Anonymous
Post 05/14/2026 18:57     Subject: UChicago will offer free tuition for families with incomes below $250,000
Anonymous wrote:I read on Reddit that the $250K-and-under-free-tuition thing is only applicable to the class of 2031 and beyond. If you were accepted for the class of 2030 you're not getting that deal for any of your 4 years.

In fact students who are currently attempting to transfer in (many of whom have yet to even receive their admissions decision) don't get the deal.


You didn’t have to consult Reddit to figure that out. The link provided states that it begins in the Fall of 2027, aka the class of 2031.
Anonymous
Post 05/14/2026 18:47     Subject: UChicago will offer free tuition for families with incomes below $250,000
I read on Reddit that the $250K-and-under-free-tuition thing is only applicable to the class of 2031 and beyond. If you were accepted for the class of 2030 you're not getting that deal for any of your 4 years.

In fact students who are currently attempting to transfer in (many of whom have yet to even receive their admissions decision) don't get the deal.
Anonymous
Post 05/14/2026 18:46     Subject: UChicago will offer free tuition for families with incomes below $250,000
Anonymous wrote:Confused how this is a bad thing. HYP are praised for this while Chicago is criticized? Make it make sense.

Because Chicago is pretending to be something it is not. Harvard has a $50 billion endowment. Chicago has about $10 billion, plus $6.3 billion in debt in 2025. The only thing likely to come out of this is more shady games and performative branding, which Chicago has truly mastered.
Anonymous
Post 05/14/2026 18:40     Subject: UChicago will offer free tuition for families with incomes below $250,000
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This is great for people who don't live in places where the property values are really though. I went there years ago with an income that's (adjusting for inflation) under that mark and it would have been huge for it to be free. I could just barely afford it with the aid I did have.


Are you saying they counted your residential home value toward assets that could be used for tuition? I'm assuming you only have the one house...


Schools that count home equity don’t expect you to sell the house, but they do expect you to borrow against whatever equity you have in it.

529 plans also count against you for these purposes, including 529s designated for other children.

Basically if you’d rented and spent the money on travel instead of college savings, your kids would now be going to college for free. But if you saved, you pay.


OK, this worried me so I looked stuff up. Of course a 529 plan for the kid in college should be counted toward assets available for tuition. That's the point, not a penalty for saving. But it doesn't look like 529s for other kids are counted toward available assets for the first, at least for FAFSA: https://www.savingforcollege.com/article/does-a-siblings-529-plan-assets-hurt-financial-aid-eligibility.

Borrowing against home equity is scary (I say as someone who lives in a small, far out townhome and makes well under $250k). But it looks like this is not a FAFSA thing either and schools that use it may base expectations on comparison to income.

All of the schools being discussed here are working from the CSS profile, not from FAFSA.
Anonymous
Post 05/14/2026 18:36     Subject: UChicago will offer free tuition for families with incomes below $250,000
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:This is great for people who don't live in places where the property values are really though. I went there years ago with an income that's (adjusting for inflation) under that mark and it would have been huge for it to be free. I could just barely afford it with the aid I did have.


Are you saying they counted your residential home value toward assets that could be used for tuition? I'm assuming you only have the one house...


Schools that count home equity don’t expect you to sell the house, but they do expect you to borrow against whatever equity you have in it.

529 plans also count against you for these purposes, including 529s designated for other children.

Basically if you’d rented and spent the money on travel instead of college savings, your kids would now be going to college for free. But if you saved, you pay.


OK, this worried me so I looked stuff up. Of course a 529 plan for the kid in college should be counted toward assets available for tuition. That's the point, not a penalty for saving. But it doesn't look like 529s for other kids are counted toward available assets for the first, at least for FAFSA: https://www.savingforcollege.com/article/does-a-siblings-529-plan-assets-hurt-financial-aid-eligibility.

Borrowing against home equity is scary (I say as someone who lives in a small, far out townhome and makes well under $250k). But it looks like this is not a FAFSA thing either and schools that use it may base expectations on comparison to income.
Anonymous
Post 05/14/2026 18:33     Subject: Re:UChicago will offer free tuition for families with incomes below $250,000
Anonymous wrote:Deal with it, you all need to stop, this is a private institution and can do what they want. If you don't like it, send your kid to UMD or UMass or whatever. Enough whining already.

This comment was surprisingly pathetic and unnecessary
Anonymous
Post 05/14/2026 18:33     Subject: UChicago will offer free tuition for families with incomes below $250,000
Confused how this is a bad thing. HYP are praised for this while Chicago is criticized? Make it make sense.
Anonymous
Post 05/14/2026 18:31     Subject: Re:UChicago will offer free tuition for families with incomes below $250,000
Anonymous wrote:Deal with it, you all need to stop, this is a private institution and can do what they want. If you don't like it, send your kid to UMD or UMass or whatever. Enough whining already.

Not one person here is arguing that Chicago is breaking the law by doing this. Chicago can do what it wants, and the rest of us can say what we think of the policy. “No criticism of the elites” might be the law wherever you immigrated from, but in America we don’t “need to stop.” We are allowed to speak our minds.
Anonymous
Post 05/14/2026 18:12     Subject: UChicago will offer free tuition for families with incomes below $250,000
This is an easy game. Admit kids lower than 250k but with lots of assets. Looks good on paper for marketing.
Anonymous
Post 05/14/2026 18:10     Subject: UChicago will offer free tuition for families with incomes below $250,000
Anonymous wrote:Serously, is this rage bait? So half the class will come from feeder private schools, and the rest from families making under $250K. Where does that leave middle class and upper middle class families in DMV?
V]

You've got to be kidding. 250K is not middle class even in HCOL areas like DC although I know in the warped land of DCUM it is.
Anonymous
Post 05/14/2026 18:08     Subject: UChicago will offer free tuition for families with incomes below $250,000
Anonymous wrote:Serously, is this rage bait? So half the class will come from feeder private schools, and the rest from families making under $250K. Where does that leave middle class and upper middle class families in DMV?


We're a middle class family in the DMV and we make under $250K.
Anonymous
Post 05/14/2026 18:04     Subject: UChicago will offer free tuition for families with incomes below $250,000
Anonymous wrote:Serously, is this rage bait? So half the class will come from feeder private schools, and the rest from families making under $250K. Where does that leave middle class and upper middle class families in DMV?


If they saved they can afford it.
Anonymous
Post 05/14/2026 18:03     Subject: Re:UChicago will offer free tuition for families with incomes below $250,000
Deal with it, you all need to stop, this is a private institution and can do what they want. If you don't like it, send your kid to UMD or UMass or whatever. Enough whining already.
Anonymous
Post 05/14/2026 17:58     Subject: UChicago will offer free tuition for families with incomes below $250,000
Serously, is this rage bait? So half the class will come from feeder private schools, and the rest from families making under $250K. Where does that leave middle class and upper middle class families in DMV?
Anonymous
Post 05/14/2026 17:28     Subject: UChicago will offer free tuition for families with incomes below $250,000
Well, of course it will! It has an obscene amount of Debt - 6.3 billion - in 2025 - so it will do ANYTHING to fix yield stats for incoming full pay students.