What money is fair game for financial aid?

[Anonymous]

Do colleges consider a potential earning of stay at home parent like Private K-12 schools do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The colleges assume that relatively more of the tuition money is coming from your income rather than assets. So, for example, if you have 100K in savings, they may say that about $10K of that should be used toward tuition. You can play with a net price calculator for a specific college and see how they assess income vs assets.

Re: the pellionaires. The AGI to avoid declaring assets for Pell grant is very low, like $25K. This works for some FIRE crowd who tend to move to areas with low cost of living, but for most other people, even minimal living expenses will trigger revealing their assets. Also, the majority of at least somewhat competitive schools, including the publics, require CSS. If you are considering the kind of school that looks at FAFSA only, you'll likely end up at the same place with merit aid they offer.

I don't think this is true. Our HHI is around 250k and none of the cost estimators have us getting any aid. We have two kids who will be in school at the same time, so paying out of income would mean that we would be paying most of our income every year once you account for taxes. We save heavily because there is no way that we could afford college for our kids otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We all choose how we spend $$. If you want to put it towards a house (car/trip/whatever) then college choices are limited to what the family can manage. There is nothing special about housing choices. If contributing to college is not a priority, it is totally fine, but don't expect the college to handle it for you.

+1
College is so expensive and financial aid so common that people forget it is a form of charity, not an entitlement.

It's a form of charity in the same way that getting a car for less than MSRP is charity. The prices are all artificially inflated knowing that they will come down through aid be it financial or merit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The colleges assume that relatively more of the tuition money is coming from your income rather than assets. So, for example, if you have 100K in savings, they may say that about $10K of that should be used toward tuition. You can play with a net price calculator for a specific college and see how they assess income vs assets.

Re: the pellionaires. The AGI to avoid declaring assets for Pell grant is very low, like $25K. This works for some FIRE crowd who tend to move to areas with low cost of living, but for most other people, even minimal living expenses will trigger revealing their assets. Also, the majority of at least somewhat competitive schools, including the publics, require CSS. If you are considering the kind of school that looks at FAFSA only, you'll likely end up at the same place with merit aid they offer.

I don't think this is true. Our HHI is around 250k and none of the cost estimators have us getting any aid. We have two kids who will be in school at the same time, so paying out of income would mean that we would be paying most of our income every year once you account for taxes. We save heavily because there is no way that we could afford college for our kids otherwise.

This is not what I meant. Set up the calculator and see your expected contribution. Than decrease your income by $50K, note the difference. Then bring your income back and reduce the assets by $50K, note the difference again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We all choose how we spend $$. If you want to put it towards a house (car/trip/whatever) then college choices are limited to what the family can manage. There is nothing special about housing choices. If contributing to college is not a priority, it is totally fine, but don't expect the college to handle it for you.

+1
College is so expensive and financial aid so common that people forget it is a form of charity, not an entitlement.

It's a form of charity in the same way that getting a car for less than MSRP is charity. The prices are all artificially inflated knowing that they will come down through aid be it financial or merit.

NP. To clarify, need based aid and merit are quite different propositions for a full pay family, especially one just over whatever threshold puts them at full pay. Most top schools only give need-based aid, so there are still many paying full price. Discounting happens at colleges further down in ranking.

For those eligible for need-based aid, usually paying for college will still involve significant sacrifice, aka it's gonna hurt some.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do colleges consider a potential earning of stay at home parent like Private K-12 schools do?

I don't think so. OTOH, they wouldn't make an adjustment for an unemployed parent unless the unemployment is over a year or something like that, even though they are looking at the income pre-unemployment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The colleges assume that relatively more of the tuition money is coming from your income rather than assets. So, for example, if you have 100K in savings, they may say that about $10K of that should be used toward tuition. You can play with a net price calculator for a specific college and see how they assess income vs assets.

Re: the pellionaires. The AGI to avoid declaring assets for Pell grant is very low, like $25K. This works for some FIRE crowd who tend to move to areas with low cost of living, but for most other people, even minimal living expenses will trigger revealing their assets. Also, the majority of at least somewhat competitive schools, including the publics, require CSS. If you are considering the kind of school that looks at FAFSA only, you'll likely end up at the same place with merit aid they offer.

I don't think this is true. Our HHI is around 250k and none of the cost estimators have us getting any aid. We have two kids who will be in school at the same time, so paying out of income would mean that we would be paying most of our income every year once you account for taxes. We save heavily because there is no way that we could afford college for our kids otherwise.

This is not what I meant. Set up the calculator and see your expected contribution. Than decrease your income by $50K, note the difference. Then bring your income back and reduce the assets by $50K, note the difference again.

+1. Playing with the calculators is a great way to see these differences.

[Anonymous]

Op here.

"We all choose how we spend $$. If you want to put it towards a house (car/trip/whatever) then college choices are limited to what the family can manage. There is nothing special about housing choices. If contributing to college is not a priority, it is totally fine, but don't expect the college to handle it for you."

I have saved for college on my one income, albeit not enough to pay full freight at a private school for all 4 years. I live in a neighborhood you would probably sneer at, so it's not as though I have lots of choices for cheaper housing here. I paid on my own student loans until was in my thirties. You make it sound as if we all have the ability to save $400K per child in 18 years, but that some of us choose to blow the money on trips to Hawaii instead of setting it aside for college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How much are students vs parents expected to contribute? FWIW my parents paid $0. My wealthy father wasn’t factored into financial aid bc he contributed nothing to college or much else for that matter except my step mom and step kids. Mom took out a small loan which I paid back within 2 years of graduating. All the rest was me (loans, work study and summer jobs), scholarships and a little financial aid.

I know times are different but there must still be a line item on financial aid that separates parent versus student financial contributions.

See the thread of the mother who was complaining about her daughter not being "grateful" (the girls step father is really wealthy, but the mom didn't think it was his place to pay for college and unfortunately, it meant that her daughter didn't qualify for aid either).

She really screwed her daughter big time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We all choose how we spend $$. If you want to put it towards a house (car/trip/whatever) then college choices are limited to what the family can manage. There is nothing special about housing choices. If contributing to college is not a priority, it is totally fine, but don't expect the college to handle it for you.

+1
College is so expensive and financial aid so common that people forget it is a form of charity, not an entitlement.

It's a form of charity in the same way that getting a car for less than MSRP is charity. The prices are all artificially inflated knowing that they will come down through aid be it financial or merit.

NP. To clarify, need based aid and merit are quite different propositions for a full pay family, especially one just over whatever threshold puts them at full pay. Most top schools only give need-based aid, so there are still many paying full price. Discounting happens at colleges further down in ranking.

For those eligible for need-based aid, usually paying for college will still involve significant sacrifice, aka it's gonna hurt some.

I still think the prices are inflated knowing more students will qualify for aid as a result. Look at the percentages of students receiving aid- when the minority of students are paying full price, full price is inflated by schools knowing the number is essentially fake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here.

"We all choose how we spend $$. If you want to put it towards a house (car/trip/whatever) then college choices are limited to what the family can manage. There is nothing special about housing choices. If contributing to college is not a priority, it is totally fine, but don't expect the college to handle it for you."

I have saved for college on my one income, albeit not enough to pay full freight at a private school for all 4 years. I live in a neighborhood you would probably sneer at, so it's not as though I have lots of choices for cheaper housing here. I paid on my own student loans until was in my thirties. You make it sound as if we all have the ability to save $400K per child in 18 years, but that some of us choose to blow the money on trips to Hawaii instead of setting it aside for college.

I don't think anybody meant that you hadn't tried hard or done well. You should be proud of what you can pay for. But private college is not an entitlement.
We are in a similar situation, FYI. We have told our kids that we can pay for in state, if they want something else it will have to be someplace they can get merit aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your HHI is between $200,000 and $300,000 and you live in a major metropolitan area, plan to go in state. Otherwise you'll be transferring one-third of your net worth to some random college somewhere.

I think that is the real donut hole now. Aid phases out in the low 200s, but unless you've made those salaries for your children's whole lives you probably have been in a position to put away 300k per kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How much are students vs parents expected to contribute? FWIW my parents paid $0. My wealthy father wasn’t factored into financial aid bc he contributed nothing to college or much else for that matter except my step mom and step kids. Mom took out a small loan which I paid back within 2 years of graduating. All the rest was me (loans, work study and summer jobs), scholarships and a little financial aid.

I know times are different but there must still be a line item on financial aid that separates parent versus student financial contributions.

It depends on the relative income and wealth for parents vs student. The colleges assess them independently.

The situation with your father would be close to impossible now, unless 1) the college doesn't consider the non-custodial parent (not all do) or 2) you can prove that he basically disappeared and it is impossible or very dangerous for you to locate him.

In my case dad refused joint custody of his kids in court and made it clear to his own relatives, who were the Friends of the court appointees trying to chase him down for child support. My mom moved in with her parents bc she could not afford housingg. My kids are not in that situation but others in DCUMlandia like OP might be. So curious how that works for her/them.

[Anonymous]

Can somebody explain the question and answers about stay at home parent incomes, or lack thereof? Do K-12 schools assume there is a minimum amount each adult member of the family could/should be contributing toward education costs? And colleges don't? Why wouldn't they? Colleges assume absent parents' incomes are available, so why wouldn't they assume that present parents' incomes are available?

[Anonymous]

What do people mean when they say to limit your child to in-state when we live in DC?