The "Mistake" of Working More
Yale financial aid covers a substantial amount of my expenses but the family and student contributions are not a trivial amount of money for my parents, who had to redouble their shifts at work to be able to keep up with it all, especially after my brother also started college.
Still, without the financial aid package going to college altogether would have been a distant dream. I’ve had an overall pleasant experience with the financial aid office. When I submitted my application for my second year, they reduced my aid due to the increase in my parents income, but when I appealed to them and informed them of my parents financial situation and my brother’s college admission, they readjusted my aid package accordingly to take into consideration my brothers college fees, but they also count the increase in family income - which is not a luxury, but a necessity to keep up with all the expenses - effectively neutralizing any work done on the part of my family to keep up.
This is the only glitch in the system that I’ve had trouble with. One of the aid officers once told me that a “mistake” people often made was to work more when they send their kids to college and that actually results in a smaller net income. Except that if people don’t work, how can they make ends meet?
Still, without the financial aid package going to college altogether would have been a distant dream. I’ve had an overall pleasant experience with the financial aid office. When I submitted my application for my second year, they reduced my aid due to the increase in my parents income, but when I appealed to them and informed them of my parents financial situation and my brother’s college admission, they readjusted my aid package accordingly to take into consideration my brothers college fees, but they also count the increase in family income - which is not a luxury, but a necessity to keep up with all the expenses - effectively neutralizing any work done on the part of my family to keep up.
This is the only glitch in the system that I’ve had trouble with. One of the aid officers once told me that a “mistake” people often made was to work more when they send their kids to college and that actually results in a smaller net income. Except that if people don’t work, how can they make ends meet?
