What did you pay last year (tuition+living) for DC college?

[Anonymous]

Your aid comes from my "over" payment. It's just that simple. You're welcome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your aid comes from my "over" payment. It's just that simple. You're welcome.

Uh, no. The top schools have massive, billion dollar endowments that allow for such aid.

[Anonymous]

Oh, now we're talking about HYPS? Lots of people would find a way to come up with $60k to pay for those schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh, now we're talking about HYPS? Lots of people would find a way to come up with $60k to pay for those schools.

Define "lots of people." Assume such people have two or more children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your aid comes from my "over" payment. It's just that simple. You're welcome.

Uh, no. The top schools have massive, billion dollar endowments that allow for such aid.

+1

Schools that give merit aid use their massive endowments to award the aid.

OTOH, other schools with similar or larger endowments give zero merit aid. They don't need to do so because they are sufficiently high on the USNWR rankings list to attract enough qualified full-pay applicants to fill their seats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh, now we're talking about HYPS? Lots of people would find a way to come up with $60k to pay for those schools.

Define "lots of people." Assume such people have two or more children.

What's your point? HYPS have acceptance rates well below 10% (last year Yale's was 6% and Stanford 5%). These schools also report about 60-65% of students receive financial aid (they don't award merit scholarships). If you get 2 kids accepted to one of these schools, you'll pay the tuition or get aid. If nothing else, play the lottery because you're really beating crazy odds as it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh, now we're talking about HYPS? Lots of people would find a way to come up with $60k to pay for those schools.

Define "lots of people." Assume such people have two or more children.

What's your point? HYPS have acceptance rates well below 10% (last year Yale's was 6% and Stanford 5%). These schools also report about 60-65% of students receive financial aid (they don't award merit scholarships). If you get 2 kids accepted to one of these schools, you'll pay the tuition or get aid. If nothing else, play the lottery because you're really beating crazy odds as it is.

Let's assume that the student in question is admitted.

My point is this: If your HHI is say, between $180K and $250K, you will neither get aid nor be able to pay the full tuition. There are some families who manage to save $600K post-tax for college for two children over the course of 18 years, but I'm willing to bet that such families are in a minority. Most can pay a good amount of money for college, but not that much.

What part of that is so hard to understand?

Lots of people cannot find a way to come up with $600K for two college educations at the end of two decades raising children, particularly in a high COL area.

[Anonymous]

You make one really good point: families in the $180-$250ish HHI are truly screwed. You earn too much for financial aid and can't afford the price tag. Yep, you're screwed.
To your other issue: Statistically speaking, how many families earn between $180-$250k and get two kids into HYPS (with acceptance rates about 5% for one kid)? Gotta be really small. Your lottery odds may be better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You make one really good point: families in the $180-$250ish HHI are truly screwed. You earn too much for financial aid and can't afford the price tag. Yep, you're screwed.
To your other issue: Statistically speaking, how many families earn between $180-$250k and get two kids into HYPS (with acceptance rates about 5% for one kid)? Gotta be really small. Your lottery odds may be better.

My child was admitted to one of those schools a few years ago, from the Blair magnet. Straight As with one B in HS and 2360 SATs. Our HHI is $230K and we could not pay the full price.

Child is at a well-regarded state flagship school on a full merit scholarship. We have set that child's college savings aside for graduate school.

We know many families like ours.

[Anonymous]

At my DD's research university the only merit aid available is for engineering. All merit aid is provided from a group of corporate donors, not the school. While the school has a large endowment for a public school, the school cannot afford to tap it, ever. The private schools that drain their endowments to pay merit are hurting themselves. Anyone remember Olin college was free once upon a time? More likely the schools are inflating their sticker price and handing out discounts that don't count like Case Western. You want to believe that your kid is so talented that schools will throw money at them. The truth is that it's a racket with reams of statistical algorithms designed to lure the customers in and get them paying something.

[Anonymous]

University of Alabama is not a well regarded state school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At my DD's research university the only merit aid available is for engineering. All merit aid is provided from a group of corporate donors, not the school. While the school has a large endowment for a public school, the school cannot afford to tap it, ever. The private schools that drain their endowments to pay merit are hurting themselves. Anyone remember Olin college was free once upon a time? More likely the schools are inflating their sticker price and handing out discounts that don't count like Case Western. You want to believe that your kid is so talented that schools will throw money at them. The truth is that it's a racket with reams of statistical algorithms designed to lure the customers in and get them paying something.

What does this mean?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:University of Alabama is not a well regarded state school

Who said anything about U. of Alabama?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You make one really good point: families in the $180-$250ish HHI are truly screwed. You earn too much for financial aid and can't afford the price tag. Yep, you're screwed.
To your other issue: Statistically speaking, how many families earn between $180-$250k and get two kids into HYPS (with acceptance rates about 5% for one kid)? Gotta be really small. Your lottery odds may be better.

My child was admitted to one of those schools a few years ago, from the Blair magnet. Straight As with one B in HS and 2360 SATs. Our HHI is $230K and we could not pay the full price.

Child is at a well-regarded state flagship school on a full merit scholarship. We have set that child's college savings aside for graduate school.

We know many families like ours.

PP here. I should add that studies support the fact that anyone *capable* of gaining admission to an elite institution is highly likely to be successful wherever s/he goes.

http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/business/dalekrueger_More_Selective_College.pdf

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/04/the-3-percent-crisis/389396/

...actually getting into Princeton isn't as critical as being the type of person who could get into Princeton. (They did find, however, that for low-income students, more-prestigious schools yielded higher earnings, which is another issue entirely.)

This finding isn’t just clarifying. It’s inspirational. It says that the college-admissions process, which millions of 18-year-olds consider the singular gateway of their young adulthood, is actually just one of thousands of gateways, the sum of which are far more important than any single one. While hundreds of thousands of 17- and 18-year-olds sit around worrying that a decision by a room of strangers is about to change their lives forever, the truer thing is that their lives have already been shaped decisively by the sum of their own past decisions—the habits developed, the friends made, and the challenges overcome. Where you go to college does matter, because it's often an accurate measure of the person you're becoming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You make one really good point: families in the $180-$250ish HHI are truly screwed. You earn too much for financial aid and can't afford the price tag. Yep, you're screwed.
To your other issue: Statistically speaking, how many families earn between $180-$250k and get two kids into HYPS (with acceptance rates about 5% for one kid)? Gotta be really small. Your lottery odds may be better.

My child was admitted to one of those schools a few years ago, from the Blair magnet. Straight As with one B in HS and 2360 SATs. Our HHI is $230K and we could not pay the full price.

Child is at a well-regarded state flagship school on a full merit scholarship. We have set that child's college savings aside for graduate school.

We know many families like ours.

PP here. I should add that studies support the fact that anyone *capable* of gaining admission to an elite institution is highly likely to be successful wherever s/he goes.

http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/business/dalekrueger_More_Selective_College.pdf

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/04/the-3-percent-crisis/389396/

...actually getting into Princeton isn't as critical as being the type of person who could get into Princeton. (They did find, however, that for low-income students, more-prestigious schools yielded higher earnings, which is another issue entirely.)

This finding isn’t just clarifying. It’s inspirational. It says that the college-admissions process, which millions of 18-year-olds consider the singular gateway of their young adulthood, is actually just one of thousands of gateways, the sum of which are far more important than any single one. While hundreds of thousands of 17- and 18-year-olds sit around worrying that a decision by a room of strangers is about to change their lives forever, the truer thing is that their lives have already been shaped decisively by the sum of their own past decisions—the habits developed, the friends made, and the challenges overcome. Where you go to college does matter, because it's often an accurate measure of the person you're becoming.

Exactly! This is what HYPS and many others give aid to students who really need it. As you've pointed out, your kids don't need the money to go to Harvard because they'll be successful anywhere they go.