Surprising financial aid

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
1

<p>...and it was disappointing too. Our expected contribution is 30K which I feel is unreasonable...(especiallly since I know my parents worked hard to pay off our mortage)</p>

<p>I really want to attend Columbia and I hope this isn't the reason that I don't go. Does anyone have any tips about asking for a reassessment?</p>

<p>Is the calculated income the take home pay, or the gross (after deducting taxes, retirement contributions, etc.)?</p>

<p>Is home equity included in the calculations?</p>

<p>Congrats to everyone and thanks :D</p>

2

<p>Can't offer much advice on how to re-calculate your estimated contribution, but do you have offers from any other schools that might compete with Columbia's offer? Sometimes it's possible to play schools against each other if it's the right offer from a competitive school.</p>

<p>I understand how disappointed you must feel, though. I was accepted ED (yay) and found out the next day that our estimated family contribution was...every cent. Which kind of shocked us. Our family does fine, but we're certainly not sitting on that kind of cash...seems almost like you get penalized the more financially responsible your family is. (But I guess the school can do that to you in the ED round, and I did know what I was getting into...)</p>

3

<p>Where did you find your financial aid? In the packet they sent you? </p>

<p>And what was your EFC (from Fafsa), if you don't mind sharing?</p>

4

<p>Yes, the aid information was in the other folder in the mailed acceptance.</p>

<p>I never filled out FAFSA (I'm Canadian--I think we are need-blind as well as those from Mexico) but I played with some calculators online (cause I ended up filling out a lot of the finan aid forms) and I found that we were expected to receive at least 35K in aid OR expected to pay 40K in contribution <-- quite the range!</p>

<p>Do you think that they take into account the higher taxation rate in Canada?</p>

5

<p>My package was actually much better than the one I received from MIT (about 8k more of "Free money")</p>

<p>I think it's because of the CUAP thing, though... I don't know too much about that o_o</p>

<p>Nevertheless, time to go appeal to MIT!</p>

6

<p>Do you guys think an amazing offer from Cornell would convince the Columbia financial aid officers to give more money?</p>

7

<p>
[quote]
Do you guys think an amazing offer from Cornell would convince the Columbia financial aid officers to give more money?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>You need to convince Columbia that Cornell's offer -- and not their offer -- accurately reflects your "need," and that Columbia's your first choice and you'll be unable to go to Columbia because they haven't met your need while other schools have.</p>

8

<p>I know a girl who got an amazing package from Princeton ad convinced Yale to match it so she could attend. So I guess it might be possible.</p>