<p>So I got in to UPenn ED and UChicago EA and for both I applied for need base aid submitting the exact same information. Chicago is offering 50,000USD (Perfectly affordable) while Penn is offering only 20000USD (Not affordable) . How is this even possible… Did Penn make a mistake? Has anyone ever seen this before? I repeat this once more, the financial information given was exactly the same for both schools. I understand that there can be some differences in financial aid packages but to this extent? I mean this is a 30k difference here…</p>
<p>Are your parents divorced? UChicago no longer includes the NCP’s income or assets in its awards.</p>
<p>No my parents are not divorced. @twoinanddone </p>
<p>If you are really interested in Penn, you can ask them to review your FA. Tell them that U of Chicago has made the cost of attendance $X cheaper, and ask if they can do a review of your FA in light of this. Be prepared to send your U of C offer to them if they ask. We found U of C to be more generous than other schools a couple of years ago, and successfully used this tactic to get the school D2 attended to adjust their FA to close to the U of C COA. It helps a lot that the schools are comparable…</p>
<p>You didn’t submit the same info. UChicago only uses FAFSA …while UPenn uses CSS Profile AND FAFSA. </p>
<p>Obviously there is info on the CSS Profile that indicates that your family can afford to pay more.</p>
<p>Do your parents own a business? Do they take business deductions?</p>
<p>OP is Canadian. Is that a factor here?</p>
<p>
Canadian (as International) student can’t file FAFSA for University of Chicago, but file ISFAA instead. See <a href=“International Financial Aid | College Admissions”>https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/costs/international-aid</a></p>
<p>Does ISFAA require the same info that an int’l would provide to a CSS Profile school (UPenn)?</p>
<p>Students applying EA to University of Chicago complete a University of Chicago financial aid form. They can’t complete the FAFSA until January 1. This student is a Canadian citizen. He can only complete a FAFSA for informational purposes which U of Chicago used to use.</p>
<p>Penn required a Financial Aid Form for Canadian Citizens form to be submitted for ED financial aid consideration. There is no mention of the Profile for Canadian citizens.</p>
<p><a href=“Submit My Documents | Penn Student Registration & Financial Services| Penn Srfs”>http://www.sfs.upenn.edu/finaid-checklists/checklists-pro-canadian.htm</a></p>
<p>To the OP…are your parents self employed? Do they own a business? Do they have any real estate other than your primary residence? </p>
<p>
Local public colleges aside, is it even permissible to apply ED and EA to different schools simultaneously? If it is permissible, isn’t it just plain tacky since ED signals commitment? </p>
<p>Isn’t it like telling girl-A whom u invited to the prom that u invited girl-B at the same time, because you suddenly thought girl-B was nicer?</p>
<p>I’m not going to look up these schools but if the ED school allows it, and the EA school isn’t SCEA and allows it, then it is perfectly within your rights and there is no problem. Because ED is so unfair to many students I personally don’t have a problem doing whatever you have to do to get your applications in. The problem is that you are supposed to withdraw applications, including the EA as well as regular once you get your ED with aid. ED means you don’t get to compare offers, so the fact that the EA offer came in makes it tricky. Don’t know what to say on how to handle that.</p>
<p>
My analogy stands.</p>
<p>No my parents do not own a business. They are not self employed. </p>
<p>I applied to UChicago under a non restrictive early action program and I am not obliged to rescind my application until I officially accept Penn’s financial aid offer. </p>
<p>Is home equity ever a factor? We own a permanent home in Canada but do not currently reside in it. We live in Belgium. </p>
<p>@intparent Really? Send my UChicago offer to them? My family and I are preparing a letter for Penn to ask them to reconsider and I guess that now we’ll include the UChicago offer in it. </p>
<p>But my question still stands. How can two comparable schools offer such largely different financial aid offers. I could understand a 10k difference. But 30K? </p>
<p>Home equity certainly matters. But, the fact that you don’t live in your home means that its equity is really up for grabs because it’s not your primary home. It’s a second home.</p>
<p>Perhaps UChicago didn’t realize that? Maybe they will at some point and change their offer?</p>
<p>How did you list your Canada home? Did you list it as your primary home? if so, that’s not really true.</p>
<p>Are you renting in Belgium? Or do you own anything there or anywhere else?</p>
<p>Is the home in Canada being rented out? If so, that is income as well.</p>
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<p>No, you’re supposed to withdraw applications once you ACCEPT your aid offer and deposit. You don’t have to withdraw your apps as soon as the FA offer arrives…because what if it’s awful??</p>
<p>Is it unusual for EA schools to send a FA pkg now? I thought EA schools’ FA offers come in the spring. If EA schools are now sending FA offers in Dec, then they’ve decided to compete with ED schools since they know that EA kids also apply ED.</p>
<p>Of course I meant that you withdraw after you accept your ED offer. Of course you don’t withdraw if you are declining the ED offer. I think EA schools do send an estimated offer if you submit your forms with your application. I’m pretty sure my dd’s offer from the EA school, which happened to be Chicago, came early. And she did not ED anywhere, not all EA students ED, Just EA one place. And the UC applications, which are due early.</p>
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<p>This is why I asked about real estate OTHER than your primary residence. The full equity in the house in Canada is an asset for financial aid purposes. It is not your primary residence. </p>
<p>And that will also show up on the FAFSA that you eventually do for University of Chicago.</p>
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<p>Ask them to REVIEW your FA as it is not workable for your family, and tell them that one of your EA schools (U of Chicago) has made an offer that is workable for your family, but the Penn offer is not. I would just say that, and let them ask for the U of C offer if they want to. But if you don’t tell them what school it is, they may just figure it is not a comparable school.</p>
<p>We got D2’s FA package with her EA acceptance from U of C two years ago. So it is not unusual. Now… it could change., I suppose, especially if the house in Canada has not been reported to U of C and is later. I do think the U of C offer may say it isn’t a final offer until they ultimately process 2014 tax returns, etc. (check the wording of your FA letter, see what it says).</p>
<p>@GMTplus7 </p>
<p>
It is not in the least tacky, unethical or anything else negative. EA represents no commitment at all, just an earlier answer. If you get in the ED school,which is a commitment, then you tell the EA school(s) thanks but no thanks (if they accepted you. If they didn’t it is moot). If you do not get into the ED school then at least you have an earlier answer(s) from the EA school(s). I am not sure why you see a problem with that. Put another way, applying ED to one school doesn’t mean that you don’t apply anywhere else. And EA is no different than RD when it comes to the issue of propriety. Schools offer a path that gets you an earlier answer without commitment. Where does it say there is any reason at all for a student not to take advantage of that? If that is what a school wants, that is what SCEA is for.</p>
<p>BTW, make your analogies less superficial. You are a clever person, I am sure you can come up with better ways to say the same thing than talking about women’s breasts. And actually the analogy is not a good one because when you ask a girl to the prom, there is a firm social convention that you have not asked anyone else. In other words girl-B has every reason to believe that if she accepts, you have no other commitments. That is absolutely not the case with the EA school. They have no expectation that if they accept you that you are committed to attend. The prom analogy is as if you applied to two schools ED, which is exactly why that is not allowed either.</p>
<p>I suspect that once UChicago realizes that the Canada home isn’t the primary residence, their FA offer will change.</p>
<p>The poster needs to realize that if they choose a school based on a FA pkg offer that may have been based on an error or misinformation, at any point the school realizes that, they will notify you with a corrected (REDUCED) FA pkg. </p>
<p>I would make sure that UChicago understands that the Canada home isn’t the primary residence and that the FA offer is based on THAT understanding…otherwise you could end up with a bad situation there.</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids There is no way UChicago did not see that we do not live in the house in Canada. It is clearly said that we live in Belgium in the information we submitted to them (We also provided a letter explaining this). How exactly is the house counted in the package? Right now it is more of a cost than anything else. It is not rented to someone else and keeping it means paying people to look over it from time to time and so on… They can’t expect us to sell it to be able to pay right…? But on the other hand assuming UChicago didn’t realize that the house in Canada is not our primary home, would that really cause them to offer a package that is 30,000$ more generous? </p>
<p>@intparent Thanks for your help, I will mention UChicago then. </p>
<p>Also guys this whole issue of whether or not applying to and ED and EA is correct is really irrelevant here… Please get back to the topic… </p>