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I noticed that there is a huge difference in how Yale, Harvard, and Stanford consider your personal assets when they determine your contribution amount. Anyone know why this is?

Most of my assets are in my primary home and retirement accounts, which Yale does NOT consider. I could also pay down my mortgage with my savings to enter with $0 in assets and receive the full amount of tuition and grant money.

Harvard, OTOH, considers equity in your primary residence and half the amount of your retirement accounts. So basically they want me to foot the whole bill by selling my home and liquidating my retirement savings? Also, how are you supposed to calculate the amount of your home equity, last appraised value minus mortgage UPB?

Stanford makes you contribute a large chunk of your previous year's earnings, but they don't give guidance on how primary home equity or retirement accounts are considered. Anyone know this?

Also, are things like cars or gold coins/jewelry considered for any/all of these schools? If I matriculate in the fall I may have some decisions to make.

I'm mainly interested in YHS since those are probably the only schools I'd attend without merit aid, but if people know how other schools treat assets that would be useful as well. I'm over 29 so my parents' assets aren't a factor. I'm not rich but I've tried to make wise financial choices and it seems like Harvard wants to wipe me out whereas Yale would happily give me loans and grants.

I would be interested in these answers as well. Also:

- With parental contributions, do they take into account debt as well as income/assets? How heavily is that weighed?

- If we decline to apply for grants one year, can we apply the next year as our financial situations change?

- I found on the Harvard website that $180k cumulative income is their approximate cut-off for need-based aid. Is that number similar at all schools, or is Yale significantly different?

Thanks in advance!

kartelite wrote:I noticed that there is a huge difference in how Yale, Harvard, and Stanford consider your personal assets when they determine your contribution amount. Anyone know why this is?

Most of my assets are in my primary home and retirement accounts, which Yale does NOT consider. I could also pay down my mortgage with my savings to enter with $0 in assets and receive the full amount of tuition and grant money.

Harvard, OTOH, considers equity in your primary residence and half the amount of your retirement accounts. So basically they want me to foot the whole bill by selling my home and liquidating my retirement savings? Also, how are you supposed to calculate the amount of your home equity, last appraised value minus mortgage UPB?

Stanford makes you contribute a large chunk of your previous year's earnings, but they don't give guidance on how primary home equity or retirement accounts are considered. Anyone know this?

Also, are things like cars or gold coins/jewelry considered for any/all of these schools? If I matriculate in the fall I may have some decisions to make.

I'm mainly interested in YHS since those are probably the only schools I'd attend without merit aid, but if people know how other schools treat assets that would be useful as well. I'm over 29 so my parents' assets aren't a factor. I'm not rich but I've tried to make wise financial choices and it seems like Harvard wants to wipe me out whereas Yale would happily give me loans and grants.

I don't know why they treat assets differently. But note that you won't be forced to sell anything. You can still take out federal loans for the full amount that isn't covered by grants.

You do have to admit that you're less in need of financial aid that someone who doesn't have your investments in retirement funds and home equity. The unfortunate fact is that there isn't a good way for them to determine whether your current financial situation is because of good financial choices or bad ones, so they can't really make decisions based on that.