<p>I too haven't received anything, I will call them tonight if I don't get anything.</p>
<p>see that's why i didn't apply for financial aid and spend those long laborious hours filling out papers...because i knew i wouldn't get any in the end!!!..man...</p>
<p>haha yeah Wellesley was the only school I bothered filling out financial aid for.</p>
<p>It's quite unlikely that you'll go from getting no financial aid to getting almost half of your tuition taken care of, but do consider any extraordinary circumstances that might make a difference (substantial medical bills not covered by insurance, uncertain job security or recent unemployment, etc.). Talk to the financial aid office and discuss your options. If you have any siblings who will be attending college concurrently with you at some point in your college career, keep that in mind. Your financial aid status will likely change if your parents are paying multiple tuition bills.</p>
<p>This year's bout of unpredictable financial aid surprises me. Does the sample of college-bound students represented on CC disproportionately come from upper-middle class families that are theoretically on the cusp of -really- needing aid? I'm curious to see the FinAid facts-at-a-glance for this year's incoming students and compare them to previous years.</p>
<p>yep exactly.
upper middle class here.</p>
<p>After taxes, my parents make about $60,000 a year; I don't know how much it is before taxes. We own no real estate to speak of and my sister and I are only able to attend private school because our parents' (may-soon-be-ex-)employer pays for K-12 education. Both my parents are currently betweeen jobs, we're buying our first house this year after always having rented or lived in employer-sponsored housing in various countries, and we have no savings to draw from.</p>
<p>I don't know what we are, but I don't think it's upper middle class.</p>
<p>After taxes, we make about $60,000 too
But the "bad" thing for us is that we don't owe anyone money anywhere (our cars, house, everything is completely paid for)
So yeah it must be very logical for them to assume that my parents can spend $50,000 out of the $60,000 to pay for my college and then live off the remaining 10k....</p>
<p>:/</p>
<p>I'm willing to bet we don't have an agreed upon norm here for what constitutes "upper middle class" or even "middle class" for that matter. For this purpose, we have to assume we're talking income only. Using the unimpeachable ;0 source, Wikipedia, consider their definition:
[quote]
Sociologists such as Dennis Gilbert, Willam Thompson and Joseph Hickey estimate the upper middle class to constitute roughly 15% of the population. Using the 15% figure one may conclude that the American upper middle class consists of professionals making more than $62,500 who commonly reside in households with six figure incomes. The difference between personal and household income can be explained by considering that 76% of households with incomes exceeding $90,000 (the top 20%) had two or more income earners.
[/quote]
If you slug through that claptrap, I believe they're saying over $100,000 household income makes one upper-middle-class. Our family income is between the country's median household and the average for a householder with a college degree (so not "upper" middle class) and even though Wellesley is expecting us to pay about twice what our FAFSA EFC is (with another child in college, too), I found their aid package very fair. The better position you put your family in financially, the more a college will expect you to pay. No surprise there. Living frugally, putting three kids through public schools, and managing to pay off our mortgage in twenty-five years doesn't make us rich, but we're in better shape than many and will do what it takes to make sure our kids get the best college education they can. At this point Wellesley is very tempting because their offer makes it less expensive than our state schools without any aid. It does, of course, include work study and student loans. Now it's up to my D to determine if what she loves about Wellesley can compensate for her remaining doubts about the single-sex educational experience. And so far she's only gotten financial decisions from two of six schools. If the others are as generous as Wellesley, it'll make for a tough decision. Things could be a lot worse!</p>
<p>cameliasinensis, I'm not being flip, but I'm curious about what you said. Of course none of this is anyone's business but yours and your family's, but how can your parents be without jobs, with no savings, owning no real-estate, showing income of $60k, and be buying a house in DC? </p>
<p>Something just doesn't add up and maybe Wellesley couldn't figure it out, either. You do know they count assets, like savings accounts and investments, too, not just real-estate. Did I miss your quoting your FAFSA EFC? I hope you get it worked out, and good luck to you. I'd have your dad give the FA office a call.</p>
<p>Well, my family did not bother to apply for aid, since we are in the "textbook" definition of upper middle class, but people with well-managed finances will always be expected to pay more, and this is not usually an unfair expectation. Income might not be incredibly high, but if assets are high/well-managed, there is a larger amount of money/credit/whatever the exact definition is, to pay for college. </p>
<p>I'm not saying, by the way, that this means that every aid package was fair and/or that you should just suck it up and pay whatever Wellesley says. Certainly not. But I suspect that finaid is often more fair than many claim--it just costs more than many would like to pay. Those are not the same thing.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I'm willing to bet we don't have an agreed upon norm here for what constitutes "upper middle class" or even "middle class" for that matter.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I agree with that! Regional variations in the cost of living add in another complicating factor, so my earlier question really wasn't a useful one :)</p>
<p>Although my memory is fuzzy, I'm pretty sure Wellesley expected far more than the EFC from my parents as well (and that was with a minimum of two children and sometimes three in college simultaneously), but it was manageable. As for loans, Wellesley is good about keeping them to a minimum. My loan totals after graduation were far lower than any of my siblings'.</p>
<p>It's very complicated, but this is the short version: my parents are employed by the Swedish foreign ministry, which doesn't pay very well but gives generous benefits packages. For as long as my parents work abroad, we are guaranteed a house, healthcare, and K-12 education, all paid for by the Swedish government. My parents' contracts in DC come to an end this year, and they are forced to either (a) move back to Stockholm, where they are guaranteed jobs (where they would be underpaid and overqualified, but it's work), or (b) quit the foreign service and find work at one of the international organizations in DC. Either way, we will no longer have subsidized housing or anything else, and will need to buy a house to have somewhere to live. (I'm not sure exactly how this will work since the housing markets in both DC and Stockholm are ridiculous and we can't afford anything, but it will have to happen somehow, because otherwise my family will not have a place to live.) We own a not-recently-renovated house in a tiny town (population 3,000) on the Swedish west coast that's been in my dad's family since they built it in the 1890s, but it's worth less than a one-bedroom apartment in DC and there are no jobs for my parents anywhere near it.</p>
<p>I don't blame them for not being able to make sense of it. I can't either, to be honest. Dartmouth came up with $25,000 a year in grants to give me, and I'll probably still graduate nearly $50,000 in debt, but it's as reasonable as it's going to get.</p>
<p>My goodness. You weren't kidding about that being complicated! I definitely understand why you are going to Dartmouth money-wise...it seems barely doable as it is!</p>
<p>Yours is certainly a unique situation but, and not to defend Wellesley, in living situations such as you describe the employees are usually able to sock away a substantial amount of savings. It's possible your parents' retirement funds are set up in such a way as to be not untouchable in terms of counting as assets, and maybe the way your parents stated some of their retirement or savings on Wellesley's additional FA supplement didn't give you the benefit of the doubt, as it must have at Dartmouth. Certainly worth checking into if Wellesley is still in you heart. I know answering one tax question on the Profile a different way (self-employed folks get screwed here) cost me thousands in EFC.</p>
<p>oh miss zanna -- my family is in a similar predicament as yours.. no debt!</p>
<p>my parents had me when they were in their forties, after the house had been paid off. i'm an only child. we drive one car (paid off), and never have credit debt. we don't live extravagantly (au contraire!). i know wealthier families who have vacation homes and multiple cars and credit card debt who are getting more financial aid than i am. my parents worked hard, and now we're being punished for living within our means?</p>
<p>i'm currently waitlisted at W, but i'm afraid that even if i'm accepted, i'll have to decline due to money! technically we COULD pay, but my parents would really have to squeak by just barely. if i remember correctly, other ladies on this board had to decline because of lousy financial aid. i thought financial aid was one of W's fortes?</p>
<p>^^I know that that can be a disheartening position to be in, mardou fox, but I can almost guarantee you that you and your family are still in a better and much more stable position financially overall. Living within one's means is rarely, if ever, worse than extravagent spending. </p>
<p>My family, too, lives within our means. I (gasp!) take the bus to school because we have only one car (the only car that we need), and there are no vacation homes or designer clothes/bags/shoes in my house. We are rewarded for this frugality with few money worries and a comfortable though not extravagent lifestyle. Yes, we will have to spend a lot of money on college, but I suspect that those who come from extravagent, spend beyond their means families will run into financial trouble at some time--that is not a sustainable lifestyle.</p>
<p>hey..be thankful that you're not like me...my parents pay for my brother who goes to this six year pharmacy program ($35K....)..what sucks is that just because my parents make a certain amount of money doesn't mean that we will still be able to afford college for me. i mean my parents are really cool and are like "oh well choose whereever you wanna go and then we'll figure out expenses." but then again i'm like omz..my parents have the house paid off (since a while), three cars, no debt, they do own real estate...but it's in a different country!!!! (we have family internationally...my grandfather built houses for each of his children) </p>
<p>one way or another, i still think that they need to reassess this whole fin aid thing....i guess i should keep applying to little scholarships...but i just never have enough time!!!!</p>
<p>did everyone who got admitted also receive an e-mail from Wellesley congratulating you on you acceptance and also providing a link to redirect you to the webpage of the Class of 2011?</p>
<p>bump.............</p>
<p>^ yep (10 chars)</p>