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I'm very lucky to have gotten into Yale and Stanford and am weighing my options. I have a couple of financial aid questions (knowing that I won't get my package back before decision time):

1. Has anyone heard of a (rough) cutoff of parental income and/or assets for grant aid from either of these schools? Harvard, for comparison, suggests a cutoff of $180k annually. I'm lucky to come from a somewhat well-off family and am trying to figure out whether I should apply for grants or loans only.

2. Separately, are there ever circumstances where it makes sense to take out loans versus paying for school with savings? I've saved up a bit in my current job (though certainly not the full amount) and am planning to pay with most of my savings first, except for retirement accounts and the like. It doesn't seem like it would make much sense to take out loans instead, given that interest rates exceed what I could reasonably expect to earn in the market, but I'd be curious if there are situations where that isn't true.

Thanks for any help. I know I'm quite privileged to be in this situation and appreciate any help you all can offer.

esta wrote:I'm very lucky to have gotten into Yale and Stanford and am weighing my options. I have a couple of financial aid questions (knowing that I won't get my package back before decision time):

1. Has anyone heard of a (rough) cutoff of parental income and/or assets for grant aid from either of these schools? Harvard, for comparison, suggests a cutoff of $180k annually. I'm lucky to come from a somewhat well-off family and am trying to figure out whether I should apply for grants or loans only.

2. Separately, are there ever circumstances where it makes sense to take out loans versus paying for school with savings? I've saved up a bit in my current job (though certainly not the full amount) and am planning to pay with most of my savings first, except for retirement accounts and the like. It doesn't seem like it would make much sense to take out loans instead, given that interest rates exceed what I could reasonably expect to earn in the market, but I'd be curious if there are situations where that isn't true.

Thanks for any help. I know I'm quite privileged to be in this situation and appreciate any help you all can offer.

Congrats on your acceptances! I also got into both Y/S and received nearly identical aid packages. If by "decision time" you mean May 1, you should definitely receive your aid package before then. Keep in mind that both schools will essentially ask you to deplete your savings in 1L + 2L year.

For example, if you have 40K saved up, Yale will require a student contribution of 20K for 1L year, and 20K for 2L.

On the other hand, a student with only 5K in savings must contribute 2.5K in year 1, and 2.5K in year 2.

Feel free to PM me