<p>Saw this question on the Cal Tech board, and thought it should be asked of MIT's financial aid office:</p>
<p>"New Financial aid guidelines like Harvard? </p>
<p>I just read an article (Williams Record - Latest Edition: January 16, 2008)
that states, " Beginning next year, a Harvard student whose family earns $180,000 will only have to pay $18,000 of the schools $45,600 sticker price".</p>
<p>(Thanks, DMRenrel)</p>
<p>I'm just hoping MIT will do the honorable thing, and help the real middle class.</p>
<p>IMO, the "honorable" thing would be to make tuition free or at least discounted for all. With a $10 billion endowment (actually only the tenth largest endowment in the US), the cost to MIT and to others like HYPS would be miniscule. These endowments grow tax-free, but unlike other types of nonprofit organizations, schools are not (yet) required to spend at least 5% of their endowments each year. Congress has been threatening to pass legislation to require just such spending, so Harvard and then Yale pre-empted this by their recent finaid announcements. This allows HY to compete more successfully for stellar students who might otherwise go to (less expensive) state schools, and also to compete against each other at a new level.</p>
<p>i think 180k is upper middle class. america has quite a big (and rich) middle class. harvard is aiming for the middle class who dont have enough money to completely disregard the 50k cost of college and have too much money for federal/normal-institutional financial aid.</p>
<p>Ya, these people get hit the hardest, because unlike lower class people they don't get any aid and are expected to pay for college out of their own pocket, but unlike upper class people, 50k/year is a decent chunk of their income, and that's before tax. 180k/year after tax is like 100k. So half of it has to go to college. And what if you have multiple kids in school?</p>
<p>I am willing to bet they will soon announce something similar. MIT has always had some of the best financial aid around. They are one of the few schools with full need based aid to internationals. All their aid is in the form of grants except for standard Stafford loans. </p>
<p>They already lose some top students every year who are given full ride scholarships to schools such as Caltech. They also compete for top math and science talent with Harvard. They could take a hit on yield if they don't follow Harvard's lead. </p>
<p>They certainly can afford the move without much of a dent in their endowment. With a greater percentage of their students already on financial aid and a smaller class than Harvard, the extra cost will not be very large.</p>
<p>I don't know if MIT will specifically come out with a similar policy per se, but MIT's financial aid is generally pretty good. Do any of you actually know that families that earn $180,000 a year don't already get that much finaid from MIT? Because I sure don't.</p>
<p>MIT has a pretty good track record with financial aid. For example, they make a point of matching and doubling Pell Grants that students receive, both to help students out financially and to make the points that Pell Grants aren't high enough to begin with.</p>
<p>All of that said, I think it's absolutely absurd that an education can cost that much money, that colleges should just plain stop charging so much, and that public education should be much improved.</p>
<p>But those are much larger issues unlikely to be resolved in any short time frame. =)</p>
<p>
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Do any of you actually know that families that earn $180,000 a year don't already get that much finaid from MIT? Because I sure don't.
[/quote]
Yes. I do know this. 120k/yr and I and my family still pay every penny of tuition, room, board, etc. Not easily. People in my situation feel strong pressure NOT to go to MIT and rather to pick state schools with full tuition scholarships (for which literally every non-international student accepted here qualifies). Upper class families can afford MIT. Lower class families can afford MIT. The middle class can send their children here, but only by spending their life's savings on it. I honestly feel very guilty for even being here every time tuition time rolls around... :</p>
<p>
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Yes. I do know this. 120k/yr and I and my family still pay every penny of tuition, room, board, etc. Not easily.
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</p>
<p>One interesting twist on this, that I have seen people get bitten by, is the case of the upper-middle-class (or for that matter, upper-class) student whose parents pull their tuition for some reason - low grades, change of major, the student came out as gay, whatever. MIT, like many schools, will not consider you financially independent before a certain age unless there are "irreconcilable differences" (from what I have heard, from someone who actually pulled it off, this means documented abuse). A student without financial aid whose parents pull tuition is left with having to come up with $20K+ per term, sometimes very abruptly (and generally while already under tremendous emotional stress), on an undergraduate's budget. The students who were already getting a lot of financial aid had less of a crash, because they were still getting that financial aid and didn't have to come up with as much money.</p>
<p>I remember talking with various admins trying to figure out a reasonable way to help students in this situation, but we never came up with anything feasible. The Institute wants to make it hard for you to be considered financially independent because they don't want parents faking conflict with their kids to get out of paying, or parents deciding that since MIT will pick up the slack anyway, they won't bother.</p>
<p>We make below that amount and have 2 children at MIT. We paid full freight for oldest for 3 years and will do the same for the younger. This year, with both of them there, we did get a break. We're paying about 1/3 less per child than we did/will the other 6 years. </p>
<p>I certainly hope MIT makes some changes. But we made the decision knowing we would have huge loans and believe it's worth it. But it did make turning down large scholarships at other private school difficult for us.</p>
<p>So who are the 59% allegedly getting scholarship money (and a whopping average of $25,000+, too)? Does MIT expect parents to spend every nickel of their retirement savings? What do m/c parents have to do to get some aid from MIT? Have a huge mortgage, massive debt, divorce? Is financial aid based soley on income? Is MIT in the process of becoming just a haven for children from families in the lower and highest income brackets?
Do middle class parents have to pay full freight to help enable MIT to give scholarships to Internationals?<br>
Do they inflate their "anyone-can-afford-MIT" hype by offering loans? Is the financial aid office into a sort of bait-and-switch game?<br>
4 years = $200,000+ after-tax income. That's tough for m/c families to meet.<br>
And what's the average salary upon graduation from MIT? Is there a quantitative difference(note, I'm not asking about a "qualitative" difference) between MIT grad. jobs and State U. grad. jobs?
The financial aid scene at MIT seems to make attending the Institute more or less prohibitive for m/c kids who don't want to cripple financially their families.</p>
<p>
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Is financial aid based soley on income?
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No. My parents made ~$140k per year, and I attended MIT at about half COA. It depends on factors including income, but also other assets.</p>
<p>
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Is MIT in the process of becoming just a haven for children from families in the lower and highest income brackets?
[/quote]
My impression is that MIT is more heavily middle- and working-class than other top schools. I know I've read statistics to that end, but I can't mentally locate them at the moment. </p>
<p>
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Do middle class parents have to pay full freight to help enable MIT to give scholarships to Internationals?
[/quote]
Doubtful.</p>
<p>
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And what's the average salary upon graduation from MIT? Is there a quantitative difference(note, I'm not asking about a "qualitative" difference) between MIT grad. jobs and State U. grad. jobs?
<p>I think it would be helpful if MIT's Financial Aid Office posted some, obviously anonymous, examples of m/c families who receive aid. Clearly Mollie's experience was a lot more positive than "over30's" or Jessie's. Question is, how did she do it? Might there be an element of the FinAid Office thinking (correctly) that they're more likely to get one family to make a sacrifice than another? Is there a certain percentage of wealth that the FO thinks it fair to take? What is the formula that they use? I'm hearing too many stories of families having to sacrifice retirement savings, etc. -- to the extent that they often end up in another economic strata altogther.
Last question -- I haven't done much research on graduates' salaries, but does anyone on this board have any thoughts on $61,000 -- is that good?
All feedback is very much appreciated, so thanks everyone.</p>
<p>My perspective is that $60,000 is a lot of money for a new college grad -- my husband is one of those engineer graduates making the average salary for his major, and it's really nice! (Like two bedroom apartment in the suburbs nice. ;))</p>
<p>And my family definitely did sacrifice to put me through MIT -- half COA is still a lot of money for four years. My parents took out some loans, and I have loans personally which I'll have paid off by the end of graduate school. I had jobs all four years of college, all four IAPs, all four summers, and some of that money went right back to MIT to fund tuition and my meal plan. My family and I would have really appreciated a policy like the one Harvard is implementing.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Last question -- I haven't done much research on graduates' salaries, but does anyone on this board have any thoughts on $61,000 -- is that good?