Do families with $250K in income get financial aid? If not, how do they afford college?

[Anonymous]

You start savings asap for college.

[Anonymous]

It's possible to get financial aid with HHI $250K if you have two or more kids in private colleges that use the CSS profile. The easiest way to afford expensive college is to plan to have an only child but not many families are willing to do that in this country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS just graduated from Duke. HHI about $200 and we got no aid-paid full freight. We scrimped, contributed to 529, drove cars to the ground rarely ate out and did not spend on lavish vacations. I believe we were subsidizing the scholarships of others by paying full which annoyed me because we are not wealthy.

YKW - full FA kid here and I would've probably done anything for my parents to have that income when I was kid. Like really anything. Still scarred to this day.

[Anonymous]

No FA coming. State school or apply strategically and get merit scholarships - up to about 30K at some darn good schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s pretty clear OP - go to a cheaper college you can afford. Why should someone else subsidize your 70k per year college???

This is OP. Why are you being rude already? We don't have a college age kid yet. I am observing the kids of my friends going to private schools that cost about this amount per year.

The weird thing about these posts is that people always direct their hostility toward the questioner, rather than the fact that college today can cost $70k or more per year, which is absurd.

OP, google about the donut hole, and also look at some of the calculators (expected family contribution and student aid). They will give you an idea. There isn’t just one number where you suddenly don’t get aid.

IDK, maybe I'm a bad person, but when I was on near full FA in college, the UMC/MC kids could've given two shits about costs. They never showed up at the tuition protests, they laughed at kids wearing their food service uniforms when working in the cafeteria, and they had enough time to put in 2-3 hours of studying before the start of dinner.

So if you show up here in 2024 and have no idea on how much college costs, then were you one of those people? Because sky high tuition has been in the news for the last 50 years, so it is, effectively, not news, but an ongoing story starting with Reagan cutting federal aid to higher ed followed by states some years/decades later.

Exactly!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s pretty clear OP - go to a cheaper college you can afford. Why should someone else subsidize your 70k per year college???

This is OP. Why are you being rude already? We don't have a college age kid yet. I am observing the kids of my friends going to private schools that cost about this amount per year.

If you have friends with an estimated HHI of 250K with kids at top top private colleges, then their parents - the grandparents - are paying for it. If they are next tier down, then perhaps they landed major merit scholarships, bringing the cost in line with their in-state flagship.

It is what it is.

No: 250k HHI cash flowing 75% of an 85k elite. The other 25% is 529. And we did private school too. DCUM is so out of touch on how to budget and what wealthy really is.

[Anonymous]

^we live in DMV but not nova; mortgage is over 3300 per mo. You people really cannot budget.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's possible to get financial aid with HHI $250K if you have two or more kids in private colleges that use the CSS profile. The easiest way to afford expensive college is to plan to have an only child but not many families are willing to do that in this country.

True for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. So, for all of the haters that say that I am 'stupid', have you considered that I am possibly just busy? Sandwich generation with kid and aging parents with problems. So.....perhaps that I haven't had time to think about this much yet and also wanted to hear thoughts from a wide range of people?

I really appreciate all of the honest answers here on what people are doing to make this work. A couple of insights have been particularly helpful. One, my friends who are doing this sometimes have $400K salaries because they are both Feds and we are actually one Fed+one non profit. Two, they have been saving since birth. As have we. We have $136K in the 529 and kid is a rising 7th grader. Three, we are actually doing the 15 year mortgage thing and mortgage will be done by the time that kid is 19. I wasn't thinking of that in terms of college but of course it will help. Four, number of kids matters. We actually have just one and cost has been a huge factor in that decision all along the way. Five, you at least get to stop shelling out costs for tutoring, activities, etc when they go to school. So that's good. Maybe we can move to a less expensive place to live?

I went to an Ivy league school and my network here is largely people who went there and are very very advantaged. But many chose not-the-highest-paying careers b/c they were passionate about health, the environment, etc. So I am just trying to see how people make it work....(cue the Ivy haters)....and to get opinions outside of my biased privileged circle. I have been surprised that so many of my friends are sending their kids to top name schools and don't know how they afford it, particularly since all have at least two kids. My husband has always said MC-->UMD is what the path should be or perhaps his home country which has a decent university system.

Keep saving as you are, add a little more if you can, and you are on track for having enough for the ivy. People always think there is “no way” we could be paying for the ivy and yet here we are. The key is to live low budgetish now then drop it more when the kid goes off! Also remember your food and Sports/music fees will go way down when they leave so count that as money that can swing into the “cash flow” portion of funding it. Not an ivy hater at all—have one there and it is worth every cent . Good luck to you and yours.

Disagree. Invest that $$ in a 100% stock market fund this year and let the interest work for you. OP is in a fine position if she dies this. Shocking the number of people who 529s poorly invested. Transfer it to Vanguard ASAP if you don’t have 500 or total stock market index funds. The market is growing rn! Make it work for you.

This may work in 2023-2024, or if your kid is in ES. I would not do this for a HS kid. The stock market goes down, as well as up. And heading into the 2024 election, the economy is uncertain I would not want to have a HS junior and have the market tank. Sure, it will recover. In time for college?

OP has a rising 7th grader.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our kids went to public schools, and it was still very difficult even with that income.
We did not qualify for anything. Heck, they would not even allow the kids to take a loan; the only thing they did was tell us, parents, to take the loan!
It was not an option for them to go to out of state or a private college. We are not so stupid to go into a huge debt of that kind nor that evil to allow our kids to get student loans that would ruin their lives.

My parents grew up on a farm and had very little money to spare. I went to public school and a state college. I majored in, gasp. Liberal arts! 35 years later, I'm retired in DC in my mid 50's. My brother, under the same constraints, is a multi millionaire.

I understand what the original poster was asking, but have faith that its ok to have a budget and put your kids in school wherever you can afford. Your kids will make you proud!

[Anonymous]

$240 HHI and no financial aid for 2 kids in college and this was before the FAFSA change.

One kid got merit aid and went there (less expensive school to begin with - they will ha e leftover money in 529 for grad school). Second kid choose a $95k/year school, we are paying with cash flow and 529, there will be nothing left for grad school. Their choices

We saved as much as we could since the kids were born, as education is our priority. No fancy vacations (only trips to the grandparents), we drive workhorse cars (think Honda/Toyota) into the ground, our furniture is 20+ years old and there isn't a designer anything in our home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are in this category. We are going to afford it because we have some money in 529s that we saved, and we will be tightening our belts for the 6 years our kids are in college - no expensive vacations, no new major purchases. Also we will be freeing up probably $24,000 a year that we used to spend on kid activities, pocket money, gifts. And the kids will work and take out some loans.

+1 - hopefully enough saved in 529 that loans won't be needed. Plus one chose to to go state school, so that makes for more flexibility for the other to choose to go private if admitted and desired.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Question says it all. I have been hearing all of my friends who are federal government workers saying their kids are not eligible for financial aid. But I don't think this is enough $ in income to afford $70K in college costs per kid per year. And it's not as though these families had extra income before their kids went to college - in this area, a mortgage, saving for retirement, and cost of raising kids will eat up all of that income. Where does the extra $ come from if they don't get financial aid?

No. They get zero aid and send their kids to places like Towson or UMBC.

[Anonymous]

Careful saving in 529s (and outside) for the last 18 years. Also, many private schools give merit aid. My kid is going to a private school that offered $35k per year in merit aid, making the actual price much lower than the listed cost. You likely don’t know what the actual cost a person is paying is.
Will also add that I know many families where grandparents have contributed a lot to college. That isn’t the case for me, but it is for a number of my friends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question says it all. I have been hearing all of my friends who are federal government workers saying their kids are not eligible for financial aid. But I don't think this is enough $ in income to afford $70K in college costs per kid per year. And it's not as though these families had extra income before their kids went to college - in this area, a mortgage, saving for retirement, and cost of raising kids will eat up all of that income. Where does the extra $ come from if they don't get financial aid?

No. They get zero aid and send their kids to places like Towson or UMBC.

I'm a GS-14, step 10 and make $206k year. $192k is my base pay and then bonus.

So in this area there are 2 Fed families if they are in their 50s like me that bring home $400k. Kid is going full pay to a private $85k.