Donut hole reality

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s not donut hole. That’s a comfortable family. The rest of our kids go to state schools.

This. If you have sticker shock, but the ability to pay you aren't really a donut hole.

Ability to pay when that ability means constant struggle, isn’t really comfortable.

Families with more than one kid and $250-300k don’t get financial aid. Paying $180-200k/year for kids’ tuition isn’t easy.

I'm a family with two kids at 130k. We haven't been offered squat. $5500 loan for each.

Whoa you must have some crazy assets.

No, they might be HCEs and don’t want to die in the office.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My god— my niece paid $100k freshmen year to attend Boston College.

It’s not very different from Georgetown or any of the SLACs.

My child has been accepted to some very adjective universities (5-6%%) acceptance rate—but paying $70k more per year over the very good VA public university seems ludicrous.

This is the point we have come to in higher education. A $400k undergrad degree?

Yep, we are at this same realization. We've saved a lot and thought it would be enough. It's not. We are foregoing all of those big, fancy schools as it does not make sense. Once out of grad school it will not matter that DC went to Bridgewater vs. Boston College. Sorry, it won't.

These prices are unsustainable and it's absurd we accept them as "normal" now.

Yes. My cousin just received his Master’s at Hopkins (Baltimore campus) after GMU. It’s the last school he attended that employees care about. Landed a great job.

That’s exactly what I told my kid and what he plans to do.

The private expensive colleges are getting weird socially anyway. Multigenerational wealth and low income people is a recipe for clique formation.

[Anonymous]

Fordham and NYU all in are 100k. No one says you have to go there.

I am eligible no financial aid so my kids applied 12-15 schools and basically picked between top three merit aid offers.

Neither went in state. Both ended up out of state flagships with merit aid.

Remember Joe Biden went to Delaware and Trump Fordham. And back then Delaware and Fordham were really crappy.

Fordham in late 1960s to early 1980s was in a war zone in the Bronx. And Delaware when Biden went was a sleepy land grant school for Farmers!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s not donut hole. That’s a comfortable family. The rest of our kids go to state schools.

This. If you have sticker shock, but the ability to pay you aren't really a donut hole.

Ability to pay when that ability means constant struggle, isn’t really comfortable.

Families with more than one kid and $250-300k don’t get financial aid. Paying $180-200k/year for kids’ tuition isn’t easy.

You save starting at birth, consider your spending and live way below your means.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is interested in a very niche major that is not available in any VA public schools. Even with the academic common market, her only in state options are two schools in Kentucky.

But it is necessary to have that niche major to get a job later?

She probably doesn’t need to work, PP. There’s a name for people like this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s not donut hole. That’s a comfortable family. The rest of our kids go to state schools.

College costs makes a comfortable upper middle class family, uncomfortable and middle class.

Upper middle class can afford state schools. What you consider upper middle class is upper class. We are upper middle and cannot pay that and live very modestly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s not donut hole. That’s a comfortable family. The rest of our kids go to state schools.

This. If you have sticker shock, but the ability to pay you aren't really a donut hole.

Ability to pay when that ability means constant struggle, isn’t really comfortable.

Families with more than one kid and $250-300k don’t get financial aid. Paying $180-200k/year for kids’ tuition isn’t easy.

You save starting at birth, consider your spending and live way below your means.

That’s not enough, PP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s not donut hole. That’s a comfortable family. The rest of our kids go to state schools.

This. If you have sticker shock, but the ability to pay you aren't really a donut hole.

Ability to pay when that ability means constant struggle, isn’t really comfortable.

Families with more than one kid and $250-300k don’t get financial aid. Paying $180-200k/year for kids’ tuition isn’t easy.

You save starting at birth, consider your spending and live way below your means.

That's great for you 250k-300k people. I don't know how much savings you expect a family at sub 150k to have saved (they obviously haven't had that salary for the past 18 years)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s not donut hole. That’s a comfortable family. The rest of our kids go to state schools.

This. If you have sticker shock, but the ability to pay you aren't really a donut hole.

Ability to pay when that ability means constant struggle, isn’t really comfortable.

Families with more than one kid and $250-300k don’t get financial aid. Paying $180-200k/year for kids’ tuition isn’t easy.

You save starting at birth, consider your spending and live way below your means.

We did. We can send both kids to in-state public university for 4 years with what is in their 529s right now...around $130-140k each.

But not $360k each. Which is fine. We own two homes--just not selling one or pulling equity out. Building wealth requires choices. Solid in-state and then $ for a good grad or house downpayment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s not donut hole. That’s a comfortable family. The rest of our kids go to state schools.

This. If you have sticker shock, but the ability to pay you aren't really a donut hole.

Ability to pay when that ability means constant struggle, isn’t really comfortable.

Families with more than one kid and $250-300k don’t get financial aid. Paying $180-200k/year for kids’ tuition isn’t easy.

You save starting at birth, consider your spending and live way below your means.

That’s not enough, PP.

You are then penalized for your frugalness and savings; what is in your 529. You can't win.

[Anonymous]

Part of why it's gotten so insanely expensive to go to many colleges is because families that are UMC are expected to shoulder not just the cost of their own kid attending but all the kids that are attending for free or at low rates. I want those kids to go to college too but that should be funded from either government money or endowments not jacking up tuition on other families struggling to pay for school too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Part of why it's gotten so insanely expensive to go to many colleges is because families that are UMC are expected to shoulder not just the cost of their own kid attending but all the kids that are attending for free or at low rates. I want those kids to go to college too but that should be funded from either government money or endowments not jacking up tuition on other families struggling to pay for school too.

100%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s not donut hole. That’s a comfortable family. The rest of our kids go to state schools.

This. If you have sticker shock, but the ability to pay you aren't really a donut hole.

Ability to pay when that ability means constant struggle, isn’t really comfortable.

Families with more than one kid and $250-300k don’t get financial aid. Paying $180-200k/year for kids’ tuition isn’t easy.

You save starting at birth, consider your spending and live way below your means.

We did that, and we still do that. We had around $150k HHI when our kids were born, and we've only recently gotten close to $250k HHI. We've had significant medical expenses in recent years that fortunately weren't catastrophic, but did impact our ability to save for college.

My kid just got into BC. We are delighted and very proud. They offered us loans only. We are going to continue living below our means, and send DC to a highly-regarded option that costs less than half of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s not donut hole. That’s a comfortable family. The rest of our kids go to state schools.

This. If you have sticker shock, but the ability to pay you aren't really a donut hole.

Ability to pay when that ability means constant struggle, isn’t really comfortable.

Families with more than one kid and $250-300k don’t get financial aid. Paying $180-200k/year for kids’ tuition isn’t easy.

You save starting at birth, consider your spending and live way below your means.

That’s not enough, PP.

You are then penalized for your frugalness and savings; what is in your 529. You can't win.

This. An idiot I went to college with actually said to me “Only poor people use 529s. People who can actually afford private college don’t need them.”

She’s not an accountant or a financial planner, obvi.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Part of why it's gotten so insanely expensive to go to many colleges is because families that are UMC are expected to shoulder not just the cost of their own kid attending but all the kids that are attending for free or at low rates. I want those kids to go to college too but that should be funded from either government money or endowments not jacking up tuition on other families struggling to pay for school too.

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