Stanfords PR about financial Aid

arwen15
Thu, 24 Apr 2008 19:35:29 +0000

B O G U S

Okay I am steamed. :mad:

The point of this post is that Stanfords PR about supporting
students from families with income < 45K/60K is just PR and
not actually put into practice.

I felt sorry for the aid person who is sitting out there meeting with people
obviously knowing the bogus nature of the dialog. At least Stanford should
retract or qualify the aid PR to reflect reality. People like me with limited funds
will not bother applying in the first place spending applciation $s.

Interestingly I am one the handful of pre-approved academic RD admits.
(yes I am aware need and merit are two different things and Stanford does
not do merit).

…I cannot stay mad for long, so here goes the rant…

Our family income is way less than Stanford’s previous guidelines not
to even bring up the lastest 60K income guidline. My EFC is 0 and we
have no significant assets. Princeton, MIT and Caltech have given me
a family contriubution expectation of 0 except Stanford.

Granted, I cannot compare Stanford aid to Caltech since I have been
offered a full ride merit aid there…but I can definitely compare it to
Princeton and MIT; Stanford aid just comes up Bogus. I was hoping
to not make this post but after meeting with fin aid at Stanford today I
am boiling.

Conversation: (disclaimer: not exactly but close)
Aid person:/b. You can leave the other aid
docs with me but I can tell you that our institutional methodology is
different.
Me: Sure, but don’t I qualify under your income guidelines both past and present?
Aid Person:/b. Stanford makes it easy for you to
take a loan if your family cannot meet the contribution.
Me: Here is the additional information I faxed you showing how
our income is spent
Aid person: We did not use that. We ahve a different methodology.
** Me:/b
I faxed it to you because I was told aid processing could
not proceed without it. I am still somewhat confused how all these other
institutions got their family contribution way below the Stanford number…
** Aid Person: I can have my colleagues look into your aid and get back.
** Me: ** Okay I can drop by tommorow.
** Aid Person: Oh no. There is a big backlog from all the others requesting aid adjustment.
We will do our best to get back by May 1st.
** Me: ** I have to decide by May 1st. How will I know my aid is getting adjusted?
** Aid Person:/b I am not sure it is going to be adjusted. There are great
loan options.
** Me:** I am sorry if I sound rude but if you publicize that parents do not
contribute at a certain level and I am way below that level it looks like Stanford is not being honest with me.
(* Nah…I did not say the last part but it was there at the very tip of my
toungue and the aid person was blinking and avoiding eye contact *)

I understand I am OOS and hence not a child of California. Wow! What a
difference with Princeton where they were quite above board and MIT
where automatically the aid people do what they promise in public they
will do.

Curious how other low income Out-of-state applicants who have interacted
with the financial aid office have been dealt with by Stanford.

I wonder if the New York Times Reporter who did the piece on aid and praised
Stanford dug into specific aid packages? Low Income People like me who have choices
will just move to another choice, however those low income OOS’ers
with a single choice would really be impacted.

Logic says I cannot be a single case screw up by the fin aid departement and that they are doing this systematically…?