Anonymous wrote:No they do not budge an inch. My Dad lost his job and they said tough.

are you talking about something that happened 25 years ago?

You lost me at $200k HHI. You realize the FA is for kids who have a single parent pulling $40k a year right?

Plus I think you are overstating the generosity of FA. Many families getting FA are quite hard up. The number with big houses and fat retirement accounts but low income who receive FA (which you seem to be thinking about) is going to be a very small group, and not a sympathetic one.

It doesn’t hurt to try but your argument seems very weak. You have the money, it just represents more of your holdings than you expected. A extra $5k isn’t significant here. There’s no “net worth parity” test for financial aid. I was full pay at one of those schools and my parents were far from rich. There are tons of families paying full price for whom it is painful.

Anonymous wrote:You can submit an application for financial aide at any point under federal law.

DOGE is gonna nix that too.

Good luck ar state u

To be clear, the argument is that your (invested in a brokerage account) inheritance has lost value? Sure, go ahead and ask. But I think there are a million more sympathetic scenarios out there.

No they do not budge an inch. My Dad lost his job and they said tough.

You can submit an application for financial aide at any point under federal law.

Anonymous wrote:Those schools are losing hundreds of millions in cuts so I doubt they will give you anything.

And their endowments have taken the same market hit as op. Plus they are eyeballing possible taxes on their endowments.

You can always ask, but I wouldn’t expect anything more than empathy.

You can always try. But I imagine they’re getting quite a lot of these calls from parents who are unexpectedly fired, lost a lot in their 529/stock market portfolios while grappling with an uncertain environment of a govt that has been freezing research funds to universities with little logic and their own drops in their endowments.

If you haven't committed yet, you hold more cards. I agree these schools are thinking about money more than ever. And they accept a lot of kids with a lot of aid. If they lose you at 80K a year, they may be enrolling a kid who pays nothing. (unless they have a waitlist that is fully need aware, I dont know)

Those schools are losing hundreds of millions in cuts so I doubt they will give you anything.

Yale will say you’re out of luck. Princeton would very likely have a conversation. I have no experience with Harvard.

Even if the market falls another 10%, we're full pay.

But our HHI isn't very high (around 200K), but we have our money in the "wrong" places. Not overfunded in retirement (but okay), never moved from starter home, inheritance from MIL/FIL landed in brokerage accounts.

My question is: if I call into HYP this week and ask for an appeal citing uncertainty, a drop in assets, and could argue (but probably wouldn't) and that our total net worth is less than people getting FA, will they think .. "eh, let's give them 5k a year and get them committed at near full pay. We need need more families paying 95%". or will they say, the calculator still says full pay?