult for them at times.</p>

<p>I worked for my spending money all eight semesters and all four summers at MIT, because I didn't want to have to ask my parents for more money on top of tuition. I also took out some student loans, which I will have paid back by the time I finish graduate school.</p>

<p>MIT was absolutely worth it for me, in terms of the financial cost. However, my loans are not staggering -- I have about the average debt load of a college graduate, which is not $100,000.</p>

<p>
[quote]
I've heard that even people whose parents make six figure incomes can obtain at least some financial aid since MIT and any other private college, Ivy caliber or not, aren't cheap.

[/quote]

I got about 40-50% of MIT's cost in finanacial aid, and my parents made (together) a low six-figure salary. The final determination does depend on assets other than income, though.</p>

5

<p>@tennisgirl,
When the offers come, you and your folks will need to sit down and have some serious conversations. I'm the parent of an MIT freshman, and although my daughter applied for financial aid, MIT did not offer any. You will soon find that many other schools do offer merit aid to the children of middle-class families. When the decision comes solely down to money, it is a tough decision. Even Yale was several thousand dollars per year cheaper than MIT.</p>

<p>So how did my daughter end up at MIT? Well, she applied for a dozen scholarships, and she won five, as I recall. She is also working this year as a freshman. These things together reduced this year's tuition by about $10,000. She also plans to work this summer. So far, she has not taken out any loans, and now that she's an undergraduate, there are other scholarships to which she can apply that specifically target women interested in science and engineering. I think she can make it work.</p>

6

<p>@OP and tennisgirl,
It is a tough decision because Caltech is also a great school. </p>

<p>Last year our daughter could have gone to another local, good school with its merit scholarship but felt MIT was the match for her. - We campus visited again every school that admitted her. So she applied for 6 or 7 merit scholarships and got 3, worth $10,000 a year. And we're paying the rest of her cost with our savings.</p>

<p>We also think that 5 or 7 years down the road, this education investment will not even seem like a large sum. And we're betting that an MIT education is worth every penny for our student.</p>

7

<p>I am also the parent of an MIT freshman and in the end MIT's finaid was among the best of all the schools our daughers was admitted to. The financial aid office was very receptive to review any additional financial information and adjusted its aid accordingly. </p>

<p>MIT also offers numerous paid research positions in the dozens of labs on campus, specifically designed for undegrads. Our daughter has already been offered such an opportunity. The school also assists with paid internships during the summers. I seriously doubt anybody at MIT ends up with debts anywhere near $100,000 upon graduation. Over 60% of MIT students receive substantial financial aid averaging $25,000 per year. I am also willing to bet that MIT will adjust its need based aid formula for middle income applicants to closely match Harvard's recently announced program. They certainly have the resources to do it.</p>

<p>There are several studies showing that selecting a school offering merit aid over an elite college offering need based aid is often not a wise long term decision. Having gone through that precise analysis for our daughter last year, I can assure you we see the value of her getting an MIT degree. Most applicants families also do. With a yield of about 70%, few students admitted to MIT fail to enroll and among these, a tiny minority make the decision for financial reasons. (Most cross-admits who don't matriculate enroll at other colleges with need-based financing only.)</p>

8

<p>I would agree in general. However the original poster who got accepted by both MIT and Caltech......if every thing equal, imo, all come down to how 'determined' your mind set go down the road of scientist academic career. If you want to leave your option open, go MIT, where you can chose some huminity courses from near by Harvard. Besides its more name branded.</p>

9

<p>why wouldn't you have to worry about tuition at Caltech? did you get merit scholarship? I too am an early admit to both of these schools and I have the same questions as you.</p>

10

<p>I currently have very little interest in humanities, and I don't think that mindset will ever change. In general , the atmosphere? seems to be broader at MIT than at Caltech (range of activities, programs, etc.). I love both. Slight preference for one over the other. </p>

<p>If I remember correctly, Caltech doesn't announce merit scholarships until RD... but my mom works at JPL, and if I can maintain "decent" grades, I can receive a tuition reimbursement (not sure about the exact procedure though), and I can depend on my parents more financially if I go to Caltech, just because they want to keep me in state. </p>

<p>So those 100k debt horror stories are generally myths? </p>

<p>My mom was talking to a few of her coworkers, and it seems like they all said paying so much for private schools didn't seem to return much in the long run. (Maybe that comment was just to discourage me?)</p>

<p>Frankly, my mom would be happy if I went to the local community. It's practical?</p>

11

<p>Three not necessarily linked comments from me:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Given the choice between tuition reimbursement at Caltech and $100k in loans at MIT, you would probably be wise to pick Caltech unless you hated it there.</p></li>
<li><p>I know a lot of people who worked for their spending money at MIT, and a lot of people whose parents were paying significant sums for their education, but I did not know anyone who was actually forced to take the entire amount of their MIT education in loans. </p></li>
<li><p>I certainly felt that my MIT education had incredible returns, although not necessarily in a financial sense. I am reasonably sure that I wouldn't have gotten into the PhD program I'm in now if I hadn't gone to MIT (and therefore gotten the plum research experience that got me into graduate school). My husband got the awesome job that he has because the company keeps tabs on MIT students and heard that he was doing great work. In his case, he is making more money than he would have without the MIT degree; I am not, because graduate student salaries are graduate student salaries. But I wouldn't be a graduate student in one of the top programs in the world if I hadn't gone to MIT as an undergraduate.</p></li>
</ol>

12

<p>Why fret now? Do the forms, compare the financial aid offers, and work through the decision with real information about costs as part of the overall picture. You have superb choices and you will be able to choose when you have the available information.</p>

13

<p>@CalAlum and MIT2011Dad,
What kind of scholarships did your daughters apply last year if you two do not mind to list the names of the scholarships? Were they non-need based? It is very hard to find any significant amount of non-need based scholarships. My D is accepted to both Caltech and MIT. She already sent out a few more applications (including Harvard) before any EA results. We do not qualify for need-based assistantship. If by any chance, she gets significant amount merit scholarship from Caltech at the end of March next year, she may let go her MIT dream, since she is interested in financial independence. We agreed to pay whatever her choice though.</p>

14

<p>Mi-Kitty - My son is in the exact same situation you are in: accepted at both and with a parent working at JPL. </p>

<p>Naturally, I completely side with your parents. BTW, I calculate the difference at over $150K, Tuition is about 35K, for 4 years. If history is any guide, it will increase faster than cost of living. Also include 2 round trip airline tickets a year (400ish a pop), plus another two if your parents plan to visit you.</p>

<p>Your parents are not asking you to give up MIT for Cal State LA! Caltech and MIT are the best of their kind. MIT does a better job of hyping and it is difficult to resist, but college debts are a bad idea, and should be avoided. It will have a negative affect on your options in four years.</p>

<p>You should be really thrilled you are in this situation. Kids do get into MIT/Caltech but end up somewhere else because they don't want loans, or their parents do not feel they can pay their contribultion. </p>

<p>My son plans to go onto grad school. He hopes to go to MIT then. In any case, I think he will end up out of town, since Caltech wont want him to stay, and the only other option is UCLA. </p>

<p>On a practical note - tell your mother to get in touch with HR. They send Caltech a note telling them you pay no tuition. It is pretty trivial. Also, in case they wondered - this is not a taxable benefit. </p>

<p>A further idea is that once you get your finaid from MIT call them. See how close they will come to matching your free tuition at Caltech. If you are a strong candidate, it might mean more finaid.</p>

15

<p>@Susan4-</p>

<p>The best source for college scholarships is the high-school college counselor. Your daughter should begin talking with her counselor now, to let the counselor know that she's been admitted to MIT but that she'll need to fund part of her tuition costs with scholarships. Local community businesses, agencies, and service organizations do provide scholarships to worthy high-school graduates, and many communities will be happy to help a local student go to MIT. Online sources like FastWeb also provide access to thousands of scholarships, although those are extremely competitive. My daughter won a National Merit scholarship, and through her school, she applied to scholarships funded by local agencies, including various companies, clubs (Elks, Rotary, etc.), and so on. She won scholarships from Bank of America, Cashin Real Estate, from two other local companies and from NASA and Dupont.</p>

16

<p>@Susan4-</p>

<p>The best source for college scholarships is the high-school college counselor. Your daughter should begin talking with her counselor now, to let the counselor know that she's been admitted to MIT but that she'll need to fund part of her tuition costs with scholarships. Local community businesses, agencies, and service organizations do provide scholarships to worthy high-school graduates, and many communities will be happy to help a local student go to MIT. Online sources like FastWeb also provide access to thousands of scholarships, although those are extremely competitive. My daughter won a National Merit scholarship, and through her school, she applied to scholarships funded by local agencies, including various companies, clubs (Elks, Rotary, etc.), and so on. She won scholarships from Bank of America, Cashin Real Estate, from two other local groups, and from NASA and Dupont. </p>

<p>My daughter is also working 7 hours per week at MIT, at around $9.00 per hour. There are jobs available for any student who wants one.</p>

17

<p>@CalAlum-</p>

<p>Thank you for the info regarding scholarships. We will look into some of the named scholarships you listed. National Merit will be out in late Feb./early March. We looked into Coca-cola scholarship and fount out that Coca-cola scholarship only gave 25% value to academia and academia-related ECs. Working part time is probably a good choice. Thanks again.</p>

18

<p>I neeeeeeeeed aid....</p>

19

<p>
[quote]
A further idea is that once you get your finaid from MIT call them. See how close they will come to matching your free tuition at Caltech. If you are a strong candidate, it might mean more finaid.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I don't think that this is likely to work. There is hardly anyone admitted who does not qualify as a "strong candidate". MIT offers need-based aid only. If they miscalculated how much you can afford, they are very good about correcting it so that you are indeed able to afford to go, but that's pretty much as far as it goes.</p>