Full Pay

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work for an organization that helps low-income students go to college. In the past few years we have definitely seen that there are fewer slots for our students at some of our previously reliable schools (particularly true at good but not elite SLACs). Our more forthright admissions reps, as well as some enrollment managers we know, have told us that schools are trying to get more full pays-particularly, as the pp said, for students on the bubble. A superstar who can't pay may still get in over a solid student who can, but among those middling students schools are looking for the money.

Your candor is much appreciated. We are trying to decide whether to live on one salary and use the other to pay the full undergrad tuition and outside expenses at the college of choice ASSUMING our child gets in. We pay full high school tuition now at great sacrifice, and college would add another $20,000 approximately. Paying high school was a huge stretch but DC is such a great kid and has put forth so much effort, I guess we would pay college. For us, the high school tuition was a good investment as we didn't have a quality public in our area.

How much have you saved for college? College expenses are not supposed to be out of the current year's income as they are expected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work for an organization that helps low-income students go to college. In the past few years we have definitely seen that there are fewer slots for our students at some of our previously reliable schools (particularly true at good but not elite SLACs). Our more forthright admissions reps, as well as some enrollment managers we know, have told us that schools are trying to get more full pays-particularly, as the pp said, for students on the bubble. A superstar who can't pay may still get in over a solid student who can, but among those middling students schools are looking for the money.

Your candor is much appreciated. We are trying to decide whether to live on one salary and use the other to pay the full undergrad tuition and outside expenses at the college of choice ASSUMING our child gets in. We pay full high school tuition now at great sacrifice, and college would add another $20,000 approximately. Paying high school was a huge stretch but DC is such a great kid and has put forth so much effort, I guess we would pay college. For us, the high school tuition was a good investment as we didn't have a quality public in our area.

If I were you, I would not provide any additional personal information. If you are expecting to receive unbiased, non-judgmental advice here, it's not going to happen but count on disparaging remarks about what you have or don't have, what you have done or not done with your money. The best advice? Talk with your accountant and if you don't have one, check with your bank or credit union for a financial planner to see how you can make it work.

I know a few people who monetarily sacrificed significantly to ensure their kids received quality education that wasn't available in their neighborhood schools, even for safety reasons. Yours is not an unusual situation. Obviously, you did what you think best for your kids. Nobody else matters. I hope things work out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work for an organization that helps low-income students go to college. In the past few years we have definitely seen that there are fewer slots for our students at some of our previously reliable schools (particularly true at good but not elite SLACs). Our more forthright admissions reps, as well as some enrollment managers we know, have told us that schools are trying to get more full pays-particularly, as the pp said, for students on the bubble. A superstar who can't pay may still get in over a solid student who can, but among those middling students schools are looking for the money.

Your candor is much appreciated. We are trying to decide whether to live on one salary and use the other to pay the full undergrad tuition and outside expenses at the college of choice ASSUMING our child gets in. We pay full high school tuition now at great sacrifice, and college would add another $20,000 approximately. Paying high school was a huge stretch but DC is such a great kid and has put forth so much effort, I guess we would pay college. For us, the high school tuition was a good investment as we didn't have a quality public in our area.

If I were you, I would not provide any additional personal information. If you are expecting to receive unbiased, non-judgmental advice here, it's not going to happen but count on disparaging remarks about what you have or don't have, what you have done or not done with your money. The best advice? Talk with your accountant and if you don't have one, check with your bank or credit union for a financial planner to see how you can make it work.

I know a few people who monetarily sacrificed significantly to ensure their kids received quality education that wasn't available in their neighborhood schools, even for safety reasons. Yours is not an unusual situation. Obviously, you did what you think best for your kids. Nobody else matters. I hope things work out.

People are snarky b/c there are a *lot* of affordable options with excellent public schools in DC metro, but this PP decided they had to live somewhere either cool but terrible schools or somehow justified their snowflake needed private.

At $30k/year tuition, that alone could have afforded a condo or th in burke, no other income involved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work for an organization that helps low-income students go to college. In the past few years we have definitely seen that there are fewer slots for our students at some of our previously reliable schools (particularly true at good but not elite SLACs). Our more forthright admissions reps, as well as some enrollment managers we know, have told us that schools are trying to get more full pays-particularly, as the pp said, for students on the bubble. A superstar who can't pay may still get in over a solid student who can, but among those middling students schools are looking for the money.

Your candor is much appreciated. We are trying to decide whether to live on one salary and use the other to pay the full undergrad tuition and outside expenses at the college of choice ASSUMING our child gets in. We pay full high school tuition now at great sacrifice, and college would add another $20,000 approximately. Paying high school was a huge stretch but DC is such a great kid and has put forth so much effort, I guess we would pay college. For us, the high school tuition was a good investment as we didn't have a quality public in our area.

If I were you, I would not provide any additional personal information. If you are expecting to receive unbiased, non-judgmental advice here, it's not going to happen but count on disparaging remarks about what you have or don't have, what you have done or not done with your money. The best advice? Talk with your accountant and if you don't have one, check with your bank or credit union for a financial planner to see how you can make it work.

I know a few people who monetarily sacrificed significantly to ensure their kids received quality education that wasn't available in their neighborhood schools, even for safety reasons. Yours is not an unusual situation. Obviously, you did what you think best for your kids. Nobody else matters. I hope things work out.

People are snarky b/c there are a *lot* of affordable options with excellent public schools in DC metro, but this PP decided they had to live somewhere either cool but terrible schools or somehow justified their snowflake needed private.

At $30k/year tuition, that alone could have afforded a condo or th in burke, no other income involved.

And just how do you know where PP lives? This is exactly why I recommend OP let it go instead of dealing with know it alls with cracked crystal balls. Not everybody wants your lifestyle in a condo in Burke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work for an organization that helps low-income students go to college. In the past few years we have definitely seen that there are fewer slots for our students at some of our previously reliable schools (particularly true at good but not elite SLACs). Our more forthright admissions reps, as well as some enrollment managers we know, have told us that schools are trying to get more full pays-particularly, as the pp said, for students on the bubble. A superstar who can't pay may still get in over a solid student who can, but among those middling students schools are looking for the money.

Your candor is much appreciated. We are trying to decide whether to live on one salary and use the other to pay the full undergrad tuition and outside expenses at the college of choice ASSUMING our child gets in. We pay full high school tuition now at great sacrifice, and college would add another $20,000 approximately. Paying high school was a huge stretch but DC is such a great kid and has put forth so much effort, I guess we would pay college. For us, the high school tuition was a good investment as we didn't have a quality public in our area.

If I were you, I would not provide any additional personal information. If you are expecting to receive unbiased, non-judgmental advice here, it's not going to happen but count on disparaging remarks about what you have or don't have, what you have done or not done with your money. The best advice? Talk with your accountant and if you don't have one, check with your bank or credit union for a financial planner to see how you can make it work.

I know a few people who monetarily sacrificed significantly to ensure their kids received quality education that wasn't available in their neighborhood schools, even for safety reasons. Yours is not an unusual situation. Obviously, you did what you think best for your kids. Nobody else matters. I hope things work out.

Thank you for your words of wisdom. I have been following comments, and your suggestion to quit while I'm ahead is well received. I will definitely give my credit union a call because they do have a financial planner. I can put up with a lot but when some anonymous coward hiding behind a keyboard takes a swipe at my kid, I'm done. Again, thanks PP and others who had positive comments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work for an organization that helps low-income students go to college. In the past few years we have definitely seen that there are fewer slots for our students at some of our previously reliable schools (particularly true at good but not elite SLACs). Our more forthright admissions reps, as well as some enrollment managers we know, have told us that schools are trying to get more full pays-particularly, as the pp said, for students on the bubble. A superstar who can't pay may still get in over a solid student who can, but among those middling students schools are looking for the money.

Your candor is much appreciated. We are trying to decide whether to live on one salary and use the other to pay the full undergrad tuition and outside expenses at the college of choice ASSUMING our child gets in. We pay full high school tuition now at great sacrifice, and college would add another $20,000 approximately. Paying high school was a huge stretch but DC is such a great kid and has put forth so much effort, I guess we would pay college. For us, the high school tuition was a good investment as we didn't have a quality public in our area.

If I were you, I would not provide any additional personal information. If you are expecting to receive unbiased, non-judgmental advice here, it's not going to happen but count on disparaging remarks about what you have or don't have, what you have done or not done with your money. The best advice? Talk with your accountant and if you don't have one, check with your bank or credit union for a financial planner to see how you can make it work.

I know a few people who monetarily sacrificed significantly to ensure their kids received quality education that wasn't available in their neighborhood schools, even for safety reasons. Yours is not an unusual situation. Obviously, you did what you think best for your kids. Nobody else matters. I hope things work out.

Thank you for your words of wisdom. I have been following comments, and your suggestion to quit while I'm ahead is well received. I will definitely give my credit union a call because they do have a financial planner. I can put up with a lot but when some anonymous coward hiding behind a keyboard takes a swipe at my kid, I'm done. Again, thanks PP and others who had positive comments.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Yes, being full pay is supposed to help. I've heard it is particularly helpful when you are applying ED. Schools love kids who promise to come (boosts their matriculation rates). A kid who promises to come and pay the whole bill will help finance FA for a kid who needs it. ED is best for kids who are full pay anyway, because you don't get the opportunity to compare FA and merit aid awards.

Re aid. If you are currently full pay at a private $40k/year high school, you will probably not get financial aid (nor should you). The current FAFSA cut-off is at about $50K -- that's for Pell grants and subsidized student loans. If your DC has a really good transcript and ECs, however, s/he might get merit aid. Lots of SLACs give out merit aid, although the Ivies by agreement don't.

You can always make DC take out non-subsidized federal loans - the cap changes every year but averages something like $6-7K. There are also PLUS loans, taken out by parents who are by definition fairly close to retirement, but I wouldn't touch these with a 10-foot pole. Similarly, I wouldn't let your kid go so deeply into student debt that s/he ends up with private student loans at higher interest rates. Unless s/he's going in to finance or something, but even then I probably wouldn't let my kid do it (well, I haven't let my kid do it, so there's that). Before taking on student debt, you and DC need to do some thinking about future careers, probably future incomes, and the impact that this debt is going to have on being able to buy a condo/car/everything else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: At $30k/year tuition, that alone could have afforded a condo or th in burke, no other income involved.

And just how do you know where PP lives? This is exactly why I recommend OP let it go instead of dealing with know it alls with cracked crystal balls. Not everybody wants your lifestyle in a condo in Burke.[/quote]

Not that PP, but you missed the point. FA is for families that really, really, don't have the money, and that's why they have no college savings, nor can they finance it out of income. FA isn't for families who decided that condos in Burke were bourgie or tacky, so they bought in a cool neighborhood with lousy public schools, sent DC to private at $40K/year, and that's the reason they don't have any college savings. It's sort of like the people on the Private School forum who keep asking, "Our HHI is $300K but the mortgage on our McMansion is huge, so is there any chance we would get FA?" FA doesn't exist to finance lifestyle choices. The FA people in the private schools and private colleges understand this very well. Because colleges want to parse out their FA to low-SES kids, OP needs to be realistic about all of this.

[Anonymous]

Reposting because I messed up the formatting and added a point or two. Not sure this will work either, but if not, I'm sure you can all deal!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At $30k/year tuition, that alone could have afforded a condo or th in burke, no other income involved.

And just how do you know where PP lives? This is exactly why I recommend OP let it go instead of dealing with know it alls with cracked crystal balls. Not everybody wants your lifestyle in a condo in Burke.

Not that PP, but you missed the point. FA doesn't exist to finance lifestyle choices. FA is for families that really, really, don't have the money, and that's why they have no college savings, nor can they finance it out of income. FA isn't for families who decided that condos in Burke were bourgie, so they bought in a cool neighborhood with lousy public schools, sent DC to private at $40K/year, and that's the reason they don't have any college savings. It's sort of like the people on the Private School forum who keep asking, "Our HHI is $300K but the mortgage on our $1M house is huge, so is there any chance we would get FA?"

The FA people in the private schools and private colleges understand these scenarios very well; this is what their jobs are all about. The FA folks want to dole out their limited FA to kids who are really low-SES. (Unless there's some reason a kid is so fantastic that they're willing to overlook the fact that low college savings were because of obvious lifestyle choices, but that's pretty rare.) At many colleges, FA stops at a family household income of about $50K, which is the federal threshold (barring various exclusions, but that's too complicated to go into). With the caveat that there's a PP who will come on any minute now to shriek that Harvard offers FA to families with household income up to $150K, but, need I point out, first your kid has to get into Harvard.

OP needs to be realistic about all of this. On the other hand, as I mentioned above, OP's kid might have a great shot at merit aid from top schools that aren't Ivies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work for an organization that helps low-income students go to college. In the past few years we have definitely seen that there are fewer slots for our students at some of our previously reliable schools (particularly true at good but not elite SLACs). Our more forthright admissions reps, as well as some enrollment managers we know, have told us that schools are trying to get more full pays-particularly, as the pp said, for students on the bubble. A superstar who can't pay may still get in over a solid student who can, but among those middling students schools are looking for the money.

Your candor is much appreciated. We are trying to decide whether to live on one salary and use the other to pay the full undergrad tuition and outside expenses at the college of choice ASSUMING our child gets in. We pay full high school tuition now at great sacrifice, and college would add another $20,000 approximately. Paying high school was a huge stretch but DC is such a great kid and has put forth so much effort, I guess we would pay college. For us, the high school tuition was a good investment as we didn't have a quality public in our area.

It depends on which colleges your DC is interested in attending. If he has decent grades and test scores, he can get some merit aid from the second tier schools (which are still excellent schools). Since you can afford to pay for private, your income level is probably too high to qualify for any needs based financial aid. Use the schools' net price calculator to see what you can expect. In-state flagship schools are also excellent options and should be within your current spending ability.

[Anonymous]

I think the 'full pay' will help. I'm full pay myself. But once all the acceptances come in (or so I hope) there will definitely be discussions on full pay at 63k, vs half-scholarship at 25k, even for a dream school vs a plain old decent school

[Anonymous]

NP here. I went back and read OP's original question (who is most likely long gone) which was about getting admitted if you are a full pay applicant. Then I read her subsequent remarks. There is absolutely nowhere does she ask for financial aid and, actually, has appears to be full pay for everything.

How posters turned this around to be an issue about OP applying for financial aid is beyond me. Never was that mentioned by OP but by a few posters.

If you want to make up your own agenda outside of what OP asked about, fine. But to go after this OP for things made up and not even addressed by OP is ridiculous even by DCUM standards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here. I went back and read OP's original question (who is most likely long gone) which was about getting admitted if you are a full pay applicant. Then I read her subsequent remarks. There is absolutely nowhere does she ask for financial aid and, actually, has appears to be full pay for everything.

How posters turned this around to be an issue about OP applying for financial aid is beyond me. Never was that mentioned by OP but by a few posters.

If you want to make up your own agenda outside of what OP asked about, fine. But to go after this OP for things made up and not even addressed by OP is ridiculous even by DCUM standards.

This happens a lot in this forum so you shouldn't be surprised. Ironically, the same people would be complaining if she had asked for financial aid though she didn't. Some people just aren't happy unless they get something negative started. And it's most likely the same person(s) thread after thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here. I went back and read OP's original question (who is most likely long gone) which was about getting admitted if you are a full pay applicant. Then I read her subsequent remarks. There is absolutely nowhere does she ask for financial aid and, actually, has appears to be full pay for everything.

How posters turned this around to be an issue about OP applying for financial aid is beyond me. Never was that mentioned by OP but by a few posters.

If you want to make up your own agenda outside of what OP asked about, fine. But to go after this OP for things made up and not even addressed by OP is ridiculous even by DCUM standards.

+1.

[Anonymous]

This article about paying for guaranteed admittance is so crazy, I couldn't stop shaking my head in disbelief.

Full pay isn't even a consideration with Think Tank Services. Unbelievable!

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-09-03/college-consultant-thinktank-guarantees-admission-for-hefty-price