<p>Summary: Not a dramatic difference here. Harvard has a little higher percentage of students from poor families and extends slightly thinner aid to a little higher percentage of students, relying a little more on loans to do it. Harvard is extending aid to 7% more of students but appears have made a decision to do this by mixing in a few more loans (7% more, ironically). Loans, of course, could be sought privately by any Yale family that might think it could use them and so, IMO, don’t really represent additional generosity.</p>
<p>I don’t think one can generalize much about differences in student demographics based on these data. It is fair to say that there is a wide spectrum of economic backgrounds represented at both schools.</p>
<p>I know Harvard has committed to making families pay no more than 10% of their income (As long as they make less than 180k)…is this true of Yale as well? I couldn’t find it anywhere on their finaid website… I certainly hope so!</p>
<p>In mid December, Yale decreased FA for middle class families, while increasing aid for lower income families. So currently, Harvard offers better FA than Yale at the higher end, while Yale holds a slight advantage over Harvard at the lower end.</p>
<p>Don’t forget that all of these percentages of family income numbers ASSUME “normal” assets. Families with assets above this threshold will pay more. Don’t get me wrong, H&Y are still extremely generous, but while income is the more important factor, assets do count as well and families need to take this into consideration when estimating their probable EFC.</p>
<p>If you drill a little deeper…and speak with FinAid…these are “average numbers” and your mileage may vary…Also…Yale adds back in things the IRS allows as deductions…even without any assets, your income “as calculated by Yale” will be more than what your CPA and the IRS agree it is (for the sake of Yale determining aid.)</p>
<p>fogfog and evertheoptimist: I did drill a little deeper. Unfortunately, the answers I received did not make me happy. When my son was accepted EA this past December, I called the FA office and asked numerous questions. With 2 children in college (older child now at Harvard), Yale is going to cost us $8,000 more per year than we pay at Harvard with just one child in college. Given Yale’s new FA policy, for higher income families, the scales are no longer equal.</p>
<p>Could anybody comment on the feasibility of taking a more generous finaid offer (Harvard) to Yale’s finaid office (which gave me a less generous offer) to appeal for more money?</p>
<p>We did it. But I suggest that rather than asking for a ‘match’ or an ‘appeal’, ask for a FA review and mention that you have other more generous offers from XYZ school(s). They will ask for copies of the offers and will likely match.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice! Having received my finaid offer from Yale, I wasn’t too satisfied. Yale finaid said they’d schedule a phone conference to go over the offer with us this week. I have a few questions…</p>
<ol>
<li>Would this be a time when they’d be willing to make the offer more generous, or is it just to explain why I only received so much?</li>
<li>My mom and I are going to compose a letter detailing all circumstances that contribute to our not being able to pay as much as they think we can. We are going to email that before we have our conference, so we’ll be on the same page. So this will be like our appeal, right? </li>
<li>I haven’t gotten finaid from anywhere else, but supposing I get more from another school, I would definitely tell Yale about that. So, my over-arching question is, would it make sense to still have this appeal conference next week, even though I might come back AGAIN in April with a better offer from another school? Or would Yale be like “get away, we already reviewed once.” </li>
</ol>
<p>One key difference between Harvard and Yale’s financial aid (as of the last cycle at least) is that Harvard takes roughly 5% of a student’s assets annually whereas Yale takes the more traditional 25%. This doesn’t matter much in most cases since few high school students have amassed much in the way of assets, but if parents made the unfortunate decision of saving money for college in a UTMA or similar account the difference can be substantial. I know for me personally, the difference was so large as to make the decision very easily. To use numbers than aren’t my own, if a family has saved $20,000 in a UTMA (which count as a student’s assets since they are legally his/hers at age 18 in some states) then at Harvard that sum would add .05*20,000=$1000 to that family’s expected contribution. At Yale, that same $20,000 would add $5000 to the EFC.</p>
<p>Passionfruit11: Having a conference call this week with the FA office will most probably result in them explaining why they gave you the aid they did. As you haven’t received any other offers yet, your family does not have the leverage needed for an appeal that will result in a more generous offer, unless the numbers provided to them have changed. Call the FA office after April 1st when you have a better offer from a comparative school.</p>