Financial Aid UMC with multiple kids

[Anonymous]

OP, in case you're still reading, don't assume that your kids will want to attend their other country's education system, or would do well in it. My kids are dual citizens but don't want to, and would not succeed in, their other country's university system. It's VERY different. I'm not even sure they would be able to register, it's very complicated for expatriates. My oldest is at George Washington University, current cost, $85k a year.

UMD is 30K a year.
UVA is closer to 40K.
All these are total costs of attendance: tuition room and board, fees, etc, and they have historically rose faster than inflation.

Also, bear in mind that the other country may also get a clue and start charging more for their education!

Sorry for being harsh, OP, but you sound naive. You really need to move to MD or VA and enroll your kids in MCPS or FCPS. These are excellent school systems, way, way better than DCPS. One of my kids has special needs and MCPS was better for him than any private (SN or otherwise).

Save up for retirement and college, because you don't know what the university landscape will look like in 15 years.

[Anonymous]

^ I wasn't clear. If you stay in DC, your kids are not eligible for in-state tuition at any state university or college outside of DC. It's very important for DC families with financial needs to consider whether moving to MD or VA will cost them less in college tuition. If you send all your kids to FCPS, then they get into UVA, for example, you're golden.

[Anonymous]

Do you both work?

My spouse makes around $275k, but I have a job at $200k so we can afford stuff. If I quit my job, I’d have a lot of free time and then could ask for aid too. Sigh

[Anonymous]

It sounds like you have a bunch of investments / savings for college?

Schools look at that $ as fair game for paying for school. So even if you HHI is in the high 200's - if you have a chunk put aside "tagged' for college, they will expect at least some of this to be on the table.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:So you bought in the Dunbar cachement. No doubt a larger, cheaper house than if you bought in the JR cachement or in one of the surrounding counties with a solid path from ES through HS. And no doubt knowing Dunbar was unlikely to satisfy. Esp at the time you decided to have a FOURth child. And now you want other families to pick some of your tab because you like your neighborhood too much to move?

Seems your poor planning shouldn’t be someone else’s issue.

All that said, you are likely to get FA because privates don’t give much to truly poor people.

Not sure I would classify our 1400 sq ft 2 bedrooom row house just south of FT Totten as “larger and cheaper” than NW, but it fit the budget at the time we bought and I don’t think we could have gotten the same thing over in NW. We didn’t think about high school, no, but also didn’t plan on a fourth surprise kid due to secondary infertility after adopting siblings, so maybe poor planning, or just what ended up being and we are trying to make the best of it with what we have.

My feeling is we make too much and should not qualify, but maybe we don’t, so no harm in a general inquiry to try to make a more informed decision on what to do moving forward. We’re not sure the schools would even give us the light of day since we’re not seriously looking yet at the hii of there tuition levels.

Yes, you couldn’t have gotten the same space for the same money in a more reliable pyramid so you took a chance and got more house and less school and now want someone else to pay for more school rather than moving. Probably people who chose to have less house and fewer kids so they could afford more school.

Yes, poor planning.

And yes, ask for the money. The schools can just say no.

They have a family of 6 in a 2 bedroom house. How much smaller would you like them to get? People on here make no sense sometimes

Neither does having so many children with a set amount of resources and already living in a 2 BR. I would stop donating to the FA fund, as the parent of one, if I was paying for others' tuition since they decided to have a large family.

I’ve seen this attitude on dcum but I’ve never seen “too many children” listed anywhere as an actual disqualification for aid. Just about any FA page I’ve come across that I can think of lists number of children as a consideration where more children = more aid.

I also don’t think asking for FA because you have 4 children is ethically different from asking for FA when you have 1.

OP has $275K plus an adoption subsidy, medicaid and other things for some of the kids. Should FA go to OP or a family who is making $100K with 2 kids? OP can easily pay $150K in school costs and have enough to live off of. Its all about lifestyle choices.

Regarding OP versus your hypothetical family, I wasn’t aware it was an either/or. The extent of a school’s resources and the number of qualifying applicants is obviously going to vary. I have seen FA pages reference incomes up to 300k as qualifying under different circumstances, so I don’t think OP is outside the range of normal. And the question was whether multiple kids would affect aid eligibility. That at least sounds like a straightforward yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you both work?

My spouse makes around $275k, but I have a job at $200k so we can afford stuff. If I quit my job, I’d have a lot of free time and then could ask for aid too. Sigh

They impugn income for non working spouses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you both work?

My spouse makes around $275k, but I have a job at $200k so we can afford stuff. If I quit my job, I’d have a lot of free time and then could ask for aid too. Sigh

They impugn income for non working spouses.

Sorry, what now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you both work?

My spouse makes around $275k, but I have a job at $200k so we can afford stuff. If I quit my job, I’d have a lot of free time and then could ask for aid too. Sigh

They impugn income for non working spouses.

Sorry, what now?

DP but many schools will impute a theoretical income (not super high — $30k or so) if a second parent is not working, so that would get counted against hypothetical aid. That said this often doesn’t seem to apply until all children are school age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you both work?

My spouse makes around $275k, but I have a job at $200k so we can afford stuff. If I quit my job, I’d have a lot of free time and then could ask for aid too. Sigh

They impugn income for non working spouses.

Sorry, what now?

DP but many schools will impute a theoretical income (not super high — $30k or so) if a second parent is not working, so that would get counted against hypothetical aid. That said this often doesn’t seem to apply until all children are school age.

Oh, input. Thank you. I couldn’t figure out how impugning the income of someone who doesn’t have one made sense.

[Anonymous]

I would second the importance of leaving DC and moving either to VA or MD to manage college costs.

While I do not think anyone can treat admission either to UVa or to UMCP as a "safety", each state has other good public university options. Purely as an example, VA also has VPI, W&M, VCU, UMW, JMU, ODU, GMU, et alia. Maryland also has UMBC, Salisbury, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So you bought in the Dunbar cachement. No doubt a larger, cheaper house than if you bought in the JR cachement or in one of the surrounding counties with a solid path from ES through HS. And no doubt knowing Dunbar was unlikely to satisfy. Esp at the time you decided to have a FOURth child. And now you want other families to pick some of your tab because you like your neighborhood too much to move?

Seems your poor planning shouldn’t be someone else’s issue.

All that said, you are likely to get FA because privates don’t give much to truly poor people.

Not sure I would classify our 1400 sq ft 2 bedrooom row house just south of FT Totten as “larger and cheaper” than NW, but it fit the budget at the time we bought and I don’t think we could have gotten the same thing over in NW. We didn’t think about high school, no, but also didn’t plan on a fourth surprise kid due to secondary infertility after adopting siblings, so maybe poor planning, or just what ended up being and we are trying to make the best of it with what we have.

My feeling is we make too much and should not qualify, but maybe we don’t, so no harm in a general inquiry to try to make a more informed decision on what to do moving forward. We’re not sure the schools would even give us the light of day since we’re not seriously looking yet at the hii of there tuition levels.

Yes, you couldn’t have gotten the same space for the same money in a more reliable pyramid so you took a chance and got more house and less school and now want someone else to pay for more school rather than moving. Probably people who chose to have less house and fewer kids so they could afford more school.

Yes, poor planning.

And yes, ask for the money. The schools can just say no.

They have a family of 6 in a 2 bedroom house. How much smaller would you like them to get? People on here make no sense sometimes

Neither does having so many children with a set amount of resources and already living in a 2 BR. I would stop donating to the FA fund, as the parent of one, if I was paying for others' tuition since they decided to have a large family.

I’ve seen this attitude on dcum but I’ve never seen “too many children” listed anywhere as an actual disqualification for aid. Just about any FA page I’ve come across that I can think of lists number of children as a consideration where more children = more aid.

I also don’t think asking for FA because you have 4 children is ethically different from asking for FA when you have 1.

OP has $275K plus an adoption subsidy, medicaid and other things for some of the kids. Should FA go to OP or a family who is making $100K with 2 kids? OP can easily pay $150K in school costs and have enough to live off of. Its all about lifestyle choices.

Ahahahah right. 275 HHI is 175 take home pay. If the family pays 120-150 in tuition they would have about 30-50k to live on? Do you think this is actually possible? Do you come from the moon?

OP you should definitely apply and if your kids are strong candidates, the schools will give you aid.

They can go to a cheaper catholic for k-8 but yes it’s possible. Their take home is more than that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you both work?

My spouse makes around $275k, but I have a job at $200k so we can afford stuff. If I quit my job, I’d have a lot of free time and then could ask for aid too. Sigh

We both work!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the input all-thoughts to consider.

[Anonymous]

4 kids. Public school for K-8. Independent Catholic school for HS. We received about $10k FA per year when 2 were in HA at the same time (HHI 210k).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:4 kids. Public school for K-8. Independent Catholic school for HS. We received about $10k FA per year when 2 were in HA at the same time (HHI 210k).

What was your total tuition cost per child in highschool?