At what level of parental wealth is there no grant aid? Forum

[bjsesq]

I think y'all read malice into my "that's a bummer" comment. I was being genuine.

I just saw that his family had money and assumed you considered them enemies of humanity.

[Nebby]

I think y'all read malice into my "that's a bummer" comment. I was being genuine.

I just saw that his family had money and assumed you considered them enemies of humanity.

Naw, I admit that I'm not the most genuine poster (I have earned the 'waste of oxygen' tagline), but that was a rare instance of actually expressing sympathy. And y'all took it in the opposite direction, haha.

[bjsesq]

No, I think you genuinely hate people with money. You're plenty genuine.

[Clemenceau]

My parental wealth is around negative $100k, and about $70k/year my income + parent at the time of applying. Got less than $5k/year in need-based aid.

ETA: Not at HYS, but there is absolutely no way you qualify for any need-based aid that's at all substantial.

Goddamnit. There go my fantasies of being showered with need-based aid.

But thanks for this, seriously.

[bl1nds1ght]

My parental wealth is around negative $100k, and about $70k/year my income + parent at the time of applying. Got less than $5k/year in need-based aid.

ETA: Not at HYS, but there is absolutely no way you qualify for any need-based aid that's at all substantial.

WTF, that is crazy.

Who actually qualifies for need-based aid, then? Is it only meant for kids off the street with no parents?

[Skool]

My parental wealth is around negative $100k, and about $70k/year my income + parent at the time of applying. Got less than $5k/year in need-based aid.

ETA: Not at HYS, but there is absolutely no way you qualify for any need-based aid that's at all substantial.

WTF, that is crazy.

Who actually qualifies for need-based aid, then? Is it only meant for kids off the street with no parents?

You must be new here.

[bl1nds1ght]

My parental wealth is around negative $100k, and about $70k/year my income + parent at the time of applying. Got less than $5k/year in need-based aid.

ETA: Not at HYS, but there is absolutely no way you qualify for any need-based aid that's at all substantial.

WTF, that is crazy.

Who actually qualifies for need-based aid, then? Is it only meant for kids off the street with no parents?

You must be new here.

I just don't know anything about need-based aid. I've never bothered to read up because I always guessed it would never be relevant to my situation. The above poster confirms that guess.

[stt1]

I think y'all read malice into my "that's a bummer" comment. I was being genuine.

I just saw that his family had money and assumed you considered them enemies of humanity.

Naw, I admit that I'm not the most genuine poster (I have earned the 'waste of oxygen' tagline), but that was a rare instance of actually expressing sympathy. And y'all took it in the opposite direction, haha.

For my part, I didn't take your comments as being hostile, rather the two people who quoted you and then added comments about "bootstraps" and "gamesmanship" seemed to be the unfair replies. Perhaps the use of the word "bummer" in your reply tends to cause an inference of sarcasm. I don't think I've heard it much otherwise in recent years, so this might be an issue of typed messages on the internet not conveying nuances in tone well.

But I want to thank you for your assessment of my chances in your first reply, as that was the kind of response I was hoping for.

[Skool]

My parental wealth is around negative $100k, and about $70k/year my income + parent at the time of applying. Got less than $5k/year in need-based aid.

ETA: Not at HYS, but there is absolutely no way you qualify for any need-based aid that's at all substantial.

WTF, that is crazy.

Who actually qualifies for need-based aid, then? Is it only meant for kids off the street with no parents?

You must be new here.

I just don't know anything about need-based aid. I've never bothered to read up because I always guessed it would never be relevant to my situation. The above poster confirms that guess.

Basically need based aid doesn't exist at most schools.

The argument goes something like,, if you go to one of our schools you get a high paying job or you get on LRAP welfare. Either way, your need will be met on the back end.

HYS are apparently more generous, but even they make heavy use of this argument.

[Skool]

I think y'all read malice into my "that's a bummer" comment. I was being genuine.

I just saw that his family had money and assumed you considered them enemies of humanity.

Naw, I admit that I'm not the most genuine poster (I have earned the 'waste of oxygen' tagline), but that was a rare instance of actually expressing sympathy. And y'all took it in the opposite direction, haha.

For my part, I didn't take your comments as being hostile, rather the two people who quoted you and then added comments about "bootstraps" and "gamesmanship" seemed to be the unfair replies. Perhaps the use of the word "bummer" in your reply tends to cause an inference of sarcasm. I don't think I've heard it much otherwise in recent years, so this might be an issue of typed messages on the internet not conveying nuances in tone well.

But I want to thank you for your assessment of my chances in your first reply, as that was the kind of response I was hoping for.

eh. There are cheap but legitimate political points to be made off your post. I don't feel bad for trying to make them.

[stt1]

Skool-If you mean that merit aid at most law schools is unfair (insofar as the bulk of it amounts to raising tuition on everyone, then giving the extra money to a select group of students in the form of scholarships to steal them away from higher ranked schools and thus inflate numbers to rise in the US news rankings, which given the low proportion of employment at many schools essentially amounts to forcing the future unemployed to subsidize the future employed), then I would agree.

In a better world there would be only scholarships granted through specific directed donations, and tuition would be lowered for everyone, but given that we are paying that inflated tuition otherwise, is there really cause for moral criticism of individuals who take advantage of the merit scholarship opportunities available to them? And I didn't actually ask about the schools where the practice raises the most serious concerns (ie where many of those doing the subsidizing will actually be unemployed)

And was it really fair to say the part of my post you quoted amounted to gamesmanship? I just asked whether not failing to file for aid would remove me from consideration of the merit scholarships I am eligible for, maybe it was a stupid question and the answer is obvious, but it wasn't an attempt to manipulate anything.

[Skool]

Call it a combined reading comp fail/assuming the worst fail on my part.

The question seemed to be asking whether or not the schools would disqualify you for merit aid if you were already able to meet your need on your own. And whether or not your failure to ask for need based aid would signal to law schools how you were able to meet your own needs, and thus that you shouldn't be considered for merit aid. Basically, what assumption would schools make about your financial situation and how does that impact merit aid if you don't ask for it. In that interpretation, it sounded a little gamey to me. But maybe I'm misunderstanding.

Whatever. I'm just a guy on the internet who is perpetually annoyed. Just keep climbing to the top, sort the good info from the bad and don't get too flustered.

[stt1]

Call it a combined reading comp fail/assuming the worst fail on my part.

The question seemed to be asking whether or not the schools would disqualify you for merit aid if you were already able to meet your need on your own. And whether or not your failure to ask for need based aid would signal to law schools how you were able to meet your own needs, and thus that you shouldn't be considered for merit aid. Basically, what assumption would schools make about your financial situation and how does that impact merit aid if you don't ask for it. In that interpretation, it sounded a little gamey to me. But maybe I'm misunderstanding.

Whatever. I'm just a guy on the internet who is perpetually annoyed. Just keep climbing to the top, sort the good info from the bad and don't get too flustered.

I appreciate your kind words. I probably could have written my question better--basically, when Duke sent its scholarship and financial aid application, it had a little box to check to specify whether we were applying for merit aid or combined merit/need, and I could check that box and know everything was in order. Some other schools don't seem to have offered the same choice, and I've consequently been somewhat uncertain about how these things are tangled up and what I need to do to be considered for the scholarships I am eligible for.

I wasn't actually worried about them assuming a good financial situation and thus failing to offer merit aid, rather whether there might be a procedural requirement involved. For example, Chicago estimated scholarship and financial aid decisions within a month of sending admission, but that would be before their need access filing deadline of February 15th, so logically one would wonder whether they are holding one's scholarship decisions in the interim unless you do apply for need and thus make your file complete. I also don't know whether they might have a formal requirement for some merit scholarships that an applicant did demonstrate some level of need (perhaps from personal resources, even if parental resources would largely disqualify that person from normal grant aid).

But I could have expressed all of that much more clearly, and I apologize for the confusion.

[foregetaboutdre]

is the 1.5 million in real assets or retirement accounts? If the 1.5M is in an IRA or something, you do not need to disclose it if I recall. Please check with your school tho.

[stt1]

is the 1.5 million in real assets or retirement accounts? If the 1.5M is in an IRA or something, you do not need to disclose it if I recall. Please check with your school tho.

A portion is in investments, a portion in house value. As far as disclosure, I know Harvard will consider the student's IRAs as available resources, but exempt a portion (maybe 50% if I remember correctly) from actually being drained, not sure how they handle parents, or what other schools do.

At any rate, I would be too worried to leave anything off the forms whatever the reason, should I end up filing, though I would probably make sure to expressly note how much is in retirement accounts, so that they can exclude a portion if that is their policy.

[beepboopbeep]

My parental wealth is around negative $100k, and about $70k/year my income + parent at the time of applying. Got less than $5k/year in need-based aid.

ETA: Not at HYS, but there is absolutely no way you qualify for any need-based aid that's at all substantial.

Goddamnit. There go my fantasies of being showered with need-based aid.

But thanks for this, seriously.

It doesn't always goes this way and probably depends significantly on what schools you're in at, as well as the whims of their financial aid officers on the day they review your application. When I applied, my parents had approximately 0 assets and $50k/yr income. You don't really KNOW what part of an aid award is need-based, but I did outperform my numbers w/r/t financial aid by a pretty significant amount (to the tune of $25k/yr, ish) at two schools, while getting jack shit at others. So it does happen. But it seems pretty unicorn-ish and seemingly based on no intelligible principle.

[Nat Sherman]

I'll add my experience here. I got need-based aid from a T20 of around $10k a year with my parents income being over 250k and the FAFSA saying my parents expected contribution was over the COA at my school. However, I will qualify that this "need-based" aid came after scholarship negotiations where they stated they had already given out all their merit based aid.