<p>Yale has released its new financial aid package. It still includes the parents' primary home in the asset calculation. I have heard that Harvard, Princeton, and Penn have excluded the parent's primary home. Anyone can confirm it?</p>
<p>Princeton was the first one that excluded the parent's home equity. Harvard followed in Princeton's footsteps just like the similar move to exclude loans from their financial aid packages. </p>
<p>I do not know about Yale or UPenn.</p>
<p>It looks like Yale has opted instead to just lop off the first $200,000 in assets.</p>
<p>That is somewhat irrelevant because every family's package is calculated individually, and there's no telling the exact extent to which equity comes into consideration. What is more important is the dollar amount of financial aid per student (per student receiving financial aid of course). </p>
<p>At this point, it looks like Yale will be spending the most per aid student, with Harvard a close second (at least for now; Harvard may actually end up spending more in an attempt to compete with Yale). Princeton hasn't announced its move yet but once it does, it will probably be up there with Harvard and Yale. </p>
<p>Even after its recent announcement to eliminate loans, UPenn will be spending about half what HY are -- it's much less generous. That's because UPenn just doesn't have nearly as large of an endowment per student as HYP do.</p>
<p>Does posterX ever say a single bad thing about the "ultimate of universities, in all aspects, forever and for always," Yale? Did posterX even GO to yale?</p>
<p>No and yes, from what I understand.</p>
<p>I think it was stated that the $200K exclusion in lieu of home equity was to prevent people from gaming the system. If I had a sixteen year old about to vie for one of the schools that excluded home equity and $200K saved up, I'd immediately drop $150K into my home mortgage and only show $50K in assets. Not bad, eh? I'm sure many financial advisors told their clients to do this. </p>
<p>Yale just protects itself from this gaming.</p>
<p>I agree with T26 and also would reiterate the above: one, the exact extent to which equity comes into play is unknown until you apply, and two, with this announcement Yale now has the most generous financial aid program of any university in the country (we'll see what Princeton announces).</p>
<p>T26E4:</p>
<p>Fiscal responsibility should be rewarded instead of being punished. I am okay when they look at income. Two families with similar incomes may have different life styles. One family may have Lexus while other having a Ford with no debt. According this formula it is wise to live like a grasshopper during the dry season. :)</p>
<p>I agree with AMD. The whole process is very anti-savings. ):</p>