<p>I want to goto a top tier school, but the cost may hurt me.. I do not want to take out a loan. My Dad makes around 140k but after tax it is around 80-100k. My brother will be going to college next year and I am going the year after him.</p>
<p>Big Question: WIll i get any need based aid from Schools like Ivy Leagues if My dad makes 80-100k after tax and my brother will be going to college and that will cost around 15-30k??</p>
<p>Colleges look at income and assets. If your dad has average assets (whatever that is) you would get some aid at the top schools, particularly when both you and your brother are in school (since the family contribution is then divided in half). Run the Net Price Calculators on a couple of school web sites to see how the expected costs differ.</p>
<p>It is possible that at SOME Very generous schools that you will get decent need based aid. BUT the acceptance rates at those schools is well less,than 10%…90% of those who apply do not get admitted. In the 90% of denied students are some very very well qualified applicants.</p>
<p>The generous need based aid does you no good unless you hit the lottery and get accepted.</p>
<p>If I were you, I’d be looking at other affordable options also.</p>
<p>Schools don’t care about “after tax” income. </p>
<p>Does your family have savings? assets? investments? Does he own his own business?</p>
<p>Does your mother work? </p>
<p>Your assumption about attending an ivy is a problem. Even students with perfect stats get rejected. No one can count on being accepted/ And if you’re an ORM, then it may be more difficult. </p>
<p>You need to have your dad run the NPCs on various schools’ websites. Don’t rely on HYPS’ net price calculators as guidelines since those schools give unusually good aid.</p>
<p>Okay. It is because my dad thinks we won’t get any need based aid.</p>
<p>Well, you can start by looking at the student aid info pages on the colleges’ web sites. You can head for the library or bookstore and look at books that guide you through the basics. I learned a lot through finaid.org, but find they are not so updated now. What you should not do is speculate.</p>
<p>Each college has a Net Price Calculator. You can also run the Fafsa Forecaster, to see how the Feds view your situation. (That’s the starting point we often advocate.) To be blunt, you don’t want to be one of the kids who, in spring of senior year, posts, “But I assumed…”</p>
<p>Get an understanding of the various terms, the aid application forms, loans versus grants, etc.</p>
<p>Okay. It is because my dad thinks we won’t get any need based aid.</p>
<p>well, have him run the NPCs (however, if he’s self-employed, those won’t work well for him).</p>
<p>Your dad may be concerned if he has a lot of saving and/or investments. Or if he has a business, it may have value.</p>
<p>Like others said, run the NPC for all the schools you are looking at. My parents did that for all of the schools I applied to and all said that I would be full pay. Due to this my parents did not file a fasfa for any of my schools. However not asking for any aid did help me out a lot to get off a waitlist. So if it says that you won’t get anything I wouldn’t file a fasfa as it could end up helping you out.</p>
<p>From the Ivy Leagues: yes, you will get aid. I have a similar financial situation with minor assets and I am the only student in college, and we receive about $37,000 in need-based aid. However, the catch is that you are very unlikely to get in.</p>
<p>I have to disagree with sportskid. If your income is $140,000 and you don’t have big assets, you will qualify for need-based aid at top-tier schools – and some of those are need-blind, meaning they do not care whether or not you can pay full price. If the school is full-need and need-blind, not filing a FAFSA will not give you any advantage on waitlists.</p>
<p>Some schools,like mine, are need blind for admissions but on the waitlist they are need aware, meaning that they do take into account how much you can pay when deciding who gets off of the waitlist. This is what I meant. Most of those takwn off the list this year had no/little need.
My college gives out a lot of aid but I did not get any aid as I have a 529 account that has a large amount in it but my parents are middle class. Instead of taking vacations, all of that money went into my sib and my 529 accounts. So if you have a good amount in a 529, you are unlikely to get much if any aid.</p>
<p>That’s true. It really depends on your family’s assets. $140k is on the line. Multiple houses or a 529 could put you over the edge and render you ineligible for aid. My family had relatively little assets so I still qualified. Online net price calculators are the way to go!</p>
<p>Edit: Harvard’s NPC:</p>
<p><a href=“http://npc.fas.harvard.edu/[/url]”>http://npc.fas.harvard.edu/</a></p>
<p>With $140k income and $500,000 in cash assets, you would still get about $20,000 in financial aid.</p>
<p>Need blind is only relevant for admissions.
Has nothing to do with financial aid.
Schools that meet 100% of need are often need aware for admissions, they can’t afford to be otherwise.
Private schools have higher COA oftentimes than public schools.
They also may have more in need &/ or merit based aid.
They also are likely to use their own forms to identify just how large is your need, as well as your assets.
Mostly the latter. 
Even a 100% need met school is going to expect your family to use roughly 33% of BEFORE TAX INCOME to pay your families educational expenses.
More than that if rental income or a small business is involved.</p>
<p>However MOST schools do not meet 100% of need.</p>
<p>Families need to identify what they can afford out of savings, current and future income.
Then lower your sights from pie in the sky schools and consider instate universities as well as schools that offer merit aid.</p>
<p>The most " prestigious" and competitive schools do not offer merit aid.
<p>emerald is right. However, many of the Ivies are both need-blind and full-need, and the OP asked about Ivies specifically.</p>
<p>Using EK’s 33%, a 140k income would likely yield roughly a 46k EFC. If we bracket it at 25-33%, the low estimate would be 35k. Again, depends on assets and their sort, owning a business, number of kids in college, etc. </p>
<p>After that, if there is any valid chat, it says you can often expect to pay some thousands over that Fafsa EFC (we’re talking generous schools.) That can include the student loans, summer employment, campus work.</p>
<p>Beyond that, there is no easy way to view this. You have to run the NPCs. You must become educated and not assume. All the Ivies are need blind and meet full need. But your “need” is their determination, not yours, not the Fafsa estimate. They can count cars, home equity, view your discretionary use of income, whatever. </p>
<p>Bottom line: there will be kids who are pleasantly surprised, having gone in without much info- but you want to learn up, not make mistakes, maximize your position.</p>
<p>* However, many of the Ivies are both need-blind and full-need, and the OP asked about Ivies specifically.*</p>
<p>Oh yes, I understand that many students are only interested in the schools with the biggest endowments and the smallest acceptance rates.</p>
<p>Is this a product of a generation whose parents weren’t satisfied with " a good enough " student and convinced them that hard work & good luck would pay off with recognition of their specialness? :rolleyes:</p>
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<p>Read more: [College</a> Admissions: Ivy League Acceptance Rates Decline | TIME.com](<a href=“College Admissions: Ivy League Acceptance Rates Decline | TIME.com”>College Admissions: Ivy League Acceptance Rates Decline | TIME.com)</p>
<p>Should I link to the recent threads started by equal minded students who were not accepted to any of the schools on their list except for " safetys" that they chose without seriously thinking that they would be their only option?</p>
<p>Best to have a gap year plan in mind just in case you need to find schools that are more affordable/ more likely to admit.</p>
<p>I should add that 33% seems to be accurate for incomes upward of $100,000. Below that it is closer to 25%. IME</p>
<p>Just an FYI…if you get $37,000 in need based aid, you will still be required to pay the balance which will be in the $20,000 range for the Ivies.</p>
<p>You need to discuss how much your parents CAN pay per year! That is the important number.</p>