<p>Although both schools offer 100% of need to international students, that need is institutionally calculated differently. And percentage wise, 50/970 should tell you that UPenn is balancing it’s budget by admitting lots of full-fare paying international students and very few international students that are determined to need financial aid.</p>
Sorry @gibby I’m afraid I have to correct you here. Being familiar with all four schools…especially H and S…Stanford’s endowment is almost equal to Yale’s and definitely ahead of Princeton’s. And Stanford provides as good or sometimes even better financial aid for those admitted “even the internationals” because they use a formula that is based on a much higher cost of living (Palo Alto/Bay Area)…</p>
<p>So, dollar-for-dollar, Stanford provides more aid to international students than Princeton, and slightly less aid than Yale, but not nearly as much as Harvard. Percentage-wise, Stanford recruits more international students on financial aid than Yale or Princeton. However, Harvard, while recruiting less international students, does provide more of them with financial aid – and with larger amounts of scholarship aid than either Stanford, Yale or Princeton.</p>
<p>One of the US kids who was admitted to both Stanford and Yale a couple of years ago told me his aid package much sweeter at Yale (23k vs 29k or so out of pocket). </p>
<p>I am guessing Yale tries to ensure that they don’t lose any kids to peers by making much better offers, knowing what other schools give. </p>
<p>Stanford does admit full need International kids but the total number admitted based on need is dictated by the pool of money allocated to internationals. </p>
<p>@texaspg. As we have discussed before Stanford can easily afford to go need-blind for internationals but strategically and financially speaking they don’t feel it is necessary to do so yet…since they get so many “full pay” highly qualified international applicants as it is…</p>
<p>…and to @gibby’s original point for the “same family” applying for financial aid at two or three different schools and comparing offers…they can vary by 2-3 thousand depending on the algorithm used by each school…and each of these four schools will usually try to match the others to be pretty close </p>
<p>Schools that have different policies on home equity are likely to have some very different results even given the same data. Harvard doesn’t consider home equity. Stanford and Yale do, and probably to different degrees.</p>
<p>I’m also not sure how to compare average international financial aid since international students (like domestic students) come from wildly differing financial circumstances. Without knowing how needy the international families are, interpreting the average financial aid is a rather murky process.</p>
<p>Looking at the numbers, yes – you might have done better at Yale, but everyone’s financial situation is different, so it’s difficult to say for certain if that would be true for your family. And unless you are accepted to multiple peer schools, you never find out what another school would have offered.</p>
<p>Can’t speak to Harvard, Stanford or Yale since my son didn’t apply to those, but can speak to MIT, Princeton, Vanderbilt, Penn and Caltech as being the most generous of the schools on my 2012er son’s list. And MIT sweetened the pot (though they didn’t say it) after we showed them Princeton’s offer.</p>
<p>By far, Vanderbilt was the most generous followed closely by Caltech. Princeton was next, followed by Penn and then MIT. <em>But</em> MIT was very affordable because they allowed my son to bring in up to 6K in outside scholarships to wipe away loan and work study portion of package. MIT has been an amazingly inexpensive deal for my son because of this.</p>
<p>@gibby I was referring to domestic student aid - I am a US citizen. And the OP did not mention international student status. But that is an important benchmark for many.</p>
<p>Students with divorced parents where the non-custodial parent is uncooperative with financial aid forms and/or is wealthy but won’t pay anything will find lots of other schools* to be better at financial aid than Harvard.</p>
<p>*Those which do not require non-custodial parent financial information.</p>
^^^ “Grants averaging more than $40,000” is for all students, both domestic and international. Maybe the average financial aid for international students is higher, but Harvard does break it down in their stats.</p>
<p>The US News Report you cited has Yale giving more financial aid to international students than any other college. Personally, I’d be a little skeptical about that, given that Harvard’s overall endowment is larger than Yale’s – or any of the school’s that the article claims give larger amounts of financial aid to international students than Harvard, including schools with very low endowments like Wesleyan, Skidmore, Bates, and Trinity. That just doesn’t sound accurate to me, but that’s just my guess.</p>
<p>@moliss :Yes, I am an international student. Sorry for any confusion. @gibby : Could you give me a definitive list of Harvard’s peer schools please?</p>
<p>@gibby , I have heard that the second child is often much cheaper. The rationale us that two kids in college at once is a known quantity, whereas a younger sibling is not. As in, that younger sibling might not go to college, might get an athletic or merit scholarship, or could go to the local community college. Until that I’d gets accepted into, say, Yale, the older kid’s college has no idea what your expenses are going to be. </p>
<p>Also, child #2’s school knows how much you are spending on child #1 and factors that into the aid award to the younger sibling. You have spent down some assets and have that yearly cost.</p>
<p>^Gibby: I’d add Williams, Amherst, and Pomona perhaps. Depends on whether we’re talking “brand recognition” (not in the same league) or opportunities& outcomes (same league) or even just financial aid…
Amherst is need-blind/meet 100% need.</p>
<p>@MYOS1634 I’m just curious, why do you say Williams, Amherst, Pomona and not Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore? I’m just wondering, because I’ve always seen the acronym AWS but never AWP.</p>
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