What kind of financial aid is this? - Page 2

noexcuse · 04-24-2008, 04:09 AM

I know a friend this year got aid ranging from $3K to $38K with the same CSS and FAFAS for the private schools. Go figure that out. Upenn is at the low end. I think Upenn factors in the value of the home and the question is how much net home value do they factor in relative to other schools.

ElectroPennDad · 04-26-2008, 03:12 PM

We have the same problem. We live in California, my son was admitted to Penn and we did get some financial aid, but less than we thought we should.

We do not own a house in California, although we are considering purchasing one. For those of you in CA who do own homes, did the financial aid people consider the net equity in the home or merely looked at the total fair market value of the home in determining financial aid?

If all they are looking at is the value of the home, without considering the debt owed, we may delay purchasing a home in CA.

Also, when you say that your family has income of $130k - $140k is that gross income (total gross salary, interest income, etc.) or adjusted gross income (taking into account deductions)?

rr43 · 04-26-2008, 03:58 PM

@ElectroPenn - probably no one knows Penns formula for taking into account the primary home value. Trouble is a lot of parents who are now sending their kids to colleges probably bought primary homes late-80s or early-90s. As you know the house market in CA has gone crazy since then (with the Internet boom days etc) So even if they don't take fair value of home and take net value, a lot of CA is hosed. My point is private colleges should not consider primary residence in calculations as no one is going to sell their primary home to fund their kids. I can understand taking home value into account for 2'nd home, but not primary residence.

rr43 · 04-26-2008, 10:00 PM

FYI - Friday update...
UPenn did match (actually better) other offers faxed to them!! Took them ONLY 2 days to re-evaluate and update! Right on time for SIR deadline!
Of course, this was after discussing with them in person during UPenn visit.
So if you are particular about UPenn and money is the reason to decline, call them and see what they can do. They may be able to turn around in the next 3 days.

RestmyChemistry · 04-26-2008, 10:07 PM

nice job rr43!

i was just about to say that anyone dissatisfied with their financial aid should definitely get a reevaluation. i went to penn's sfs office and got an awesome second financial aid offer. (they actually beat the ones from my other schools....)

drnoeyedea · 04-28-2008, 05:44 PM

rr43's response can be confirmed.
I also appealed and got about 1.5k more. Surprisingly, for me, their old fin aid topped cornell, duke, hopkins, cmu. But i sent in some hardship documentation which they were able to take a look at. 2 days was all i waited for before i got a response.

cawcaw, there is merit aid for penn. I reviewed my letters from penn and it said that it is based on merit but the actual sum is based on need.

jcll2002 · 04-28-2008, 06:04 PM

Quote:

"i live in California also... where everything is 9348098429034 times more costly than the east."

ROFL. Try living in suburban Connecticut before you complain about how expensive California is. Regular unleaded gasoline in my town was $3.81/gallon as of yesterday -- premium was $4.01. The cost of living for everything else is ridiculously high as well. :-(

funny, i moved from suburban ct (fairfield county) and moved to socal. Different, but cost of living at both is unbelievable. Gas here is $4.29 premium

cawcaw90 · 05-02-2008, 11:22 PM

Hey guys! Just wanted to update!

Apparently, Penn hadn't looked at my tax forms yet or something like that, and I actually got ~20k in financial aid, (and a 15k grant!!) which you can imagine was a HUGE relief. Thanks for all the replies anyways!

rr43 · 05-03-2008, 01:39 PM

@cawcaw - Way to go!! Congrats!

cawcaw90 · 05-03-2008, 07:59 PM

Thanks!

drnoeyedea · 05-03-2008, 08:11 PM

that sounds better. close to what i got. i guess it makes sense since our incomes are virtually the same

anonymouse99 · 05-17-2008, 08:31 PM

I read here that UPenn is prepared to match other college offers? Are these offers from other Ivy schools ONLY? In other words will they match offers from a non-Ivy school?

Do they match a finanical package regardless of the award? i.e. if we technically don't qualify for need based aid, will they match any existing scholarship? Just seems to me that they would, since they anyways compute their own formulas for awarding aid?

Your responses gratefully appreciated! Thanks

andy_g · 05-17-2008, 08:59 PM

if you dont qualify for financial aid (which is only need based at penn and i think at all of the ivies as well) then you dont get financial aid. they dont give out scholarships so they wouldnt match a scholarship if you dont need any aid

anonymouse99 · 05-17-2008, 09:23 PM

Thanks andy_g for your quick response. Please read a post from "rr43" above that reads:

"UPenn did match (actually better) other offers faxed to them!! Took them ONLY 2 days to re-evaluate and update! Right on time for SIR deadline!"

What matching is "rr43" then referring to? How can a college match financial aid, I thought financial aid was based on a standard formula?

rr43, can you please enlighten us your matching stuff? Which college did they match or beat? Did they match a financial aid package or a scholarship package? Thanks!

andy_g · 05-17-2008, 09:39 PM

they wont match a scholarship. financial need is determined separately by each school, so it varies a little from school to school. penn aid is based solely on need (or at least thats what they say i think). they dont give out merit scholarships so it makes no sense that they'd match you for them if you dont actually need them. there are no scholarships in the ivy league. (im not familiar with policies at the other seven schools but im pretty sure that goes for all eight, as well as a few other top schools)