YHS Need-aid Question Forum

[Fresh]

So I've been trying to find out some info on this, but i haven't been able to get a good understanding. how much need based aid can one expect from these schools (not comparatively, but in general amounts) if your EFC from the FAFSA is $0? How much of your Cost of Attendance will likely end up coming from loans versus grants/scholarship. The highest I see on LSN is $84k of need-based scholarship, and I'm wondering if a cap exists somewhere around that number.

Thanks in advance for any insight on this.

[Alltheirsplendor]

Yikes, does no one know the answer to this question? I'm curious to know myself.

[tgir]

Yep, there's a cap. They apply a "base loan" amount of about $40,000 per year to ALL students, regardless of need, which leaves about $30,000 per year to be covered differently for each student depending on need. So even if your EFC were $0, you'd still be taking out around $40,000 each year in loans.

[Fresh]

Yep, there's a cap. They apply a "base loan" amount of about $40,000 per year to ALL students, regardless of need, which leaves about $30,000 per year to be covered differently for each student depending on need. So even if your EFC were $0, you'd still be taking out around $40,000 each year in loans.

Thanks so much for the useful information! Cheers

[rundoxierun]

So I've been trying to find out some info on this, but i haven't been able to get a good understanding. how much need based aid can one expect from these schools (not comparatively, but in general amounts) if your EFC from the FAFSA is $0? How much of your Cost of Attendance will likely end up coming from loans versus grants/scholarship. The highest I see on LSN is $84k of need-based scholarship, and I'm wondering if a cap exists somewhere around that number.

Thanks in advance for any insight on this.

For H, the formula is right on the sfs site. $38,600 base loan plus a minimum of $2,500 student contribution (or more depending on assets and summer earnings above $7700). So at H, the max grant is in the area of 28-29k/yr. and that is adjusted each year to account for any summer earnings over the $7700 threshold. A standard big market biglaw SA paying 3k/wk for 10 wks would reduce the grant amount by 14-15k/yr for the upcoming aid year (usually 3L). YS and dont list their formulas on their websites but from what I have been told they arent too dissimilar to H. At H, the only way to reduce your borrowing below ~42k/yr is by getting outside scholarships. Outside scholarships reduce borrowing rather than reducing the grant.

[Fresh]

At H, the only way to reduce your borrowing below ~42k/yr is by getting outside scholarships.

Kinda sucks but that's what I figured. I read this info on H's SFS site but you summarized it more clearly, so thanks man

[dot]

For 2010-11 at Stanford, the base "self-help" figure was 30,500 USD.

[tgir]

For 2010-11 at Stanford, the base "self-help" figure was 30,500 USD.

Good point. Stanford's base loan is much lower than Yale's or Harvard's (which are both around $40k). I think that's a large part of why most people report that Stanford is more generous in aid packages.