<p>I’m jealous btown! How come you make 50,000 more than my parents and have a family contribution only 4k higher and a lesser student contribution?</p>
<p>Argh, Chicago FA…</p>
<p>If I was a billionaire, I would start a scholarship for middle class kids only. Are there even any of those types of scholarships out there now? Lol</p>
<p>Yes there are and I am middle class. my partents make ~50,000 a year and work and have an older bro in College. and yea I’m black incase anyone was wondering.<br>
And I’d like to know when 120K became middle class. That to me is rich. Idk. Where do you guys live? I’m in Illinois.</p>
<p>as i said…
A person making 50k a year would not be able to live in northern VA. I am not exaggerating at all. The median income out hear is 100k. (things cost more…salaries are higher). However, I don’t see how anyone could live with 100k a year either…
People with 120k are middle class… </p>
<p>that the definition of rich depends on location.
at least you realize that…uchicago obviously doesn’t…</p>
<p>The other thing that I’ve been realizing recently - outside scholarships don’t really help much. They’re not taken out of your expected family contribution. I’m not sure what they are taken out of - I suppose if loans or work-study, that’s actually helpful in the end, but if grants, then what’s the point?</p>
<p>i don’t know, maybe i’m too wrapped up in my little bubble, but anything approaching $100,000 seems like a hell of a lot to me. but take my opinion with a grain of salt - i don’t know how salaries and cost of living varies from area to area so i can’t really relate. i mean, my family makes a little over $30,000, 3 kids and all, and for this area that’s considered lower-middle class. i’d say the “comfortable” kids have families that make $50,000-80,000, and once you get near the $100,000 territory, you are now upper-middle class. but again, this is my extremely myopic view of the world, so i don’t know what to say.</p>
<p>Yea I knew that some places have higher living expences but wow. The gap is ridiculous. My family has 3 kids 1 already in school and we are … ok. *using the term lightly.</p>
<p>below 100k= death for any family here. 200k is considered upper middle class. ahahah and you thought Virginia was a hill billy state…</p>
<p>and yes. the income is only higher because everything is so damn expensive.
for example teachers start out at around 50k. most older teachers make around 80k i think. And, that’s such a low income that all my teachers live 20+ miles away from school.</p>
<p>When I was accepted EA to Chicago I thought everything was done, I had been accepted to the school that I dreamed about at night. But then my FA estimate came in and I FREAKED. I ran my numbers through every fin aid calc on the internet, collegeboard, finaid, cc, everything imaginable and they were all in a similar range 8-11k EFC my FASFA EFC was 8.5k but here comes Chicagos fin aid and they have my EFC at 16k for my parents and 7.5k loans for me a total of a 23k EFC. ***!!!</p>
<p>And to confirm that Chicago’s fin aid blows here is my aid packages from other peer schools:</p>
<p>Williams was EFC of roughly 9k 41k grants out of 49-50k (no student loans).
Johns Hopkins was EFC 11k with 42k grants out of 55k (this is without 2.5k student loans they offered me)
Brown- 42k grants and no student loans</p>
<p>Williams 2013! I suggest for all the 2014 people who need fin aid to apply to schools like Williams who have no loan policies and are regarded for their fin aid. Chicago wonders why its yield blows…</p>