<p>This thread has probably popped up many times before, but how generous is Yale with their financial aid packages? I know it depends on the qualifications of the student, but in comparison to the other top universities, does Yale give out all that money they’re swimming in?</p>
<p>All of the aid awarded is need based. They give grants/loans/work study.</p>
<p>From my experience, Yale has been quite generous with my financial aid. I think you’ll find that, in general, although the top universities are the hardest to get into, they tend to be the most generous with aid.</p>
<p>I have a friend (HS class of 2004) who got a full ride from Yale and her stats weren’t amazing. She’s just a middle-class girl from Houston. She graduated #2/622 from a lackluster highschool, and her SAT was a 1490, but she did get a lot of 4’s and 5’s on AP exams. </p>
<p>I would say that a full ride is pretty generous for those stats at Yale.</p>
<p>It’s based entirely on need, so she would have gotten the same amount of aid if she had gotten a 1600. In any case, Yale does offer “full rides” (that is, a full ride minus your student contribution and self help), so no one should be afraid of applying because his or her family won’t be able to afford it.</p>
<p>Yale offered me better financial aid than Northwestern, Columbia, and Brown…in fact it was the best of any college I applied to. It ended up costing about the same as full price UVA in-state (a little bit more). My family is firmly middle-upper-middle class so this was a pleasant surprise. They seem to be generous.</p>
<p>Sorry, but how does an upper middle class kid get generous aid at a need based school? Am I missing something?</p>
<p>just apply and you will be happy with what they give you.</p>
<p>Yale was a little worse than several of the LACs, Harvard, Rice, UChicago, Dart, and Columbia for us. Not a big spread, but 2-3K a year.</p>
<p>I’m a bit surprised Chicago offered more aid than Yale. For me, Chicago was definitely the worst in financial aid out of all the colleges I applied to. Harvard was extremely generous, even cheaper than University of Michigan (I’m in-state). Yale was also very generous; it only cost about $600 more than Harvard. Chicago, on the other hand, cost about $11,000 more than Harvard, while Northwestern cost about $8000 more than Harvard.</p>
<p>We had some merit money at UChic.</p>
<p>Suze, to be blunt - you don’t. If you’re looking for aid and you are upper-middle class (a vague category by the way) you need to find outside scholarships or attend a school that offers merit aid. Need based schools are just that, RUn a FAFSA worksheet and get an EFC number - if it’s in excess of 41K - the need based schools will expect you (or your parents!!!) to pay in full.</p>