<p>pip-pip</p>
<p>
[quote]
The women's colleges know how to take care of their own.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You are absolutely right that women's colleges do come throught with FA especially with schools like Mount Holyoke, Smith and Bryn Mawr who also give merit aid with in their need based aid. D got 64K from Bryn Mawr and 50k from Mount holyoke in leadership awards within their need based FA</p>
<p>Brown did have a disappointing package compared to all S1's other offers, but when I contacted them, they were willing to work to improve the package, largely because of the medical costs we deal with (high insurance premiums for one thing). This year (sophomore year) the package was much better but only because we have another kid going to college this fall.</p>
<p>Horrible: NYU (Loans all over the place) I got a GSP Scholarship, J.Eckhouse Schloarship, and NYU Scholarship all totaling about 7 grand the rest was loans.</p>
<p>OK...: University of Florida but I may be a bit biased because I'm in state plus I got a state affiliated reward, so it may be placed in the horrible bracket for out of staters....</p>
<p>Awesome Aid: Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Upenn: The Ivy League (except Cornell) has awesome aid across the board. EFC Yearly: Yale: 3,600, Penn: 5,700, Columbia: 1,800 and Princeton 1,600! I'm debt free through college!
Also Princeton president Tilgman is pushing for a program for all Princeton undergrads to be debt free for their first 4 years, plus Penn, Columbia, Harvard, and Yale all have new programs giving virtually free rides (or the minimum EFC) to families under 60 grand a year (If you fall in that bracket) </p>
<p>And I dont consider myself that poor! I'm middle class per se I got a two story house and Im pretty well off! So dont assume that the EFC's were really need based...My parents make about 40 grand each...</p>
<p>But in sum it does matter case by case...but I do believe that the ivies are totally understanding when it comes to aid. First they dont want money to be a deterrent for applying and they really want the best minds from all over the world not just the best minds who can afford it....</p>
<p>But dont stress about it and dont try to lie either...I have heard of aid liars being caught and having some $$$ revoked...but just fill it out and wait and see thats the best advice....peace and one love =)</p>
<p>Brown was probably my worst (EFC about 23k plus loans), and Princeton was by FARRR the best (over 38k in grants, 3k EFC).</p>
<p>lara:</p>
<p>you need to think about what specific colleges are after, and in USC's case it's high test scores. USC will give out wonderful merit aid to NMF's with a 3.6, but zero aid to a Commended 4.0. USC loves to brag that the test scores of its students are higher than Cal or UCLA; of course, USC does not report using the common data set, so only they know how they fudge (sorry, calculate) the numbers.</p>
<p>
[quote]
EFC Yearly: Yale: 3,600, Penn: 5,700, Columbia: 1,800 and Princeton 1,600! I'm debt free through college!</p>
<p>Also Princeton president Tilgman is pushing for a program for all Princeton undergrads to be debt free for their first 4 years, plus Penn, Columbia, Harvard, and Yale all have new programs giving virtually free rides (or the minimum EFC) to families under 60 grand a year (If you fall in that bracket) </p>
<p>And I dont consider myself that poor! I'm middle class per se I got a two story house and Im pretty well off! So dont assume that the EFC's were really need based...My parents make about 40 grand each...
[/quote]
</p>
<p>If this is your case then there must be some extenuating circumstances in your family's FA sitation (med. expenses not covered by insurance, care of elderly parents, multiple siblings in college, older parents where a larger amount of their income is protected)</p>
<p>
[quote]
***But in sum it does matter case by case
[/quote]
***</p>
<p>This is the really key statement as your situation is not going to be the case for other students with incomes similiar to your parents.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Today's edtion of the Dartmouth addresses Penn's new FA policy and warns against students and parents oversimplifying the financial aid equation.</p>
<p>"To simply say that there will be no contribution if the income is below a certain figure departs from need-based aid in some instances," Hazen said. She cited a hypothetical example of a student with a family income of $30,000, but $2 million in assets.</p>
<p>"If you based the determination strictly on income as some institutions are proposing, the student [with $2 million in assets] would get significant aid," Hazen said.</p>
<p>Penn, like Dartmouth, says that it examines each student's financial aid situation beyond family earnings.</p>
<p>Rather than departing from need-based aid, [schools] could either lower the amount they are expecting students to borrow or do outreach to schools to ensure that the needy students receive the education and guidance they need to qualify for college," Hazen said.</p>
<p>
[/quote]
</p>
<p>*the University of Pennsylvania will provide grants for undergraduate students from economically disadvantaged families with incomes of $50,000 or less. In conjunction with the reductions in summer savings requirements and increases in allowances for incidental expenses for students from low-income backgrounds, which were implemented in 2005-2006, the elimination of loans will mean that the highest-need students will each receive grant aid of more than $45,000 in 2006-2007.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>BU was very generous to S, but it was an "also ran" for him. PennState was horrible, but was even more of an "also ran" . Out of 4 UC's(OOS) Berkeley was the best, but still had us $26000 in PLUS loans( about 10000 more than we could possibly afford to pay with EFC $ 7750) . NYU was practically the same as Berkeley( even with the Trustee's scholarship) . Which left us with our State Flagship.Merit scholarship S got is pretty small( $ 2000 a year) , we don't qualify for ANY need-based money, but with in-state tuition and Honors Program it ended up being the only affordable option( becides BU) . Luckily S "loves his safety" and Seattle, and we love being able to visit him once in a while.</p>
<p>Just to tell you Sybbie, none of these apply to me, Im just a son of a single mom, and the first of my family attending college...</p>
<p>Worst -- Brown, Middlebury
Best (in order) -- Mt Holyoke ($100K merit), Rice ($64K merit), Swarthmore, Williams, HYP</p>
<p>Quote from post #7: "I'd like to hear more about this issue too. I'd specifically like to hear about colleges that claim to be need-blind, meeting 100 percent of demonstrated need (there appear to be maybe two dozen colleges that make that claim) and to get a reality check on whether those colleges offer aid that is practical for you."/quote</p>
<p>I have a suspicion that some of the "need-blind" schools may be peeking. In our financial aid app to 2 Ivy and 1 top tier LAC, I included information under "special circumstances" documenting recent changes to our family's financial situation that have drastically cut our income and increased medical expenses. Child got rejected from all 3. One other Ivy and 2 top tier schools did not get this information, and child was accepted at all 3. Coincidence? Perhaps. But if I was doing it over again, I'd hold back the special circumstances info until after April 1.</p>
<p>Worst - Wake forest! THEY SUCK! and possibly emory</p>
<p>BC is not very generous with financial aid. My son's package at Georgetown is twice what my daughter's package is from BC.</p>
<p>BUMPPPPPPPPPP</p>
<p>Really great thread</p>
<p>Sigh...unfortunately, if you're like most people, where yer upper middle to middle class, you aren't getting much. My family's total "income" is like 130,000, but net is lower, and i've got a little bro along the way too...and based on the financial aid sessions i've been too...if yer income is like 85000+, forget about getting much aid at all.</p>
<p>Sorry, but that's not true. Many people in the $100K + range are getting $15-20K, depending on other assets.</p>
<p>agree bandit
our income is above the national average and D received over $20,000 in need based grants every year</p>
<p>Anyone know how Ithaca College does on financial aid ?? My S wants to apply there , anticipates some Merit as he has high SATs but a little Merit can not make a huge difference ( he may get some need -based aid as we will have two in college when he goes ). He works and has some saving bonds for college . </p>
<p>Appreciate anyone's experience with Ithaca College . This is our only Profile college . The rest are State and a couple privates in Ohio/PA.</p>
<p>CMU gave our son abysmal aid whereas every other school he applied to gave quite generous aid. He received 25,000 in scholarship from NYU, great aid package from Hopkins, Oberlin, Macalester, Univ of MD. Middle class families: Expect to go into serious debt if your child attends Carnegie Mellon. Needless to say, our son did not.</p>
<p>My D applied to 6 schools this year: our instate flagship UTexas, OOS at Clemson, Florida State and Arizona State, and two privates. She's a high-stat, great EC, female engineering applicant.</p>
<p>UTexas is very expensive now even instate, $21000/year, and merit aid is practically nonexistent. </p>
<p>Clemson gave great merit aid, including an out of state tuition waiver and some big grants. A professor in the dept she applied to called to beg her to come. </p>
<p>Florida State gave pretty good merit aid. ASU offered a pile of loans and has been a bureaucratic nightmare.</p>
<p>So it is not fair to generalize that all state schools give bad aid to OOS applicants.</p>
<p>Eyeball:
I hope you knew or attempted to have CMU make another offer for financial aid.
It is their published policy to be competitive for students that meet their current needs and criteria. You only had to submit the offer from the other school which CMU considers a peer, which JHU does qualify. We got $5000 (approx 18% of tuition) from $0; 4 years, no GPA requirements. We/DS gave up $14,000/yr (50%) in scholarships for the $5000 CMU grant.
JHU was a rejection.</p>