<p>On Harvard's website, they say they use a 10% rule for income <em>assuming typical assets</em> to carve out a rough efc for each family. For example, a family with an income of 120,000 will be judged to pay $12,000 a year, again assuming typical assets. What amount is considered typical for incomes with in the 100k to 200k range? If you need to break it down in increments, thatd be cool too.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone.</p>
<p>Bump 10char</p>
<p>You are probably not getting an answer, because I'm not sure anyone understands what you are asking. There are links to calculators in many of the threads, maybe try using that to come up with what might be expected for your situation. Also income and assets are not the same thing...$12,000 on $120,000 of income sounds low to me off the cuff. Also "typical assets" vary widely from family to family. Some families have saved lots of money on $120,000 of income...other families in high cost housing areas or with expensive taste in toys may not have saved much that is considered assets.</p>
<p>Sorry let me rephrase. Harvard says that families that apply for financial aid are generally expected to pay about 10% of income, assuming typical assets. For example, a family that has an income of $120,000 is expected to pay $12,000 a year, and Harvard will cover the rest (50,000-12,000=38,000; Harvard will offer a fin aid package of about 38k to this family). What would be considered typical assets for a family that makes this much money (ie 200k in assets and savings)?</p>
<p>The reason I ask this is because Harvard's program is unique in this aspect and no calculator can accurately predict the Harvard's judged efc for a given family. Im just asking for a monetary value of assets, not including housing expenses. You know, savings, stocks, investments, etc.</p>
<p>Yale says the EFC can be zero at the same income level that Harvard sets for zero EFC with family assets of $100K, so dollar amounts below that should be less than "typical" for higher incomes.</p>
<p>I think it's an excellent question that many would like the answer to. Would they really think $100K is typical for a family making $150K/yr? Are folks with high home equity alone out of the running for the new 10% of income?</p>
<p>This is from the Stanford website FAQ</a> : Stanford University</p>
<p>What do you mean by "typical assets"? </p>
<p>For applicants who report total annual parent income up to $100,000, we generally consider “typical assets” to be an adjusted total net worth of less than $250,000. Adjusted total net worth usually reflects the sum of the following amounts: </p>
<p>Cash, savings, checking
Investments
Home equity, capped at 1.2 times annual income
Equity in real estate other than the home
Business net worth </p>
<p>We do not include formal retirement assets (401k, 403b, IRA, Keogh) in our analysis. The Financial Aid Office reserves the right to make the final determination of the expected family contribution, in consideration of all factors affecting a family’s overall financial situation and ability to pay.</p>
<p>"Are folks with high home equity alone out of the running for the new 10% of income?" - Harvard doesn't count home equity. As far as typical assets, their methodology is totally opaque.</p>
<p>Interesting that Stanford does, which would make Harvard a lot more attractive to kids from CA, NYC and anywhere where $250K in home equity is pretty typical among the upper middle class.</p>
<p>Thank you guys. I did not apply to stanford so i had no idea it had that. I just wanted a point of reference to give me an idea of what Harvard considered typical assets, and Fresnomom gave me just that. Thanks guys.</p>
<p>Interesting...but what does this phrase mean?</p>
<p>"Home equity, capped at 1.2 times annual income "</p>
<p>That they don't consider more than 1.2 times your annual income of your house equity for your EFC or that you dont get aid if it's more than that. Not to be dumb, but ???</p>
<p>If your income is, say, $100K, and you actually have $300K in home equity, then they use 1.2X$100K=$120K as your home equity in their FA formula, not $300K.</p>
<p>thanks lunar ..</p>
<p>The Project on Student Debt posts a table of typical assets for families earning between $20,000 and $200,000. I tried to copy the table here, but the formatting gets lost. Scroll to the bottom of this page to see the table:
<a href="http://projectonstudentdebt.org/files/pub/Pledges_Analysis.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://projectonstudentdebt.org/files/pub/Pledges_Analysis.pdf</a></p>
<p>For each of several income levels, they list typical liquid assets, home equity, and other assets. The data is reportedly from the Federal Reserves <em>Survey of Consumer Finances</em>.</p>
<p>This useful study of colleges that have made no-loan pledges breaks out "Estimated Net Cost of Attendance by Family Income (assuming typical assets)" for the schools that had made their no-loan pledges by July, 2008, so some of the schools (such as Vanderbilt) that announced their no-loan finaid initiatives more recently are not included.</p>
<p>Quill Pen, thanks for the very helpful link. </p>
<p>Thanks Quillpen... What is most useful is to note the substantial variation among the Ivies. You're going to pay alot more at Brown than Harvard or Yale. Doc pointed out the home equity clause in Harvard's new "middle class intiative". This according to Harvard reduces the EFC by on average 4K. That's a big difference if you are on aid. "Typical Assets" may vary as well. Just goes to show that you really can't simply rely on the generic caluculators. Each school is going to be case by case. There's a big difference between 15k and 8K.</p>
<p>I graduated from Bowdoin and later from Harvard's K School. Bowdoin was generous with aid back then but I later won a fellowship to Harvard and had very little debt when I was done (4 times more from Bowdoin ---though their payments were quite manageable).</p>
<p>I am simply glad that our son is still a junior who has yet to take his first SAT.... I am also relieved that WashDC has its 10K credit towards state schools.</p>
<p>whoa, is that project on student debt table really correct? The typical assets seem a little low…</p>
<p>“I just wanted a point of reference to give me an idea of what Harvard considered typical assets, and Fresnomom gave me just that.”</p>
<p>Millerl1te: Fresnomom has given you no idea of what Harvard considers typical assets. Harvard and Stanford are not the same school nor use the same methodology. There isn’t any formula at Harvard that anybody on these boards has knowledge of! I’ve dealt with them for three years with no clear cut answers from anybody in the financial aid office.</p>