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Not entirely correct but close. We are in that income bracket and we did still have a small amount to pay towards tuition/room and board but it wasn’t a lot. Last year it was less than $1000 and this year it will be less than $2000. My son was also responsible for all personal expenses and books. Fortunately, he has a term job to earn enough money to cover all those expenses.</p>
<p>From the Yale Website:</p>
<p>"Families whose total gross income is less than $65,000 are not expected to make any financial contribution towards their child’s Yale education. 100% of the student’s total cost of attendance will be financed with a Yale Financial Aid Award.</p>
<p>Families earning between $65,000 and $130,000 (with typical assets) annually contribute on average 10% of their yearly income towards their child’s Yale education, on a sliding scale.</p>
<p>Families earning between $130,000 and $200,000 (with typical assets) annually contribute on average 15% their yearly income towards their child’s Yale education, on a sliding scale".</p>
<p>It’s the 15% for incomes between $130,000-$200,000 that makes Yale so generous when it comes to fin aid. That translates to an EFC of $22,500/yr for families making $150,000, for instance.</p>
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But this statement might be misconstrued. Even though the parent doesn’t have a contribution 100% of the total cost of attendance is not covered with a financial aid award. The student is expected to provide a self-help contribution ($2700-$3200) and between $1550 and $2900 summer contribution.</p>
<p><a href=“Welcome | Student Financial and Administrative Services”>Welcome | Student Financial and Administrative Services;
<p>We should also keep in mind that assets affect FA, too, and these aggregate statistics do not adjust for this detail.</p>
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Interesting thread. The only family I know with a S at Yale, we just said “Wow” when we found out, knowing how difficult it is to get admitted. But don’t you think subconscious statements like the above are part of the reason why people feel awkward? Are all those other schools that people worked hard and got into not “good”? Even community colleges can be good and serve many, many students very well. And other parents may feel that they can’t or shouldn’t talk about the achievements of their own kid if they will obviously pale in comparison.</p>
Yes! I’m so glad I found this forum. I’ve had really weird reactions, too, when I tell people my DD has decided on Yale. There’s been a lot of, “Well, you know, it isn’t Harvard but . . .” or “I guess there’s something cool about turning Harvard down,” or comments along those lines – patronizing implications that somehow she chose second-best, or didn’t do as well as she could have. I can’t figure it out, as she actually did choose Yale over Harvard for a variety of perfectly good reasons. And Yale is fantastic! A dream school for so many kids! So why the strange, dismissive reactions, I wonder?
Great choice @LiteraryMom, your daughter’s going to love Yale (I’m finishing my freshman year).
As for dismissive reactions, it is inconsequential.
This cracked me up OP, probably because it is so relate-able (is that a word?).
Congratulations to your son! Yale sounds heavenly to me.
OT: I just realized the original post is from 2012. !! oops. I’ll just direct my comment to you @LiteraryMom! Congrats!
@LiteraryMom My son chose Stanford over Harvard last year, and quite a few other students did too. I think in most people’s minds, though, Harvard is still “the best,” and if a student goes to a different peer school, the assumption is that he or she either didn’t get into Harvard or made a less-than-optimal decision. This attitude is less prevalent in California (where I’m from), but it’s still there. I read a recent post in which someone said something to the effect that, years from now, a student who chose Stanford over Harvard would be at a party, and someone would ask him where he went to school. He’d say “Stanford,” but his wife would add, “But he got into Harvard too!” I think the sentiment behind that is correct—Harvard is likely to remain, at least for a while, the school against which all others are measured. In the reverse situation, for a student who chose Harvard, I doubt the temptation to say, “But he got into (fill in the blank—Stanford/Yale/Princeton/MIT, wherever) too!” would be there. Stay happy with your daughter’s choice—Yale is very different from Harvard and a wonderful school.
Ha, didn’t realize it was an old post either, but I take strong issue with the idea that deflecting some of the assumptions that come with attending a big name school by avoiding naming it directly is inherently “condescending.”
Sure, I’m sure there are SOME people out there who do it with condescension, but if you discover you get a weird reaction nine out of ten times, deflecting is simply self-protective – especially if you’re someone who’s somewhat reserved and really doesn’t care to go through the conversational gymnastics required to respond to field all the baggage so many (though of course not all) people carry about perceived wealth/snobbery/elitism etc… Same for any other topic that tends to be a conversation-stopper. (Death/religion/politics… ) Sometimes you just don’t want to go there, and that’s OK. We’re not obligated to answer everyone’s questions.
That said, I’ve learned that using location to deflect isn’t nearly as effective as the quick follow-on. It works much better to answer the question directly, but immediately move the subject to specifics like how you felt about the experience or location or how long it took to graduate or whatever. It took a long time to figure out how to do that with confidence, but once mastered, it makes all the conversations much easier. Better still, the older we all get, the less anyone cares to ask in the first place!
Thank you so much, cttwenty15 and everyone else who responded to me. I am really happy my daughter chose Yale – she said she felt like she belonged there when she went to Bulldog visit days, plus she felt people were friendlier there than at Harvard during Visitas. She had other reasons, as well. It’s so good to hear that cttwenty15’s freshman year at Yale has been great. And as Planner notes, it’s a sad truth that people who go to Harvard don’t have to defend their choices with a reflexive, “But I got into Yale/Stanford/Princeton too!” Ah, well.
My daughter is a HS senior, and one of her best friends, who’s been at Exeter for two years, just got accepted to Yale. We are all thrilled for the girl, who is bright, hard-working, and musical. My daughter said she can’t wait to hear what Yale is like. I think of Yale as highly as I do of Harvard. @LiteraryMom, good luck to your daughter!
@LiteraryMom Congratulations! She’s got company! I personally know 3 kids from my circle of friends picked Yale over Harvard this year.
I say “Yale”, and that my son is the luckiest and hardest working kid ever!
I’ve gone from an awkwardly mumbled “Yale, he won the lottery” to sometimes saying “Yale, and he’s killing it.” If I don’t know the person well enough, I let a simple “Yale” suffice.
Based on DS’s informal investigation (obviously anecdotal and biased), conducted mostly during the time around The Game and back home where he knows H and Y kids, many H wish they were attending Y, but he knows no Y who wish they were at H.
DS made up his mind during the H info session where the video made a point of showing a student using a sink that had been used by one of the Roosevelts. He texted his mother (who was next to him) that he wasn’t sure that they could be any more pretentious. I used this as an opportunity to point out (factoid alert!) that odds are that at least one molecule in his glass of water had once been in Cleopatra’s urine. Cleopatra trumps Roosevelt.
I guess it would have been interesting to know which other schools would have accepted him (he was admitted SCEA, and also was accepted early at UMich), but not sufficiently interesting to spend the time, energy, and money. Stanford and CalTech might have been tempting, but he’s sure he’s in the right place.
It helps that I have two in college because I can first list my son’s school and then my daughter at Yale. But I never hide it and I usually add," She is a neat kid who managed a lot of scholarships" when their jaws drop and make either the “good luck affording that” comment or the “Wow- that is impressive” comment. I wear my sweatshirt with pride and I have stickers on my car from both schools. I look at it this way- she worked hard to get there and so as her mom I have to be proud by default. Its my job… 
I don’t qualify her choice but it is easier to just say that she wasn’t rejected from anything she applied to. That ends the conversation there.
My older child is also at a “prestigious” college so I have had a few years to learn how to shrug the comments off When asked, I reply just with the name of the school. Whatever people think of it, it is their problem, not mine. Will proudly display stickers from both universities on my car (which I shared with both kids, so it is also kind of their car). Yes, people who do not know better might think that we are loaded, but it is also their problem, not mine.
One thing that irritates me a little, is when fairly close friends do not believe that Yale really offered us the best financial aid (not counting full rides to the schools my daughter really did not want to attend in the end). We never speak in dollar amounts, although if someone would ask me how much I am paying for her I would have said the truth (watch their jaws drop even lower at that time 
)
Daughter never applied to H, she did not even want to visit.
Actually the appeal of Billsville is exactly that (except for hiring and grad/professional school) you get the blank “Williams stare”–unless they think it’s Roger Williams or William and Mary. Even Amherst has more name recognition.
I’m an incoming Freshman to Yale this year and I as just wondering if anyone you know has ever gotten reactions that are negative. I’ve gotten comments like, “But you aren’t that smart!” and “I don’t know why they would even choose you”. Similarly, I’ve been with groups of kids discussing schools that they are going to and it is like a conversation ender. I’ve tried flat out saying Yale, or even ‘in Connecticut’, but nothing works.
I’m finding myself just shying away entirely from telling people where I’m going to college because I always seem to get negative reactions, or the school board in my area is trying to figure out how ‘I could possibly be special so we can replicate it for more’ . Along with this, has anyone else been nagged by high schools that are riding coat tails for PR?
@mimk6 @LiteraryMom @IxnayBob @T26E4 @Memmsmom and any others thank you for any help!
Yale is interesting in that the name carries great weight, yet the students and alums are actually not pretentious in the least. Highly accomplished, intelligent, energetic, yes. But actually down-to-earth and genuine. *
I am an alum and yes I feel the need to downplay a little when asked where I attended. I usually answer, “Yale…I had a wonderful experience there.” Diffuses the expected puffery. If people want to ask me more, I’m happy to expand. Otherwise I’ll redirect and ask them about their college experience.
@SantiagoAlverez that’s surprising and sad you’d get such reactions. No one knows your scores and essay (I assume) so it is a ridiculous thing for them to say. Just know this fall you’ll be at one of the greatest colleges with like-minded students who are accepting and ‘all in the same boat.’