<p>The rules were set before this discussion started: You get accepted to Harvard and you are in the $250k/year bracket, you pay full price ($O FA). If you applied you must understand the rules.You have the right to question their FA policy. They have the right to question why you don’t want to pay. Neither one of you is obligated to change your mind.</p>
<p>Wow this discussion has gotten as out of hand as I thought it would when I posted #2 yesterday. OP: please talk to your parents about what they can realistically afford and gauge your college list on that. You may find that the Ivies aren’t the best bet for you and that you can get some unbelievable merit money at good schools.<br>
Of course, go ahead and apply to the Ivies but if you would have to go into substantial debt to go there I would not recommend it.
The important thing now as thumper and I both posted is to talk with your family and make a plan.
Best of luck to you.</p>
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<p>I have a friend with perfect ACT, SAT, 4.4 GPA, top of class, butt load of ECs, runner up to Miss Michigan, etc. Still got rejected from Harvard. She IS still going to an Ivy, but getting in is no sure thing. You don’t DESERVE anything and “just” Penn state is exactly the entitlement that people are so irked about. If you DO get into HYPS, then just pay what you can and get the rest in loans. </p>
<p>And thank you Kelsmom. It IS hurtful when people say my parents are lazy. They are nothing of the sort. They are both extremely intelligent and extremely hardworking, they simply didn’t have the opportunities that many people did. </p>
<p>And OP, I also worked my butt off to get into top schools, before I realized that I was chasing a name rather than an actual score. Therefore, I went to a lower ranked school, even though I had a financial aid full ride to many different schools, including U of Michigan. Although, the only financial aid I am down to is the Pell grant because of all the academic scholarships that I earned.</p>
<p>Ultimately, it is down-right hurtful to say that people that aren’t wealthy are somehow stupid and lazy. Be GRATEFUL for what you have, instead of complaining about how you aren’t able to afford a 50k school. Don’t go to the school if you hate their policies so much!</p>
<p>The poor have two options: the cheapest community colleges + lots of loans or schools that are HYPS caliber but almost impossible to get into (particularly difficult for low-income students). The middle class also have two options: HYPS caliber schools + lots of loans or thousands of middle tier universities with NO DEBT. The middle class can also choose community colleges and just about everything in between.</p>
<p>Which situation would you rather be in? You can choose the former by taking a few years of and becoming independent, if you so choose. The option is there.</p>
<p>'rentof2- thats true. It was my mistake to rent here. You’re right, my angers are at the colleges, not at America.</p>
<p>“hopefully the ivies will see you for who you are, and deny you.”
^fortunately for me, my app only portrays me as a hardworking, successful students whom my teachers and counselor love. You see, most people don’t vent in their applications</p>
<p>don’t worry the real you will shine through</p>
<p>Also, I’d like to say that as a 0 EFC student, I’d be estactic to graduate from “just” Penn State EFC - 2250, high GPA, AP Scholar with Distinction and all - with no debt. Only students under $60k are getting full rides to HYPS, and the levels are lower at all other schools (usually 40k). The number of students at HYPS with incomes below that level? About 12%. Families with incomes below that level in the entire United States? About 50%. Hmm…</p>
<p>If your parents made so little and worked to make so much, they know how to live on so little. If you want them to pay for an expensive education, they will have to agree to live on “so little” - which is really about $200,000 a year (still four times more than the $50,000 they worked up from). However, I would like to thank you for saying that my mother is stupid because she couldn’t afford college, has physical disabilities, and thus makes only $25,000 a year. I didn’t know that physical disabilities or previous low-income status made her any less smart, but I suggest you report your findings to the American Psychology Association - they’ll probably be interested.</p>
<p>$50,000 is 20% of your income. It is 200% of my income. Should I give up my funds and graduate even further in debt (with no family safety net) so that you can contribute less but still graduate without debt? The fact is that financial aid is a leveling tool. It strives to make everyone even, which as such is not “fair.” You obviously don’t agree with the system. I certainly don’t think it’s the best system. But I think it’s basic principles are quite fine.</p>
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<p>Don’t worry, he said the same thing about my parents. Btw, did you apply for the Looking Glass scholarship, applicannot? It is for children with disabled parents. Something to look into :).</p>
<p>“I would like to thank you for saying that my mother is stupid because she couldn’t afford college, has physical disabilities, and thus makes only $25,000 a year. I didn’t know that physical disabilities or previous low-income status made her any less smart, but I suggest you report your findings to the American Psychology Association - they’ll probably be interested.”</p>
<p>Couldn’t afford college? Why?
Too many physical disabilities to attend college, work or have children?</p>
<p>Hard work and intelligence will help you attain the American dream.</p>
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How do you know that Princeton would give you a better education than Penn State or Pitt? What do you base that reasoning on?</p>
<p>Anyway, I can see both sides of this argument. As far as I’m concerned, the rack rates for tuition at many private colleges are simply outrageous and unjustifiable (especially those with 11 digit endowments). With that said, I don’t go around whining about the financial aid system. When I get all my acceptance letters (hopefully…), I’ll sit down and crunch the numbers. If I deem a school too expensive, I just won’t enroll there. Simple as that.</p>
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<p>Stupe…the above ends this discussion for me. Your parents will do anything they can to help you. You are very fortunate that this is the case. </p>
<p>I hope your acceptances give you the options you are looking for both in admissions and finances.</p>
<p>So you rant against what you believe to be an ‘increasingly socialist’ system…yet feel you should be getting financial aid from private universities, despite your family’s high income? And yet you are obviously smart enough to consider Harvard a possible option…hmmm.</p>
<p>Wow, entitled much? Tons and tons and tons of kids work very very hard in many ways for many years…and for a wide variety of reasons can’t afford the college of their dreams, or even the chance to go to college. Many kids with brilliant potential are held down in poorly funded or dangerous schools, with poor guidance, limited options for ECs, APs, SAT coaching, cool summer camps, tutors, and more than a decade of private music lessons. And even with effort, holding up a GPA with strong SATs and ECS is a challenge when they actually have to hold down their own job or care for their siblings.</p>
<p>Oh and I should add…we are just like your parents too, and will be paying full freight no matter what. And like your parents, neither I nor spouse came with any inheritance…none of our parents went beyond highschool and we’ve had to financially look after both sets. So yes we too have worked very hard…and now see ourselves as privileged enough for our kids to even get to consider Ivy league, and to not qualify for financial aid. I know it feels personally unfair, but I’d rather live in a more broadly ‘just world’ (one that is just because it provides more than great returns for me and my family). The world is indeed, an extremely unfair place…good to learn it early.</p>
<p>As an adult, I am not happy that I am paying full sticker price when 50% of kids at my daughter’s school get FA. I bet you more than 50% of kids at Harvard do not understand basic finance. I don’t think any college use that as a criteria for admittance.</p>
<p>Humility is a difficult concept to experience and to learn.</p>
<p>OP needs to have some real good safeties. The other 90% of HYP who are not accepted eventually go to as good or better schools.</p>
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<p>You “deserve” an Ivy, and you “deserve” a free ride? (You sound like a socialist. 
) Most of the kids who get reject notices from HYPS are also qualified, and a few will get in despite NOT being qualified. Wake up. Get rid of your sense of entitlement, or you are going to suffer an awful lot of disappointments in life.</p>
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<p>Wow, way to secure the stereotype that has been thrown at Asians today as having ridiculous academic superiority complexes. Seriously, are you trying to invoke racism? And can you please define “American” for us then? And explain why you, and if your parents feel the same was as you, even live in America despite feeling discriminatory towards “most” of the nation? Either you’re extremely arrogant, or just ■■■■■■■■.</p>
<p>When I discovered this wonderful site, 2004, I immediately went to here;<br>
<a href=“http://www.collegeconfidential.com/financial_aid/uncertainty_principle.htm[/url]”>http://www.collegeconfidential.com/financial_aid/uncertainty_principle.htm</a></p>
<p>OP, newer CCers, and those looking into FA, will do well to think about Roger Dooley’s musings.</p>
<p>from Dooley’s Ants and Grasshoppers:
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<p>OP, short answer, yes, college financing is extremely socialistic, but the ivies have every right to price their product in the manner they want to, and you can choose to walk away from it. While one of the reasons is to attract better students this is clearly not the primary goal, but setting the goal is the university’s right.</p>
<p>thumper, re:</p>
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<p>I didn’t mention those schools, though. 
$60K in college savings is what I’d hoped to have before spawn went off to college; that would pay for about 3 years of our flagship state U. Add in working part-time during school, summer earnings, and Stafford loans, and that likely does it for State U or other similarly priced colleges.</p>
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<p>I completely, completely disagree with you here - however we will probably have to agree to disagree. America is NOT a meritocracy. My mom couldn’t afford college because she couldn’t afford college, i.e., did not bring in enough income to pay for the costs of a college education (a big part of the definition of “unable to afford college”) and to support herself. She certainly has too many disabilities to have children now; my sister and I were born long before the worst of my mother’s diseases and her accident kicked in. She’s lucky to have a job with almost no physical demands; i.e., her disability does not interfere.</p>
<p>Call me crazy, but I’d rather be paying full freight than be a 0 EFC family.</p>