Paying for college costs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC goes to college in 2026. How much does it cost for an OOS Top 50 school/yr ?( we will not qualify for aid)

I was budgeting $50K ( so $200K for 4 years) - but some schools have tuition alone at $50k ( eg UCLA is $46k) per year

So total cost seems to be close to $70k to $80k, which equates to $300k-$350k for 4 years.

Is that what others have experienced?

Looking at schools around 40-50 rank, I do think some can bring it down to around $50k. DD was offered merit at Mount Holyoke and Dickinson to be about that (I think those are somewhere in the 30-50 range in the liberal arts ranking). Her favorite ended up being ranked in the 70s range and costs us $30k/year vs. $70k sticker price.

Universities in the 40-50 range are a mix, some give merit (Brandeis, Case Western, Tulane) that could potentially bring the cost down. But no guarantee they will offer the same 5-10 years from now. Merit is a tool to attract higher tier students and schools successful at that will rise in the rankings and eventually give out less merit because they don't need to give as much. College pricing is a game.

We gave our kids a max budget of $40k and we don't qualify for need aid. They had plenty of options they were happy with. Good but not elite-college-competitive students.

We are in the same boat - limiting our kids to $40k/year. I was assuming we are limited to in-state schools - I feel we have limited in options in Maryland though and have my doubts whether my kids will get into UMD. Are there even any out of state options in this price range? It seems like you would have to applu to a well endowed private school and just hope that you reveive some merit. We wont qualify for need-based aid.

Private schools that give merit are definately an option. Case Western gives good merit to many. My own kid got $40K/year, bringing cost down to ~$40K total/year. Go to schools ranked 50-100 and many will give good merit to bring costs ~$40K. But you wont know until you apply. So plan to use $1-1.5K in application fees, and apply to 15 schools, with at least 5-6 being safeties that traditionally give merit. Then 5+ Targets that often give merit. You can find affordable schools using that path

Is there a reliable resource to understand which schools traditionally give merit?

Look at the common data set for the schools. Check out how much merit aide those without any financial aid get.
Check out college confidential and Reddit to see/ask questions. It's not a formula at many schools---my own kid got 5-8K more than many of their friends at college despite the friends having higher gpa/SATs. It was a jesuit university and my kid's ECs and volunteering definately appeals to whomever read their application and decided on merit---their volunteering was above and beyond normal just show up weekly for 2 hours to check a box.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC goes to college in 2026. How much does it cost for an OOS Top 50 school/yr ?( we will not qualify for aid)

I was budgeting $50K ( so $200K for 4 years) - but some schools have tuition alone at $50k ( eg UCLA is $46k) per year

So total cost seems to be close to $70k to $80k, which equates to $300k-$350k for 4 years.

Is that what others have experienced?

Looking at schools around 40-50 rank, I do think some can bring it down to around $50k. DD was offered merit at Mount Holyoke and Dickinson to be about that (I think those are somewhere in the 30-50 range in the liberal arts ranking). Her favorite ended up being ranked in the 70s range and costs us $30k/year vs. $70k sticker price.

Universities in the 40-50 range are a mix, some give merit (Brandeis, Case Western, Tulane) that could potentially bring the cost down. But no guarantee they will offer the same 5-10 years from now. Merit is a tool to attract higher tier students and schools successful at that will rise in the rankings and eventually give out less merit because they don't need to give as much. College pricing is a game.

We gave our kids a max budget of $40k and we don't qualify for need aid. They had plenty of options they were happy with. Good but not elite-college-competitive students.

We are in the same boat - limiting our kids to $40k/year. I was assuming we are limited to in-state schools - I feel we have limited in options in Maryland though and have my doubts whether my kids will get into UMD. Are there even any out of state options in this price range? It seems like you would have to applu to a well endowed private school and just hope that you reveive some merit. We wont qualify for need-based aid.

Private schools that give merit are definately an option. Case Western gives good merit to many. My own kid got $40K/year, bringing cost down to ~$40K total/year. Go to schools ranked 50-100 and many will give good merit to bring costs ~$40K. But you wont know until you apply. So plan to use $1-1.5K in application fees, and apply to 15 schools, with at least 5-6 being safeties that traditionally give merit. Then 5+ Targets that often give merit. You can find affordable schools using that path

No need to go in blind when applying. Use the Net Price Calculator to get a good idea of whether your DC might qualify for sufficient merit. If the NPC shows not nearly enough merit aid after you plug in the numbers/stats, don't waste the application fee on that school.

If your net worth (outside of home and 401K) exceeds $1M, forget any need based aid regardless of income. NPCs are not that different across colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have “well-funded” 529s started when they were babies. But not sure that we even have enough in the eldest’s for next year! He’s a junior. The costs are outrageous. But I admit we haven’t considered u of Maryland. I’m old ( went to college in the 70s) and a snob. Go ahead flame me

This is me, too (but college in the 1980s)!

I felt good about the finances until the market turned bad last year. I'm looking at like a million dollars more of tuition expenses in the next few years (oh my gosh!) and lost like 15% in the savings plans last year.

I would say that when I've worked out the budget, we deplete the actual savings midway through second kid's education (3 kids). But that's also when we pay off the mortgage on our house, so I'm figuring the mortgage money will be diverted to cover the college expenses.

And I'll head into retirement with my 401K looking fine (we've always saved the max for that) but really no other savings outside of the 401k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

We are in the same boat - limiting our kids to $40k/year. I was assuming we are limited to in-state schools - I feel we have limited in options in Maryland though and have my doubts whether my kids will get into UMD. Are there even any out of state options in this price range? It seems like you would have to applu to a well endowed private school and just hope that you reveive some merit. We wont qualify for need-based aid.

We are also in Maryland in the same financial boat with a kid who is a good student (4.0/3.7) but won't get into Maryland. He didn't like Salisbury (small town) or UMBC (seems like a commuter school) so it feels anticlimactic that he will only apply to Towson (which he likes well enough.) I would love for him to have other options in our price range.

I wrote the first post above and wondering for the pp- I wonder if you have considered Mont College and then transferring to UMD? I have a few coworkers whose kids have done this. I am not sure how difficult this is? My child will be disappointed that he is not going away like his friends but if it is only for one year, maybe not the end of the world. Again, not sure how hard the transfer is? Also, we have not visited UMBC but their curriculum looks good. Is the student life there really like a commuter college? That is disappointing! I am curious to visit.

I don't know if this is feasible, so just brainstorming. But is it possible for the kid to do the first year before actually graduating from HS? (summer before senior year, summer after senior year, maybe evenings of senior year?

That way they could go to university at the same time as friends, but also get one year out of the way (so 3 years at their chosen college instead of 4?).