A friend of mine assures me that her S could qualify for aid from Yale or Carnegie Mellon, though I believe the HHI to be over 220K and there will only be one child in college…She said she went to an alumni recruiting event targeting URM and was told to disregard the official university line. I’m confused by this; everything on the websites and CC seems to point to her S being full pay. I suggested she run the NPC, but should I just MMOB now, since it’s too late for additional apps?
MYOB. She is not going to listen to you anyway. Just smile and nod…and hope that she either has the resources to pay for college or has some financially affordable options on the application list.
No comments…just smile and nod when she mentions this!
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She said she went to an alumni recruiting event targeting URM and was told to disregard the official university line.
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This reminds me of that thread a couple of years ago where a very high income athlete magically got lots of aid to an Ivy which was not typical for that income. At the time, some of us wondered how the NCAA allowed that rather stinky way to give an athletic scholarship by pretending it was need-based aid, which it wasn’t. I believe that student was also a URM, but I don’t know if that also played into it.
So there ARE verified cases of high income people getting money from Ivys?
There are some Ivy League schools that give need based aid to high income earners…period. Some of these schools give need based aid to families that earn $180,000 a year…or more. They have deep pockets.
One child in college at CMU would not get aid …Not likely much or any from HYPS…but if someone “in the know” at the ivy told her that because of URM recruiting they may get some aid, that could happen. These schools get to define need as they see fit.
I just hope I’m not kicking myself for skipping many ‘need only’ schools come May…though I still let D apply to others
One never knows the full story. Just smile and nod. MYOB is the way to go.
Well, if you run Yale’s NPC with an income of $220K and assets of $10K, you would have to pay $49K and get $15K in fin aid.
HYPSM are more generous with fin aid than anyone else (though it’s possible that some of the WASP LACs and/or Grinnell and/or Rice are as generous). On an endowment/student basis, HYPSM, WASP, Grinnell, and Rice are richer than anyone else.
However, it’s also possible that schools using Profile (who can essentially determine fin aid however they want) do “fishy” stuff to offer the fin aid they want to kids that they want.
It’s also possible that some of these no-merit-aid schools have affiliated alumni/organizations that offer money to kids that these schools really want. Someone at MIT mentioned on CC that he/she had a scholarship like that. You can’t apply for it, they’re not advertised, technically, the money doesn’t come from the university (so they can say that they offer no merit aid in the CDS), but once you’re accepted, if you’re someone that they really want, you will be offered a scholarship by . . . someone.
Yes, I could see that that might happen. Oh well I will remember that for my younger kids
Iwonderwhere…these very generous schools accept about 5% of applicants. This means that 95% or so are denied admission. In those denied students, there are more than plenty extremely well qualified students.
Don’t pine away about financial aid prospects at these school. Getting accepted is the first hurdle, and that is not a slam dunk for any student…including your friend’s kid. Those generous need based aid policies do you no good unless you are an accepted student.
In the meantime…just smile and nod.
“could qualify” is a bit different than “will qualify.” And it is possible that HHI might be a little lower than you believe it to be. As the others say, I’d just nod and let it go.