<p>That is not the policy with Stanford. The expected student contribution is based each year on family income. If your family income goes down, your expected student contribution goes down.</p>
<p>Some of my son’s friends did not have the funds to pay their account balance (around $500/$1,000; not that much) at the end of some quarters. They went into the financial aid office and explained the situation. Their financial aid was rearranged to cover the balance. This is just anecdotal evidence so I don’t know the official policy on this. However, Stanford seems very willing to work with any student having financial difficulty if they ask for help.</p>