<p>NYU gave my son 30K in scholarships (he starts next week!)
My out of pocket towards the COA is exactly my EFC (12k - I'm not destitute)</p>
<p>Of course he will need money to live in NYC above and beyond the COA, but that isn't the story.</p>
<p>NYU does give great scholarships to some students. My son (white, never met his dad, SAT of 2250, but nowhere near the top student in his HS)</p>
<p>I think the disparity individuals see between different schools (NYU gives awful aid vs. NYU gives amazing aid) has to do with school policies. They want to keep the best kids. And NYU is notorious for shafting average kids but throwing money at kids they are afraid they will lose to 'better' schools.</p>
<p>Unless your child is in the top whatever percent of the admitted pool, then he/she is unfortunately going to get the short end of the stick.</p>
<p>I would also point out that the 'no loan' programs at most schools really are for low income families. Columbia for example, has a program for low income students that would give a legitimate full ride (with some work study) to admitted students in a family of four that makes less than about $26,000 dollars.</p>
<p>So low income is REALLY low income.</p>
<p>A poster earlier noted that for her child UT-Austin would cost upwards of $20,000 a year even though she was in-state. I could've gone a full ride out of state WITH a stipend.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, outside of the Ivies who are going to get great kids regardless, most schools are really just looking to attract the best kids and that's where the majority of the money goes.</p>
<p>Is it fair? No.</p>
<p>The University of Chicago is pretty stingy.</p>
<p>^My friend got a chunk of merit aid from them through National Merit. She didn't need the money.</p>
<p>Yeah, I'm not actually sure why everyone keeps saying Brown has bad financial aid. My efc was $9,000 and I got an amazing package with $30,000 in grants, $5,000 in subsidized loans (which I used my scholarships to get rid off), and $2400 in work study (which they waive for the first year with an extra $2400 in grants). Brown meets 100% of demonstrated need, so I'm not sure why people are complaining it's not Brown's fault that your efc is high. I admit it's not Princeton with their no-loan policy but the loan amount, which I guess people are complaining about, are reasonable given that they are subsidized.</p>
<p>The University of Chicago just received an endowment this summer from an alumnus that should result in much more generous financial aid. </p>
<p><a href="http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/070607/anonymousgift.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/070607/anonymousgift.shtml</a> </p>
<p>(But just now, searching the U of Chicago site, I noticed there were surprisingly many pages that ought to mention that program that don't, so I can understand why a prospective student who viewed the Chicago Web site might be unaware of that even today.)</p>
<p>js416256,
My son received a generous FA pkg from Brown. A little worse than Yale but better than Duke. Brown's "work study scholarship" for freshman was a nice perk. My son also waived his fed loans with outside scholarship money, Comparing publics (both out of state), UVA was very generous while UNC was terrible.</p>
<p>What is known about Stanford's FA?</p>
<p>I want to add that my while my son did get 30K from NYU he is taking the maximum perkins loan they would give him (2400) and a subsidized stafford loan (3500) and 900 in WS. I'm paying my EFC out of pocket this year. 30K is only about 60% of the Coa. I still feel like we got a good deal. </p>
<p>the one state school he applied to offered only offered the stafford loan. the rest was WS or my money. So in reality, our combined out of pocket would have still been over 10k for the state school. Of course had he not gotten the 30K, he would have been going to that state school. No way could we have made up the shortfall and I'm not going into debt or cosigning big loans for him (I hope to pay all my EFC out of savings for the next 4 years)</p>
<p>American University </p>
<p>per college board:
Number who were judged to have need: 655
Number who had full need met: 303 (46%)</p>
<p>Average percent of need met: 54% </p>
<p>Our experince with initial FA offer = 44% of need.</p>