When the reality of college cost hits. Cannot do dream school.
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Anonymous
+100 It might be worth an appeal based on high medical expenses but otherwise, move on to what you can afford. |
Anonymous
Possible your sister and her husband have investments you don't know about? |
Anonymous
Not to be a turd by why do the schools "owe" you aid? Going to an Ivy is a privilege, not a right. If you can't make it work, I'm sorry. Lots of other great schools out there that might be cheaper. And sorry if people have multiple kids. Should have thought about that before having more kids (I feel a bit worse for those with twins). I knew what I wanted to be able to pay for for my kids and that having more than two kids would prohibit that, so we stopped at two. Three would have been nice but the sacrifices weren't worth it. Plus the fact that you get more aid if you have two kids in college at the same time but less if kids are further apart? That makes no sense. |
Anonymous
They can also argue that due to the medical situation the income might be at risk as well if the parent has or potentially might need to take medical leave. |
Anonymous
This is not that unusual a situation. The prices are out of control. |
Anonymous
I paid just about that same amount at a lower income years ago, so I believe it. |
Anonymous
As someone who worked in elite higher ed financial aid, this circumstance doesn't surprise me at all. This is probably a "lesser" Ivy. Not HYP. Many Ivies still consider home equity, and two teachers who bought at the right time could have well over half a million in home equity in a modest house in high cost of living area. And if the parents have been responsible about socking away money in 529s, that will also count against them in the financial aid game. For what it's worth, I threw in some net price calculator figures that were pretty modest assumptions. $225,000 HHI. 2 14 year olds. $50,000 in total college savings for all three kids. $750,000 in home equity on a house purchased for $400,000. $50,000 per year in retirement contributions. No other investments, real estate, etc. That spit out a net price at Cornell of $44,501 per year. OP's family members could easily have been more diligent in college savings and investments over time, which would bump up the estimated contribution. Don't believe everything you hear about how great Ivy financial aid is. For all the schools, the "free tuition under 200k" (or some other benchmark) comes with an asterisk about "typical assets" and the like. |
Anonymous
That's how we felt when we couldn't swing our kid's $90k+ dream school. Private schooling is are how capitalism drains upper middle class back to middle class and keeping from entering rich class. Funny thing is that people with same income can get aid if they didn't live frugally and saved but lived a high life, saved little or nothing or hid it somewhere. Rich people don't care about college costs, poor get aid. |
Anonymous
This is the case, but only at some schools. FAFSA doesn't take it into account, but CSS schools might. I am the one with a child at an Ivy paying 48K. We have twins, so assuming all goes well with both kids, we will get significant aid at the Ivy all four years (other kid is at a public that does not take this into account - that twin does not get aid). I do agree this is unfair, because the aggregate amount we will have paid for two kids is less than other families with two kids who did not go at the same time, even if they have the same income. But, I am certainly not going to advocate for changing this.  And again, it's a decision of the individual (private) school, not national policy or anything.
I do think it's unfair to say people should have thought about this before having kids. Not everyone gets to plan things the way they want. Their might be unexpected pregnancies, or disabilities/medical expenses, or elder care expenses. Never assume another family's expenses are the same as yours. |
Anonymous
IME, nope. My Dad lost his job and MIT said, tough, no discount. Then when he started a business they also counted his purchasing of computers for the business as income. Outrageous. |
Anonymous
Because we as a country still like to believe in the myth of meritocracy, that elite college slots goes to those who earned it on merit, and that college is the gateway to upward social mobility. And these elite institutions with more money than entire countries pay virtually no taxes on the assumption that they're doing a public good and serving society. And it's very fair to question the outrageous cost of higher education. It's like this nowhere else in the world. Even UVA in-state is over $40,000 per year. That is not accessible or affordable to the vast majority of Virginians. An undergrad can't borrow enough to cover even a quarter of that. |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
I’m actually with this person. All of the Ivies either exclude home equity or cap it at a low multiple of income when considering how much the parents have in assets. Most (all?) also take into account medical expenses not covered by insurance. I ran the Columbia (who I think uses the highest multiple of income for home equity) NPC calculator quickly with the limited info OP provided and some generous assumptions and it only had a family contribution of $19k, with Columbia picking up $78k. There are some major assets missing from this story. |
Anonymous
| DC got into an Ivy, HHC is a little over $200K, no major assets, asked to contribute $45K a year, no other kids in school, some special circumstances. |
Anonymous
| Contact financial aid and see what they can do. |