<p>To be honest, I don't know exactly how it's docked and the website doesn't say.</p>
<p>yeah, I agree John, I'd like to see what everyone else's income:aid ratio is.</p>
<p>I'll start I guess:
Family income is (pre-taxes) $100k ish
Need-based aid was $11k grant, $3500 federal loan
(You do the math and tell me - my family is supposed to pay nearly half of their post-tax income??)
My heart kinda broke when I opened the envelope because there's no way this is possible, and I am in love with UChicago. Anyone else?</p>
<p>Can someone else post so I don't feel silly (and alone)?</p>
<p>hmm im guessing my parents combined is around $170k, and we got $0 financial aid, but the $3500 loan thing. there is no way we would be able to pay 50,000 a year. does anyone know any place willing to give that much in student loans? :(</p>
<p>UNEPgirl: heh. Same here. Do you have any siblings? I have a slightly lower family income than you do, but I'm an only child, so that might explain some things why my grant is even lower.</p>
<p>Family income: 95K ish
And I got a $9000 grant. And a smattering of loans.</p>
<p>Are the loans guaranteed? subsidized? anything? It seems like the verbiage actually says "oh, btw, we're not sure on the loan amount. you might not qualify for that much subsidized Federal depending on your FAFSA. sorry."</p>
<p>I believe all of it is an estimate, don't give up hope yet. You might can score university scholarship or something along those lines, keep hoping.</p>
<p>I waited for the mail all afternoon yesterday (it comes late where I live) to see if I could afford UChicago, went down to get it in the dark, and found out... that my letter hadn't come! (No Christmas card either, though I didn't care quite as much about that part :-p ) Well, until Wednesday... I hope...</p>
<p>On the plus side, I got hand-written Christmas cards from G-town and NC Florida! Plus a NC bumper sticker! <em>modicum of excitement</em></p>
<p>Chicago sucks with financial aid. Sorry everyone. I'm in the same boat (except I'm already here, and working my ass off to pay it all back). I think I made the right decision, though... To be completely honest, I think students these days are spoiled, expecting to come out of college completely debt-free. Life doesn't work this way. Well, it's starting to at Harvard and other universities, but in my opinion, this will just lead to students not appreciating their education. I don't think my GPA would be as high as it is if I knew that I would be coming out of college completely debt-free.</p>
<p>Just curious, did anyone get anything in their financial aid estimate about an Odyssey Scholarship? (You'd have to make below $75k/year to get to see this.)</p>
<p>the fin. aid estimates dont include the odysessy. i know b/c i'm eligible for it and i called and asked them. Does anyone think that uchicago may somehow increase fin. aid like a bunch of other schools?</p>
<p>Perhaps, but don't count on it. I think Chicago probably has a lot of number-crunchers who are working out how much money it is worth on their parts to put into undergraduate financial aid. </p>
<p>In some respects, it doesn't make much sense for Chicago to match or exceed an offer put out by Harvard or Princeton (or another school that gives exceptional financial aid) because most students would probably choose H or P over Chicago even before the finances kicked in.</p>
<p>Son got the christmas card, but it came with a $0 aid which surprised me cause we will have two next year in private universitites. Very disappointing.</p>
<p>My dad is a landlord and our family is literally a couple hundred thousand in debt right now, but because we sold two houses last year (to help pay off said debt) and still own two others (excluding our own), they apparently took one look at our assets and said SORRY, NO AID. Freaking impossible.</p>
<p>And I never got a Christmas card.</p>
<p>No Christmas card, but I did get an estimated $41,500 grant...</p>
<p>is the financial aid that uchicago has about the as other need blind schools (excluding HYPS)..</p>
<p>I also got a letter saying that I am not eligible for financial aid. Unless something changes once we send in the fasfa, there is NO way I can go. I mean, even if i just built up a lot of student debt, I don't think $200,000 is feasible.. And definitely would be a bad idea.</p>
<p>My parents said I'd need to get over half covered in some way to be able to go. And even if I do get lucky and they decide to change their minds.. I doubt it could ever go from zero to half. </p>
<p>My dad's a farmer and has a lot of assets. Our income was also WAY larger this past year because of a conservation easement or something like that. And it's not going to be much better (well.. worse, really..) for 07 because it's been probably the best year for farming ever. </p>
<p>Ha, and I thought I might qualify for the odyssey scholarship. </p>
<p>Goodbye University of Chicago and hello CU-Boulder? To be realistic, this is probably going to be my situation. </p>
<p>I'm ridiculously disappointed. Does anyone feel like this is almost worse than being rejected?</p>
<p>blindkite - i know how you feel. i've been wondering whether i would have rather been rejected straight out, or been told yea you are good enough to go here, but you can't come anyway. i think i would stick with what I have, knowing im in but having a very slim chance of being able to actually go</p>
<p>we were hoping to have to pay about half as well, i dont really mind going into debt, but 200,000 in debt is ridiculous. its frustrating, because i guess it looks like my family makes a lot of money, but we live on long island, and its not exactly a cheap place to live. in the college aspect, being middle class kind of stinks, because you don't get the help someone who makes less would get, and you dont make enough to be able to pay everything straight out. i am really frustrated but im trying to believe everything will work out anyway</p>
<p>My son's financial aid package was very close to the CSS/Fafsa estimate on the collegeboard website. Remember that assets are taken into consideration, and that finaid for business owners is notoriously difficult. We pay our tuition bill out of a combination of current income, borrowing, and savings. Its not easy, but in our case it seems to have been the right decision.</p>
<p>I really am dissappointed. I am getting maxed out on the Stafford loan, then they gave me perkins loans too. I have some savings, but I still did not get much grant money at all and my mom is a single parent. When they figure the Odyssey scholarships will they only use my mom's income, or my dad's also? (they are legally separated)</p>
<p>My son is in his first year at UChicago. We were also very disappointed with the financial aid estimate, and the final aid letter was only a little better. Although it will be quite a hardship (we will probably have to refinance our home and he will max out on loans), he is so gloriously happy that I feel it is all worth it. His intellectual growth, over the course of just a few months, is extraordinary. I hope that parents recognize that kids only get to go to college once and that the experiences in college can change them for life.
On a side note, our experience with Chicago's financial aid office is that, if you write to them explaining "special circumstances," they can be persuaded to make some adjustment to the original financial aid offer. It still may not be what you think you deserve, but it can help.</p>
<p>I remember when DS got his financial aid packet last year at this time. We were shocked and he cried.</p>
<p>However, after carefully reviewing the package and a number of discussions with the Aid Office, the final aid offer was much better. Moral being, if you have questions about the package or extenuating circumstances, calmly and politely communicate with the aid office. It could get better.</p>
<p>After all that, and a Chicago merit scholarship, DS ended up at Michigan. ha</p>
<p>A few years ago, I was shocked and disappointed at my D's first financial aid offer. Then I saw the others from 4 other schools. I think they all used similar formulas, as they were within a thousand or so of each other. Basically, we were at the worst possible point: just enough need to qualify for a minimal subsidized loan. </p>
<p>For all of you feeling shafted, please write your congressperson. They are the ones that set up the FAFSA formula - the one that takes about 1/2 of every dollar your family earns above around 60K. And they are the ones that decided to play games with the loan programs and make them more expensive. And so on.</p>