Does everyone on here with kids applying to top 50 schools really have the $80K per year to spend?

[Anonymous]

I'm realizing that the top 50 or so schools are all about $80K+ and none of them offer merit aid, outside of maybe CWRU.
The rest have 20-50 full-ride scholarships for their most elite students but that's pretty much it for merit aid.
Then of course there is UVA and W&M which are instate. And UMD which is ranked just above 50.
We've in DC so none of these in-states are particularly relevant.


So all this constant chatter about this or that top50 school----are you all paying the $80K/+year sticker price(s)?

College is around the corner for us and I'm realizing that yes indeed, they're all about that much. Guess I knew that in theory but it's another thing
entirely to think "huh, they're asking $360K for undergrad. Are we really going to pay it?"
Sobering.
Are people really paying it?

[Anonymous]

Yes. We the DCUMers are the full-pay class. Most of us who actually will do it have been saving for years in 529s in addition to having high incomes.

Of course other people do blink and make their kids do something else, including state school or even community college -> state school.

[Anonymous]

Funny you should ask this OP.

When I hit “submit payment” and a link to deduct $42,650 from our bank account last Tuesday- for ONE SEMESTER- I had the same thought. Who in their right mind really does this?

[Anonymous]

As the first two responses indicate, one reason people do pay all this money is that if you’re going to blink, you really need to do it early, like when you’re choosing high schools, to avoid massive social and emotional complications.

[Anonymous]

My child is at a T50 state school that costs $35k a year. There are a number of state schools in the T50 list, which of course changes every year.

And really, there is very little difference between schools that are ranked say 40-50 and 50-60. Even beyond that scope. Please don't buy into the hype that the ranking given by a newspaper is the end-all-be-all of a school's quality.

So, to answer your question, yes we have the funds to pay for DC's tuition room and board at a T50 research university, because it's well below $80k (and obviously not everyone can even afford $35k a year, so not saying that's really cheap).

Another thing, there are numerous merit scholarships out there that your DC should be looking into. They might not be huge, but $1k here and $5k there always helps. And if your child is qualified to get into a T50 or even T60 or T100 school, there will be merit scholarships out there they could be eligible for if you look for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As the first two responses indicate, one reason people do pay all this money is that if you’re going to blink, you really need to do it early, like when you’re choosing high schools, to avoid massive social and emotional complications.

Good advice. For most of America, there’s no assumption you’ll be able to afford/attend the best school you can get into. But for certain parts of DCUMlandia, it raises eyebrows to tell your kids they can’t go to Harvard even if you get in due to cost. If that’s you, you gotta tell your kids early and often, because they might be in for a rude awakening.

[Anonymous]

Yup, we are a full pay family. The money is coming from a 529.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yup, we are a full pay family. The money is coming from a 529.

Adding our student will be a freshman at a private school, so a bit more than $80,000 per year.

[Anonymous]

Also if you are DC residents you need to look into the DCTAG program. It won't cover everything but it's something.

There are income limits to be eligible, but they are (IMHO) insanely high. If you make over the limit you should be able to pay out-of-state tuition anywhere including at private universities.

[Anonymous]

yes. cost is literally not a factor.

[Anonymous]

Suggest reading Jeff Selingo’s book. He talks about Buyers and Sellers and has a website where I was able to get a download of an excel spreadsheet of schools sorted in a variety of ways. I am planning on using this to help direct my kids which schools to consider when applying to undergrad so they are not ending up with huge student debt and the parents are not using our retirement funds for funding expensive schools. Too bad for my daughter who keeps talking about Barnard.😟

[Anonymous]

If you are in dc don’t you get in state rates at out of state schools since Dc doesn’t have a real in state univ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are in dc don’t you get in state rates at out of state schools since Dc doesn’t have a real in state univ?

LOL no.

[Anonymous]

Also, to above PP, DC Tag is limited to private university that are local. My read of the website is that it only provides $ for private HBCU for full $10K. Only $2500 for local, nonprofit colleges like Georgetown and GW. Would confirm that, but that is my read / understanding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Suggest reading Jeff Selingo’s book. He talks about Buyers and Sellers and has a website where I was able to get a download of an excel spreadsheet of schools sorted in a variety of ways. I am planning on using this to help direct my kids which schools to consider when applying to undergrad so they are not ending up with huge student debt and the parents are not using our retirement funds for funding expensive schools. Too bad for my daughter who keeps talking about Barnard.😟

Given the two bolded sections I don’t understand why this is still a hypothetical. If she’s old enough to dream of certain schools she’s old enough to see your list.