thumper1

Another thing to remember about the Ivies and similarly generous schools...the STUDENT contribution actually increases every year. So for students who plan to do unpaid internships, or not work...the student contribution will have to come from SOMEWHERE. The schools that require a student contribution are not likely to waive it.

applicannot

That's exactly what I'm doing in my calculations. However, the student contribution is higher than the cost of attendence allowance for the personal expenses, implying that the extra money is used to cover a small portion of the billable expenses.

Exactly. $4500 per year is the student portion. Say, $1000 per year is not accounted for in the CoA. That $1000 per year is expected to go toward billable expenses (which I personally will take out in loans, as you're saying). We're saying the same thing, but I must not be clear because it doesn't seem like you're understanding the link here.

You basically restated what I wrote, so I'm not sure where our misunderstanding is.

Exactly. This is why I illustrated that there is no full ride, though I'm certainly not complaining about the numbers I'm looking at. What I'm trying to say is that some portion, it varies on the school, of the student contribution actually goes toward billable expenses. For example, at Washington University in St. Louis where there is no personal expenses allowance in the CoA (at least not that I could find), 100% of the student contribution is put toward billable expenses. This means that the student is expected to either put his/her summer and work study money toward billable expenses OR take out loans for that amount. At other schools, a much smaller portion is set aside for billable expenses. I know that I, personally (and perhaps other low or 0 EFC students) cannot afford to put a summer contribution toward billable expenses because that is my only books and spending money for the year. I also know that I, personally, will either not work study or will work study toward a means like alternative spring break or a plane ticket for study abroad. This means that for WashU, I'll be $12,000 in the hole after four years (no complaints). For Yale, it means only $6750 (yearly increases included).

However, since at some schools, the student portion covers mostly non-billable expenses, the student will not rack up debt. At other schools, debt will incur. At schools like WashU, I can't make the student contribution to billable expenses and live. At Stanford or Yale or Rice or UChicago, however, the student contribution toward actual billable expenses is often only about $1000.

ec1234

At Princeton, if you are on full financial aid, they give you a check for the money above tuition, r&b that is included in the COA (ie you get money for whatever they decide is the right amount for books, travel, etc). If you decide not to have a meal plan as an upperclassmen then they give you the equivalent money for food.