<p>My family is trying to figure out how much (if at all) I should contribute towards my tuition, techCash, housing, and/or other expenses, and I wanted to get a sense of how much other families expected their students to contribute. I know that MIT has some guidelines about this published in their financial aid booklet ($1500 summer earnings plus $5500 self-help), but I'm not really sure what that means for me since I'm not on financial aid. Basically it seems like MIT expects freshmen to contribute $7000 to their own education, but do most students actually contribute that much?</p>
<p>it's $5500 total, $1500 of summer earnings being part of your ability to self-help yourself to $5500</p>
<p>I didn't contribute until my senior year, when I contributed about $5000 to tuition.</p>
<p>I worked all four years, though, and I paid for all of my other expenses -- textbooks, non-TechCash food, clothes, entertainment, new computer. My family figured that if I paid for tuition directly, they'd have to give me money for that stuff... six of one, half dozen of another.</p>
<p>Well I'm borrowing $2,625 in unsub Stafford Loans and I have a 1500/yr scholarship that I consider part of my contribution. Parents are paying the rest of room+tuition after financial aid is subtracted (about 15K/yr). I'm paying for all my books, travel, living expenses, etc once I arrive--first from cash I've saved this summer and then from term-time work. (Sounds like what mollie said, except I'm borrowing some money each year... I'm not sure if mollie had any loans or not.)</p>
<p>i thought the student contribution (1.2k for me) and 5.5k thing was separate. that was my impression from reading over my financial aid report</p>
<p>^I had the same impression</p>
<p>Now I'm even more confused than I was before.</p>
<p>The Making MIT Affordable booklet/pdf has this to say:
[quote]
We expect you to work about 35 hours a week during summers, earning $7-10 an hour depending on your year in school, and saving about half of what you earn. We call this your "summer earnings expectation" and it makes up most of your "student contribution." We also expect you to borrow and/or work during the school year for $5500 and we call this your "self-help expectation." Any outside scholarhips you receive will first reduce your self-help and then your summer earnings expectation.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Sounds like the total student contribution is supposed to be about 7000/yr towards the total cost of attendence. For me, this means I'm taking out some loans for tuition and paying for everything I need to live here when I arrive, which may or may not add up to 7K (I actually doubt it will because I think I can eat and buy books for less than the Institute estimates.)</p>
<p>it appears I was mistaken. Thanks for clarifying :)</p>
<p>This may also be of interest to everyone: <a href="http://daniel.mitblogs.com/archives/2006/08/the_outside_awa.html%5B/url%5D">http://daniel.mitblogs.com/archives/2006/08/the_outside_awa.html</a></p>
<p>Thanks for the link, stasterisk! And you are correct, they are separate - the Student Contribution and the Self Help.</p>
<p>Don't let the Student Contribution be a stumbling block for you. Most of this money will probably be used by you to pay the "non-billed" portion of your budget (like travel, books, personal expenses). If you cannot earn what we expect and you are not able to cover the summer contribution with outside aid, you can talk to your financial aid counselor about adding some more to your student loan and/or term-time work.</p>
<p>Correct me if I'm wrong, gigog, but I got the impression your initial post asked, for students whose families did NOT receive financial aid, what were those students being expected by their families to contribute towards their own education. (And gigog saw the "$7000" figure and wondered if that was a reasonable number to use.) If I understood correctly, gigog, the answer will vary by family. I did not expect a $7000 contribution from my son his first year, more like $3000. But as each year of my student's MIT career progresses, I will be expecting him to contribute more out of his work savings. This year I expect him to cover his own books and transportation costs, for instance, which I paid for during his first year. </p>
<p>And if my understanding of your initial question was wrong... in the words of the late, great Emily Litella: "Never mind." :-></p>
<p>And to that I should probably add that anyone can borrow an Unsubsidized Stafford loan for $2625 Freshmen year, $3500 for Sophmores, and $5500 for Juniors and Seniors. All you have to do to apply is complete a FAFSA and you are eligible. Interest rates are comparably low (6.8% this year), so it is a pretty good deal. That may be one way to deal with your contribution...</p>
<p>I'll personally be paying for around $30k a year. My parents aren't paying anywhere near what they are expected. :-/</p>
<p>They aren't or they can't? Have you already spoken to us about this? Veritas, maybe we should take that conversation off line... IM me tomorrow during the day...</p>