<p>Duke offers full aid for anyone with under $60,000 income.</p>
<p>Other schools offer full aid for anyone with under $60,000 income AND who have less than "average" assets for the income bracket.</p>
<p>I suppose my parents have "above average" assets than because it would cost me over $40,000 to go to any Ivies such as Dartmouth, Cornell, UPenn, or even Rice. What's the deal with this? Even if my parents sold ALL their assets, it would still not cover for my four years of undergraduate............ Plus we have no income so it would literally be draining with no reimbursement.</p>
<p>Help me find other schools that offer full aid for low-no income families? Or are those aid estimates even accurate? Because although I would love to attend Duke, I don't want to have no other choices simply because of a flawed financial aid policy.</p>
<p>I agree with Sybbie. How do you think you will qualify for significant aid at Duke when your family has significant ENOUGH assets to have a family contribution of $40K at the Ivies and the like? AND how do you KNOW this?</p>
<p>Every school that I know of with generous financial aid for low income students has the same caveat “with TYPICAL assets”. It sounds like your family has well in excess of “typical assets”.</p>
<p>Okay, so they consider my family to have over “typical assets” BUT as I stated above, even if my parents sold ALL their assets, we would still not be able to pay for college. And I used the Duke EFC calculator, and according to them, my assets fit their “typical” range.</p>
<p>Perhaps if your assets meet Duke’s “typical range” they will also do so at those other schools. </p>
<p>Are you considering any colleges that are within the financial limitations of your family? OR are you looking at schools where you might garner significant merit aid (they will not have the "name recognition of the Ivies…or the “prestige” but there are many schools where you can get an outstanding education)?</p>
<p>If you really have the stats to be a competitive admit for the Ivies…you might want to look at schools where you would get guaranteed merit aid. There are plenty of those. U of Alabama gives EXCELLENT aid to OOS students with SAT/GPAs above a certain level. The McNair Scholarship…by application only…at U of South Carolina is another great award. </p>
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<p>You posted the above stats on your Stanford thread. </p>
<p>You need to get accepted to these tippy top schools FIRST. 90% of applicants do not get accepted. There are many very well qualified applicants in the mix of denied students. </p>
<p>BUT with your stats, you could very well be eligible for merit aid at a less selective school. Sure…apply to these Ivies and Stanford…but do so with your eyes wide open…if the financial aid works out, then fine. If not, have other schools that you really like on your list…where merit aid is a possibility.</p>
<p>Duke’s policy for expecting no parent contribution for those with income under $60,000 and “typical” assets is likely to be very similar to the policies of some of the other top-tier schools you cite. </p>
<p>More and more schools are subscribing to the College Board’s Net Price Calculator. Here’s the list of schools currently using their service - you can see that many elite schools are on here…Dartmouth, Duke, Brown, Rice, Amherst, Pomona, etc. - all schools that meet full need, are need blind, and many of which have similar policies for a “0” EFC below some income cutoff - typically between 60K and 75K.</p>
<p>What’s nice about the College Board’s service is that you can enter your information once and it will save it for you, allowing you to do an apples to apples comparison of the estimated “net price” for many schools. Since the institutional formula has been tweaked by each of the schools based on how they evaluate income and assets, this will likely provide a much better estimate than the typical generic IM calculators that are out there.</p>
<p>I would suggest plugging your numbers into this calculator and see for yourself how your assets will cause a different net price at some of these top schools.</p>
<p>That’s where I got my numbers. Plugging the EXACT same numbers in, Duke gave me an estimate of $4,100, while other schools such as Rice and Dartmouth gave estimates of $35,000-45,000.</p>
<p>And which schools do you think I would be able to get merit aid in?</p>
<p>Though that is a bigger difference than I have ever seen, I think, it is possible that Duke can end up giving you more than like schools. I have seen $10K variations in aid among like schools that guarantee to meet full need and perhaps even more, but not that much. All you can do is look for calculators for schools that claim to meet full need and see which ones look the most promising. Look and see if your home equity amount is something that is pumping up the numbers for the other schools. Some schools cap that number, and others do not, and there are various capping amounts.</p>
<p>Such schools tend to be highly selective, so getting accepted is going to be an issue too. What you should start doing is finding a school that is sure to take you that is also sure to be affordable. That would not be Duke or Harvard, however generous their aid formula may treat you. You gotta get in and that is a big IF. Once you have that avenue covered, you can start “buying your lottery tickets” You may find some local privates that also give generous merit and financial aid for kids with your stats. Do ask your GC if s/he knows of schools that tend to give nice packages and throw them on your list too.</p>
<p>The other thing to do is to look for schools with merit money that are not as highly selective and would love to snag a student with your test scores and grades. You are close to the cut off for Pitt’s Chancellor awards, for example. When you are looking for money, you need to cast a wide net, making sure you have some “sure things” just in case the catch is not great.</p>
<p>“Plugging the EXACT same numbers in, Duke gave me an estimate of $4,100, while other schools such as Rice and Dartmouth gave estimates of $35,000-45,000.”</p>
<p>That’s a little odd, because Dartmouth, for example, is even more generous than Duke–no tuition for families making less than $75,000. Assets are still tapped, however, so that obviously makes the difference for the OP. And, as is usual for all these schools, it’s never quite a full ride–self-help is still required of students (work study/summer contribution).</p>
<p>It could be that this family asset situation weighs in more favorably with Duke’s formula. That’s why I am asking about caps on home equity because that can make a big difference if the OP’s family has a primary home with a nice piece of the mortgage paid. My friend was really hit between the eyes some years ago when her EFC for her daughter was quite low through FAFSA, but then when she filed PROFILE for the private schools, they had a whole other outlook. Her house was paid for, and it was where all of her assets were. They lived in a high rent area and the parent from both sides of the family had paid off the mortgage for them. The PROFILE schools came up with a whole range of expected contributions depending on what that home equity cap was. Friend could not afford a home equity payment, and these days getting a home equity loan is not so easy either. So that house value can really make a difference.</p>