<p>^^ I’m paying less to go to Brown than I would have been at other schools where I received merit aid. Maybe that’s not the case for wealthier applicants, but idk</p>
<p>If she is taking out 38k in loans, then she does not have money.
If you make more than 60k (I think she was around 80k), paying for Ivies is tough in some cases.
And she would have gotten paid if she went to the local state school.</p>
<p>^:(. Which school is it? For the schools with good FA, one is only expected to contribute about 10% of income between 60k and 180k. Did she apply for any merit scholarships at lower tier schools? She might have been able to get fantastic scholarship offers in her case.</p>
<p>Well I don’t want to go into too much detail, but she got in via a special program. So that might be why FA didn’t apply to her.</p>
<p>Another friend of mine made around 40k and did pay just 4k.</p>
<p>^ Every Ivy requires no family contribution for those who have family incomes under $60k. I can’t help but be suspicious about the first scenario you described as well.</p>
<p>For the second one, the only thing I can imagine is that he lied about his family income or how much he is paying.</p>
<p>For the first one I’m certain,</p>
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<p>That’s if the family doesn’t have other unusual assets. If they have a second home, for instance, then that is factored into the equation.</p>
<p>Also, all the Ivys don’t offer the same financial aid. HYP are still able to offer more than the others.</p>
<p>Idk about the prestige factor for attending an ivy if you don’t go to a HYP-level school. I am attending the University of Pennsylvania this fall, and the most prominent statement people ask me when I tell them where I am attending is “Why are you going to Penn state?!? You probably could’ve gone to an Ivy League School!!!” So, I go to pains to use the Wharton name as much as possible to prevent that embarassing exchange, but no one ever knows what that is either. I image Dartmouth people have similar lackings when it comes to prestige. So, if you don’t go to Harvard, Yale, or Princeton…don’t expect to be WOW-ing people with your college. Not that that should matter, of course =D.</p>
<p>About that asset thing. I know another girl going to Yale whose EFC is 54k and her family makes 120k.</p>
<p>With that said I have no info as to how much she is getting from Yale.</p>
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<p>Why does it even matter? The people who will matter when you’re looking for a job will know about Penn.</p>
<p>ya…but I still want to impress people with my school since I worked dam hard 2 get into it. Does it really matter if I impress lay people/family? No, but we all prbly like it to have ppl light up when they hear you go 2 an ivy.</p>
<p>ehh, I guess we can agree to disagree on this one 
for me personally, I’m just impressed with myself for working hard enough to get into college. If people around me wanna scoff at the school I attend or think it isn’t good enough, then screw them, because they aren’t the ones that woke up at 8am for SAT exams and worked hard to become the applicant that I was. Who cares if they don’t light up upon hearing where you go? Just getting into college puts you at the top 1% of the planet, and considering that you’re in the LSM program, you’re probably bound for success :)</p>
<p>^^eh, I actually don’t brag. Like, I don’t know…if I were going to mit or something I’d just say “I’m going to a college near/in boston”, even now I just say “I’m going to a college in pittsburgh”</p>
<p>it’s like…whatever, why brag to strangers? my family doesn’t care about prestigious colleges and they’d be just as happy if I went to UT so I don’t care about bragging to them</p>
<p>any person that is easily impressed by the name of a college is not the kind of person I want to impress</p>
<p>Unfortunately my dad who has hired employees for a patent company tells me that while the grad school you went to won’t get you auto-hired but it helps “get your foot in the door”. Undergrad matters very little to him and most employers but for those few years you might feel like all the hard work you’ve done is finally validated.</p>