What kind of financial background qualifies for maximum aid at HYS? Forum

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C.Suttree

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What kind of financial background qualifies for maximum aid at HYS?

Post by C.Suttree » Fri Feb 04, 2022 2:29 pm

I was wondering if anyone had any insight into what kind of financial situation you'd need to come from to expect a substantial package from one of these schools. I hear they're the only ones that provide a significant amount of need based aid, but there doesn't appear to be any insight online as to what their formulas may be in a concrete sense. The fin aid documents these schools have up contain a lot of information but remain opaque as to the particulars.

For example, parental household income of 30k, 50k, 70k etc = a certain ballpark of aid? I know there are a lot of confounding factors that go into final amount but I'm just trying to figure out how generous / parsimonious they are in a general sense.

Laserguy213

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Re: What kind of financial background qualifies for maximum aid at HYS?

Post by Laserguy213 » Sat Feb 05, 2022 12:22 am

I am pretty sure I maxxed out aid at HLS. Got 59k this year, 49k last year. They gave a special 10k bonus this year for whatever reason and said it might not get re-upped next year. My joint family income was about 40k. $0 in personal assets. The big tip there is to use any personal $$ you have to pay off UG debt because otherwise Harvard takes out from your grant aid what you own personally. So, for instance, I had $30k UG debt and $15k saved before school. I used the 15k on my debt, had 0 in assets. If I didn't do that, Harvard would've just deducted 15k from my grant aid. Dumb, I know.

I know a friend who got something like $30k whose joint family income is probably around 75k (might be off-i don't know for sure, but it is a well-founded guess)

ksm6969

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Re: What kind of financial background qualifies for maximum aid at HYS?

Post by ksm6969 » Sat Feb 05, 2022 8:36 am

Laserguy213 wrote:
Sat Feb 05, 2022 12:22 am
I am pretty sure I maxxed out aid at HLS. Got 59k this year, 49k last year. They gave a special 10k bonus this year for whatever reason and said it might not get re-upped next year. My joint family income was about 40k. $0 in personal assets. The big tip there is to use any personal $$ you have to pay off UG debt because otherwise Harvard takes out from your grant aid what you own personally. So, for instance, I had $30k UG debt and $15k saved before school. I used the 15k on my debt, had 0 in assets. If I didn't do that, Harvard would've just deducted 15k from my grant aid. Dumb, I know.

I know a friend who got something like $30k whose joint family income is probably around 75k (might be off-i don't know for sure, but it is a well-founded guess)
Max aid at HLS is cost of tuition (so $68k this last year), in that if you qualify for more, they will just cap it. But I think the only way you get that amount is if you have dependents.

To the OP, the bigger question than income for H is how much a family home is worth, which will often doom air calculations more than income. Y doesn’t look at primary residence iirc. I think h also looks at like family retirement accounts.

Laserguy213

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Re: What kind of financial background qualifies for maximum aid at HYS?

Post by Laserguy213 » Sun Feb 06, 2022 2:12 am

ksm6969 wrote:
Sat Feb 05, 2022 8:36 am
Laserguy213 wrote:
Sat Feb 05, 2022 12:22 am
I am pretty sure I maxxed out aid at HLS. Got 59k this year, 49k last year. They gave a special 10k bonus this year for whatever reason and said it might not get re-upped next year. My joint family income was about 40k. $0 in personal assets. The big tip there is to use any personal $$ you have to pay off UG debt because otherwise Harvard takes out from your grant aid what you own personally. So, for instance, I had $30k UG debt and $15k saved before school. I used the 15k on my debt, had 0 in assets. If I didn't do that, Harvard would've just deducted 15k from my grant aid. Dumb, I know.

I know a friend who got something like $30k whose joint family income is probably around 75k (might be off-i don't know for sure, but it is a well-founded guess)
Max aid at HLS is cost of tuition (so $68k this last year), in that if you qualify for more, they will just cap it. But I think the only way you get that amount is if you have dependents.

To the OP, the bigger question than income for H is how much a family home is worth, which will often doom air calculations more than income. Y doesn’t look at primary residence iirc. I think h also looks at like family retirement accounts.

No offense, but that is incorrect. Would like to make sure info is accurate, especially for people in need of financial aid.

"If demonstrated need exceeds the $49,500, the student is eligible for grant aid to meet the need in excess of the threshold, and may obtain student loans to meet the first $49,500 of need." https://hls.harvard.edu/dept/sfs/financ ... -packages/. Total cost of attendance is 104,200. SO the best you're doing is about 54k.


But as the previous poster said, HLS does take into account family assets. Even retirement accounts, like 401Ks and roths are considered (though there worth is discounted by 50%).

EDIT:

Want to note also that harvard does give some rather opportune loans. For purposes of "max aid", I am referring only to grants.

Pozzo

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Re: What kind of financial background qualifies for maximum aid at HYS?

Post by Pozzo » Sun Feb 06, 2022 10:32 am

Laserguy213 wrote:
Sun Feb 06, 2022 2:12 am
ksm6969 wrote:
Sat Feb 05, 2022 8:36 am
Laserguy213 wrote:
Sat Feb 05, 2022 12:22 am
I am pretty sure I maxxed out aid at HLS. Got 59k this year, 49k last year. They gave a special 10k bonus this year for whatever reason and said it might not get re-upped next year. My joint family income was about 40k. $0 in personal assets. The big tip there is to use any personal $$ you have to pay off UG debt because otherwise Harvard takes out from your grant aid what you own personally. So, for instance, I had $30k UG debt and $15k saved before school. I used the 15k on my debt, had 0 in assets. If I didn't do that, Harvard would've just deducted 15k from my grant aid. Dumb, I know.

I know a friend who got something like $30k whose joint family income is probably around 75k (might be off-i don't know for sure, but it is a well-founded guess)
Max aid at HLS is cost of tuition (so $68k this last year), in that if you qualify for more, they will just cap it. But I think the only way you get that amount is if you have dependents.

To the OP, the bigger question than income for H is how much a family home is worth, which will often doom air calculations more than income. Y doesn’t look at primary residence iirc. I think h also looks at like family retirement accounts.

No offense, but that is incorrect. Would like to make sure info is accurate, especially for people in need of financial aid.

"If demonstrated need exceeds the $49,500, the student is eligible for grant aid to meet the need in excess of the threshold, and may obtain student loans to meet the first $49,500 of need." https://hls.harvard.edu/dept/sfs/financ ... -packages/. Total cost of attendance is 104,200. SO the best you're doing is about 54k.


But as the previous poster said, HLS does take into account family assets. Even retirement accounts, like 401Ks and roths are considered (though there worth is discounted by 50%).

EDIT:

Want to note also that harvard does give some rather opportune loans. For purposes of "max aid", I am referring only to grants.
Weighing in for the sake of nuance and accuracy: HLS does make adjustments for COA for a number of factors. Dependents are by far the biggest but there are other smaller ones. (They don’t strictly call it a COA adjustment, instead they’re “allowances” but they have the same effect.)

Also, at a certain age they stop counting family income and assets. I think it’s 29 or 30.

So full tuition grants are out there, especially if you’re a 30-something with a couple kids.

C.Suttree

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Re: What kind of financial background qualifies for maximum aid at HYS?

Post by C.Suttree » Mon Aug 15, 2022 9:19 pm

A bit late here but thanks for all the replies.

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