<p>chicagoboy-
both parents' income is considered in the CSS calculation, even if your parents are legally separated.</p>
<p>My big mistake, when I originally estimated financial aid from Chicago, was that I believed that they were part of a group of CSS schools that had chosen to limit the impact of home equity on financial aid. It turns out that they opted not join this group of colleges in enacting this provision. Home equity can be a real aid killer.</p>
<p>SBDad: what's the group you're talking about? Chicago's part of the 568</a> Group Member Institutions, but this doesn't seem to mean anything.</p>
<p>More 568 news: [url=<a href="http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/08/26/yourmoney/mspend27.php%5DSpend/Thrift:">http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/08/26/yourmoney/mspend27.php]Spend/Thrift:</a> Do your homework to get the most financial aid - International Herald Tribune<a href="article%20starts%20out%20with%20%22Yale%20aid%20sucks%22%20then%20moves%20on%20to%20%22Yale%20is%20part%20of%20the%20568%20group%20which%20strives%20for%20better%20aid%22.">/url</a></p>
<p>Yes, it was the 568 Group. Their concensus approach, which Chicago chose not to use, was to cap home equity at 2.4 times income.</p>
<p>So here's a question for the people who have experience with this: Should I remain hopeful? Apply like crazy for outside scholarships (the trouble with this is that not many of them are worth much, relative to how much money I need)? I'll definitely be contacting Chicago's aid office to see if I can send them more information or something so that they might reconsider me after getting the fafsa. </p>
<p>How much debt is it worth it to take on?
I don't want to have to worry about making a lot of money after college. But I also don't want to go to a state school. </p>
<p>So I'm wondering, should I keep on hoping or be realistic and accept my situation and start finding the good in my state school? Okay, the answer to this is probably both.</p>
<p>No card. Yet.</p>
<p>In determining how much debt one should take on to attend the University of Chicago, each family has their own set of priorities and needs. So each determination is different. In my case, I only had one child and although her financial aid package from Chicago was horrible, we agreed to let her go there. Why? Because we felt it was the absolute best university education available in the U.S. and perhaps the world. Since we have no other children we were willing to make this sacrifice. Had we had other children going to college we would have probably thought differently. Our child is now in her second year at Chicago and I know that we made the right choice. Her scholastic, emotional and physical development have been phenomenal there and I actually now think that it is a better school than I even realized. They really work on developing the whole person. She is involved in several choirs, martial arts, exciting and stimulating courses, associations with fascinating fellow students and because she is challenged and interested,she is doing really well. So, is it worth it? For us, definitely. The school has also taken a personal interest in her in many ways and she has never felt like just a number.</p>
<p>OHIO MOM- When they are doing the ODYSSEY scholarships do you think they will use my dad's income too though?</p>
<p>Son did not get card but did get a whopping 2700 grant. Don't think I can run up a 200,000 debt with retirement a couple of years away in a one income family. Not sure about home equity is figured but we have lived here 28 yrs and even with the recent drop in prices have quite a bit of paper wealth.</p>
<p>And in this market that's what it is. Maybe in the next couple of months they will soften their stand in general and on home equity in particular.</p>
<p>It seems a lot of people are being let down with financial aid. I am definitely one of them. I received no aid in my estimate and unless something changes I will not be able to attend my dream school...</p>
<p>I think an important consideration in assessing your college debt tolerance is whether or not you plan on attending graduate school. If you do, I would try and keep your debt to a minimum. Remember, this is an undergraduate education. Perform well as an undergraduate and then head to Chicago for grad school.</p>
<p>Newenglandparent, I'm curious about whether your daughter will graduate with any debt of her own. It seems that the posters here are looking at graduating with their own student loans, which may not be the case with your daughter.</p>
<p>FWIW, I've been seeing this disappointment with Fin Aid since I joined these boards, and that was the "old" boards. </p>
<p>This year may be worse due to the publicity about changes at Harvard, changes which Chicago can ill afford, but I think a big part of it is that we tend to think the financial aid calculators are worst case, that we'll do better. Unfortunately, they are not worst case.</p>
<p>Since Chicago received a $100 million gift this year I guess we've all been expecting some of it to trickle down to the FinAid department. Now with the news from Harvard there might be some pressure. Wishful thinking.</p>
<p>SBDad, as I pointed out, each situation is different. In my case my daughter will not incur any debt for undergrad and we are making a tremendous sacrifice to send her to Chicago. However, she has been made aware that this is the end of our financial support, literally. I.e. no wedding, car, etc. If she goes to graduate school, she is on her own and will have to pay for her share entirely on her own. She knows this and still chose to go there even though she could have gone to a decent State school honors program with a substantial merit scholarship or other excellent universities which offered substantially more scholarship and financial aid assistance. Not everyone can make this decision and I am aware of this. Perhaps some students would not want to go to grad school and would be willing to incur substantial debt to go to Chicago, but this is a decision that definitely is not right for everyone and is definitely difficult to make. Do I like paying out this kind of money when a decent State education was available for seventy percent less money. No I don't!!! But I am happy that I made this decision and I am grateful to do it for my child. But I know that not everyone, no matter how much they would like to do it for their child, can do so. In our case it was not about a future career, but was about our child's development at this time in her life. Perhaps some of the new scholarship funds will help make some of these decisions less painful for parents in lower income groups. I am just over the line and my child will not be able to participate in these scholarships much to my disappointment. Do I worry about retirement? Absolutely, but I guess I will have to cross that bridge when it comes.</p>
<p>Hi newenglandparent
Just want to say that your love to your daughter is so beautiful. Nothing in this world can compare and compete with the love a mother gives to a child. Your post is so beautiful. Thanks for posting.</p>
<p>Thanks for clarifying that.</p>
<p>I just wanted to make sure that those prospective students considering the prospect of taking on substantial amounts of personal debt understood your situation and distinguished it from their own.</p>
<p>Let me quote newmassdad on this again for emphasis:</p>
<p>"I think a big part of it is that we tend to think the financial aid calculators are worst case, that we'll do better. "</p>
<p>Our Chicago finaid was pretty close to the CSS Profile estimate, so it was not a big surprise. If yours is off by a lot (and you entered the estimate correctly), a call to the finaid office is in order. </p>
<p>Home equity - paper or not, fair or not - is considered among your assets using the CSS methodology. I believe that some of the ivies may forgive your primary residence, but you have to look into this in detail on a school by school basis. This is more of an issue if you live where your real estate investment has sky-rocketed than it is for me in Cleveland. On the other hand, you will probably be able to sell yours, pay off the student loans, and buy a much bigger condo than me when you retire, so it probably balances out in the end.</p>
<p>Note that custodial and noncustodial parental incomes are BOTH considered in the CSS Profile calculations. If your non-custodial parent refuses to pay, you need to include FAFSA only schools in your mix. I don't know whether the new scholarships will change that, but I would tend to doubt it. On CC, I have heard of cases where PROFILE schools were convinced to consider only the custodial parent - but that is REALLY rare, and I haven't heard of it with Chicago. </p>
<p>If you are a junior and you or your folks have not run the estimators, please do so now. What you need to know is whether or not your family, in your situation, could conceivably afford its EFC. If you can't, make sure your list emphasizes schools that offer many students merit aid, as well as some of our fine publics.</p>
<p>Ooooooooohhhhhh i got one too. Hand-written and everything. It makes me want to go to Chicago!!!!!!!!!!!!! :(</p>
<p>Got the envelope. Zero. Mmmm...... State Flagship .....my.... PRECIOUS!!</p>