Anonymous wrote:$250K families are getting merit aid at T30? Since when?

No. But they may get financial aid. Merit aid is not tied to income whatsoever.

Anonymous wrote:Rice

Princeton is also known to be pretty generous.

Thank you!

Anonymous wrote:$250K families are getting merit aid at T30? Since when?

I am OP and I ran a few calculators and you can get a lot of aid at Harvard and Princeton. The cost gets pretty close to UMD (we are in MD).

I got almost zero aid at, for example Carnegie Mellon. Since there are a lot of schools and we are still some year out of applying, I am looking for leads on other top schools where aid is available.

OP, I think you need to go into this assuming you will get little or no need based aid. Just need to accurately complete the NPC of the schools for which you are interested. You can also get an idea using this abbreviated calculator for some. https://myintuition.org/

Rice

Princeton is also known to be pretty generous.

Anonymous wrote:First your kid has to get in and it appears this is your first go around with this. It's not what you think and be prepared to a) not get in and b) to not get the money you think you will

No, my kid doesn't need to first get in. Schools we can't afford can be ruled out immediately, without getting in first.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:... without including home equity and retirement savings?

If you make 250K stop begging for money and use your savings...

+1. Maybe you could go to a Goodwill store or a soup kitchen & have them pass the hat for you.

$250K families are getting merit aid at T30? Since when?

First your kid has to get in and it appears this is your first go around with this. It's not what you think and be prepared to a) not get in and b) to not get the money you think you will

Any school lower down the list?

Princeton

Thank you PP.

So all Ivy League schools are providing about 30k off sticker price? How about MIT? U of Chicago? Johns Hopkins? Obviously I can run a calculator for each school individually but I assume many people have done it already and have the ballpark answer ready.

The first PP provided a typical response. I hate that - because it's without any context whatsoever. You have no idea how long the income has been 250K. You have no idea of their expenses (supporting elderly parents, or special needs children).

So, to answer the question, one response is the Ivy League. It's a gamble, but the schools that do not provide scholarships ("merit aid") are more generous with financial aid. They have to be. HYP do not cost $80K a year for families with $250K income. They do cost, however. They just are more likely to be in the 40-50K range.

Another response is your flagship or desired State U, if it's in the Top 30, which some are. In that case, they do not provide "the most aid" technically, but they do in the fact that you've paid for the lower in-state tuition through taxes.

There is a myth that it's super easy to save hundreds of thousands of dollars on 250K. That may or may not be the case. So many variables at play - cost of living, size of family, health expenses, age of parents, etc. For a family with low expenses and one child, it might be easy. For a family with 3+ children and higher than average health care expenses, not so much. So, to the first PP, take a hike.

Anonymous wrote:... without including home equity and retirement savings?

If you make 250K stop begging for money and use your savings...

... without including home equity and retirement savings?