My financial aid letter would certainly suggest it is. I’m almost certain I won’t be able to attend due to cost. Am I just an anomaly or is this universally true?
Yale is typically generous with financial aid, but they are the ones who determine each family’s need.
Is your financial package different than what the NPC said? Have your family’s financial circumstances changed? Is the financial package different than that of other schools you were accepted to?
The NPC is not accurate for an international student (unless the NPC says it is for international students too) as it may assume the Pell grant or SEOG as part of the package.
You may not be able to afford it but your paperwork may say you/your family have assets that need to be contributed. Even at the most generous schools there is usually a family or student contribution expected, like work study or summer employment. They also may not support your travel to the school.
The net price calculator doesn’t work for internationals.
We don’t know if they will change. I started a separate thread for this, as I feel that discussion isn’t related to Yale: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/2143007-how-to-deal-with-financial-uncertainty-p1.html?new=1
Yale is the only school in the US I was accepted to.
Why is there an uncertainly? Yale is very generous in terms of need based aid even for higher income earners.
Is your income in the lower income range? Has anything changed in terms of your financial picture since you sent in your financial aid application forms? Did you get a more generous offer from a peer school?
What reason do you think there is for Yale to give you more need based aid?
How much did they give you? Why do you think this is unreasonable?
https://admissions.yale.edu/financial-aid-prospective-students
Clearly there is something on your financial aid application forms that gave Yale the info they used to compute your family contribution.
Yes, Yale’s NPC does not work for international students. Agree with post #2 saying that there must be assets in your family’s financial documents that support the finaid package they gave you. Certainly you can speak with the financial aid department, find out how they calculated your package and go from there. Good luck.
These schools base need on what THEY think you need, not what YOU THINK you need. The dollars are finite and limited. Most funds are reserved for domestic students.
As an international student, you don’t qualify for federal nor state funds so the school has to give you their own dollars.
They can also choose to not give you anything.
In a prior post you said you were waitlisted at Yale. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/22140621#Comment_22140621 Did you get in off of the waitlist?
This is Yale’s policy per the website. Yale will meet 100 percent of your demonstrated financial need with a combination of tuition grants and term-time employment. All students’ families are expected to contribute funds to the extent they can. You must make sure that these funds can be withdrawn from your family’s country. International financial aid forms are available on the Financial Aid website.
https://admissions.yale.edu/international
As noted above Yale is typically generous with financial aid. However, there may be a difference between what Yale feels your family can contribute and what your family is willing to contribute.
Yes. The euphoria of getting off the waitlist can only be equalled in magnitude by the crushing blow of realizing you can’t go to a full need school because of money.
If you choose to go on a waitlist, you choose to pay whatever the school charges you. FA money runs out.
Congrats on getting off the waitlist. A lot of people don’t understand what “meets need” means. Colleges look at families’ income and assets and use those to determine what their expected contribution is. If Yale costs $72k and they’ve determined your EFC is $40k, your need would be $32k.
Did you have a change in financial circumstances this year? Did comparable school’s offer more? If so, you can ask Yale to review your aid.
Finances are a part of the decision process for most students (domestic as well as international). If Yale does not work for your family financially then hopefully you have already sent in a deposit to an affordable school that you are excited to attend.
Most people don’t understand that full financial need is met after about 1/4 of gross earning is contributed by the family. This is a good rule of thumb and I imagine that is what the OP got hit with and it’s not going to be doable. A family earning $120k before taxes may not see $30k as affordable.
^^ FWIW: Yale does NOT expect a family earning $120K before taxes to pay $30K. They expect half that, at least according to their website: https://admissions.yale.edu/financial-aid-prospective-students
Does your family own property or other assets that would drive up the EFC? Have you checked the financial aid forms to make sure they were filled out correctly?
@zazerbayev: You need to call Yale Financial Aid and ask how they calculated your aid, as you think they’ve made a mistake. See: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/yale-university/2125084-appealing-our-yale-financial-aid-offer-p1.html
Contact Yale NOW.
In the meantime (they won’t be able to reply till tomorrow) check and recheck what you filled out.
@gibby I’ve found differently for straight up income however there are other factors that affect the FA. As far as what Yale says in there example I would find that to be the most optimistic (it might be true with basically with no assets and no savings and maybe another child or two in college, as you can see I can come up with all sorts of factors to get to any figure I want). You can see from what the OP has written and what Yale is giving are two entirely different things.
A good number of colleges expect those accepted off the waitlist to be full pay (or nearly so), and that isn’t always spelled out. While this isn’t mentioned in Yale’s policy per se, I am, unfortunately, not entirely surprised to see you weren’t offered any financial help.