<p>How was the financial aid with Columbia? Are they more strict concerning financial aid because you did early decision and how much more strict?</p>
<p>bump. definitely interested in this too</p>
<p>i know people who applied ed and had problems with their packages. they were 2. i know one of them told me it was just very very expensive for his family, but he didnt do anything about it. big ■■■■■ kid. the other one, she had the same thing. she called, and they gave her 13 extra thousand. idk if it was just them, but what i know out of them. they are giving me INCREDIBLE financial aid, better than any other school (except williams, they actually gave me a full scholarship), but with everyone else ive talked to, theyve had very fair financial aid packages</p>
<p>but did you do early decision? because I heard that ED’ing allows the college to not offer much financial aid.</p>
<p>columbia doesnt have the best reputation regarding financial aid…i applied ED and got no financial aid. however, im not sure this was because of ED- my parents (together) make over $100,000 - this puts us in the “most wealthy” bracket, i believe. i just made up for it with lots and lots of scholarships…still pricy</p>
<p>My fin aid isn’t all I would’ve hoped for, but all in all I’m pretty satisfied that it’s equitable. My parents are divorced, and my mom’s income is low enough that I don’t believe that it counted at all in the finaid, which was great, and my dad’s income, while above $100,000, still netted us a decent amount of financial aid. Between what he’s able to pay and scholarships, I’ll graduate with debt, but it will be on the high side of manageable. Also, I did the collegeboard financial aid calculator and the number collegeboard gave under “institutional methodology” was almost exactly what Columbia ended up giving me, with extra added in because of my little brother’s private school tuition.</p>
<p>One note though: I submitted my stuff late, which was a BAD idea. I did still get an award (obviously), but not only did I not get any ED estimate, I didn’t receive my actual award until this month (August). I actually still haven’t received the literal paper offer in the mail. Completely my fault though; the finaid office is just swamped. Still, it sucks.</p>
<p>@roflcopter, are you serious about that extra 13,000? Geez, I might need to go ahead and appeal my decision, although I have no idea on what grounds.</p>
<p>I appealed mine and they gave me about 5,000 more I think? but then when the final fin aid came out, after RD decisions, the 5,000 were gone and I was actually given even less than I had been initally. I appealed again and they only have me about 800 more… so yeah.</p>