<p>“It’s nice how the poor kids get loads of aid, the rich kids can pay for everything, while the middle-class kids are screwed.” </p>
<p>Story of my life, gbpackersfan24.</p>
<p>I got $0 from Chicago today. I sent them a letter when I applied for Aid about how my father was recently laid off from a job he’d held for 6 years, and is now currently unemployed. I guess it didn’t really make a difference.</p>
<p>Mine is a little lackluster compared to another offer I got, but I’m going to work work work all summer, do work study, and write scholarship applications like mad. We’ll see what happens next year when my sister’s out of college…</p>
<p>iinviere, same situation as you. Got $0 though my father was laid off from a job he’s had for years. He just got a new one, but that’s about to be dissolved</p>
<p>Degeneration:</p>
<p>Have you tried calling/negotiating with Chicago FA office yet? I’m thinking about it, even though my chances are fairly low and it’s not likely I’ll get anything. It’s worth a try.</p>
<p>Are you still going to go to Chicago?</p>
<p>Same, I doubt I’ll get that much. I haven’t really considered it yet, but its possible I might still go</p>
<p>Chicago does not expect you to raid your parents’ retirement accounts. Money that is in an IRA, 401(k) or traditional pension plan are NOT included in FAFSA or PROFILE by any school, including Chicago. If your parents own real estate on the side which they intend to use as a source of retirement funds (and it’s not under the umbrella of a pension plan), that <em>is</em> considered an available asset.</p>
<p>What PROFILE colleges (and FAFSA, too, IIRC) DO include in available assets is the amount of money your parents are <em>currently contributing</em> to a retirement plan. For example – if your parents put $7,500 into a 401(k) plan in 2008, that money is considered avilable for college. The expectation (rational or not) is that your parents will reduce retirement contributions while you are in college.</p>
<p>A longtime CC poster calls EFC (Estimated Family Contribution) “Every Freakin’ Cent.” Sounds about right to me. Getting those FA letters are always a stunning shock. I’m supposed to pull how much $$$ out of my hat?</p>
<p>Tinuviel – we expect our S to contribute $10k/year towards his education (in addition to any merit $$). He takes out Stafford loans, works over the summer and has two small jobs that he works at sporadically during the school year. He’s not complaining. He knows this is the price he pays to attend Chicago. </p>
<p>Chicago’s summer earnings expectation for first years is $1900. S was a camp counselor last summer making $7.50/hr. and had no problem covering that amount.</p>
<p>All that said, it is a helluva lotta money, and in these times, it is difficult to part with those kinds of numbers, not knowing what the economy will do next.</p>
<p>I won’t be going either. No financial aid, whatsoever. One year with the $56000 price tag would drain my college fund. Meanwhile my less wealthy friends got more than sufficient finaid. UCLA it is for me.</p>
<p>my efc is ~32k. Uchicago offered $0 in aid.<br>
at least Stanford came through with a reasonable amount.</p>
<p>I planned to visit chicago tomorrow…thank god i got my aid package b4 i bought tickets.</p>
<p>Wow. How much do you guys parents make? like I work all summer, and during the school year and save and i’m middle class yet all you guys are saying that you got raw deals. It just makes me wonder why. And to the person who saked, no I didn’t get any merit aid (sorry it took me so long to reply).</p>
<p>My EFC was higher than FAFSA… We’re calling to see if that’s based on estimates or the actual numbers from last year, which reduced my FAFSA EFC by a lot. The loans aren’t that bad, honestly. But my parents will be squeezing to pay what they expect right now. Cornell is a bit cheaper…</p>
<p>LamiaServatrix… i think people should care more about situations than income</p>
<p>The median income in my county is $100,000. So, $100,000 is meaningless. It’s like saying I make 40k out in kansas.
I also have 4 siblings. My parents are saving 100k in total for each kids college fund. O yea… my oldest brother is in college.</p>
<p>I’m not playing a game with the FA office. I can’t pay full tuition. I am not going to uchicago.</p>
<p>Neither is my son, geckolord. The big universities (in his case, G’town, Chicago, Notre Dame) all gave bad financial packages. It’s great for full-pay and very needy. The folks in the middle are being squeezed out. </p>
<p>My son has moved on. He has great affordable choices!</p>
<p>I didn’t get bad aid packages from everyone…just Uchicago.</p>
<p>There’s a kid at my school with a 4.0 - but our school is extremely easy, 17 kids of our 65 or so have 4.0’s. Anyways, he has a 4.0, 25 act, one extra curricular (cross country), where he is decent, but not good. Anyways he is receiving a full ride to University of Chicago. I cant help but just feel anger at this. If I could pick three words to describe him they would be winy, ignorant, and prick. He’s in general just not liked. I don’t know how much of the 50,000 he is receiving is need based aid, and merit aid. So, sorry for all of you who didn’t get what you wished for/deserved because of situations like this.</p>
<p>I don’t mean to add this last part for any type of racism, but it is relevant to the situation. He is black. Specifically, he is from Kenya where he lived until he was about 11 and moved here with his mom. He hasn’t had a hard life though, his father was extremely rich in Kenya and he always brags about how he attended the best private school when he was over there.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that he might be bluffing. And that’s it’s not your place to decide who deserves financial aid and who doesn’t. And that it’s his business and not yours.</p>
<p>Yeah, we really shouldn’t be too quick to judge. I know that a lot of people feel shortchanged by chicago, and understandably so. Not being able to go to your top choice because of finances sucks. Big time. But that’s no reason to decide who “deserves” aid and who doesn’t “deserve” aid.</p>
<p>I feel kind of bad. I got an extremely generous FA package from Chicago. My family is middle-class (120-130k), but Chicago made a more generous offer than Columbia (though not by much). No scholarships, but expected student contribution of less than $500. Expected parental contribution of 15k.</p>
<p>Sister is in college, but it’s a tuition free school. I was absolutely shocked when I saw how much aid I had gotten, especially considering Chicago’s reputation. I guess the Chicago FA office is more arbitrary and random than parsimonious.</p>
<p>I’m really upset. This was a way bigger letdown than any of the college rejections I had this year. I really thought Chicago was the one for me…</p>
<p>@ btownmontana: Jesus Christ, I need to give them a call. You’ve got a great deal. I’ve got a brother in college, we’re footing out 30k a year for him, we make ~150k, and they’re telling us we need to contribute another 30k.</p>
<p>My family makes under $75,000/year, and we did not get an Odyssey Scholarship, or a great financial aid package =[</p>