Newly donut-hole family

[Anonymous]

Well, some of us never had the expectation that a private college was feasible.

Congrats on the increase in income. But really, at your old income you'd have struggled to pay even the smaller share.

What you do now is tell your kid that without merit aid it isn't happening. Put some pressure on him to earn the grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP. What is involved in appealing an aid offer. When would one do that and how?

well, if they don't really want your kid, what could there possibly be to say about that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP. What is involved in appealing an aid offer. When would one do that and how?

My parents did this when I was in college by contacting the financial aid office after I received the offer. It was a pretty unusual situation, but one parent had lost a job a few months before (so big income drop not reflected in the prior year's taxes) and I think the school had also counted a trust for a disabled sibling's long term care as a parental asset. My parents showed documentation for that and the school took it out of the picture of assets to be drawn down.

Not sure our example helps OP whatsoever, but the point was it was a highly individualized and relatively informal process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. What is involved in appealing an aid offer. When would one do that and how?

My parents did this when I was in college by contacting the financial aid office after I received the offer. It was a pretty unusual situation, but one parent had lost a job a few months before (so big income drop not reflected in the prior year's taxes) and I think the school had also counted a trust for a disabled sibling's long term care as a parental asset. My parents showed documentation for that and the school took it out of the picture of assets to be drawn down.

Not sure our example helps OP whatsoever, but the point was it was a highly individualized and relatively informal process.

PS we were not in the "donut hole," I was set to receive some need based aid, but appealing increased it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why in the world would you expect to get financial aid when you make $260,000 a year???

Most people don't have an extra $6,000/mo that they don't already have going towards something else. Being expected to come up with that kind of money is daunting.

Right, but she said their annual income jumped ~$100K in the last 18 months. So unless they went out and spent a LOT of money on new things ($$$ cars they didn't pay cash for, a new larger home w/a new larger mortgage) it shouldn't hurt that much.

I agree. I posted 15:18. But I can also see where a hypothetical family with a $260,000 HHI in this area would have absolute shock at being expected to pay $6,000/mo ... especially if they've been around the same income for a while. They probably have 1-2 car payments, have a $3500/mo mortgage, etc etc. People are sensitive to change, not absolute numbers and $6,000 is almost half of their monthly take home income.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why in the world would you expect to get financial aid when you make $260,000 a year???

Most people don't have an extra $6,000/mo that they don't already have going towards something else. Being expected to come up with that kind of money is daunting.

Most people don’t need to pay $70,000 a year for a kid to go to college either. There are plenty of less expensive options.

Most people don't pay $70,000 a year even at colleges with $70,000 price tags. Most people receive some level of financial aid.

[Anonymous]

Most people aren't paying 6k out of monthly income. Families are expected to pay in part out of savings. Everyone travels their own financial path, but saving even just a little from birth is ideal.

[Anonymous]

Our income is in the "mid 100s" We got no financial aid (besides loan offers) from any in-state school. OOS state offered us a bit, but only enough to be just slightly more than in-state.

You are not a new donut hole family. You still are. I hope you've saved something.

[Anonymous]

This is how schools look at your ability to pay tuition: Past earnings (your savings) + current earnings + future earnings (loans). No one expects you to fund college solely out of current income. If your savings is lacking, then you need to find a cheaper school.

[Anonymous]

My situation was similar to yours, except my JUMP in salary got me to your old/lower salary. So, I had been earning MUCH less in the years leading up to the year they based the whole financial aid package on. It seemed unfair and misleading at first...but then I realized...they base the whole thing on your family's current financial situation. It would be hard for them to get into your whole financial past, whether you should have saved more, what might have prevented that, etc.

If it is any consolation, when your spouse was not earning, he or she was likely providing child care....which I (as single parent) had to pay for at my lower salary.

[Anonymous]

Since you suddenly make $100k more, then you were living on $150k. Use that extra $60k of after tax money and pay for college.

[Anonymous]

Really, a $3500 mortgage?? Isn’t that called being “house poor?”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is how schools look at your ability to pay tuition: Past earnings (your savings) + current earnings + future earnings (loans). No one expects you to fund college solely out of current income. If your savings is lacking, then you need to find a cheaper school.

They have no info on past earnings. Only savings. I'm not saying it's fair to people with fluctuations in earnings, just that it is what it is and there is no point in pretending otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Really, a $3500 mortgage?? Isn’t that called being “house poor?”

I don't know .. are you willing to 27% of your take home pay on housing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Running the school calculators, based on our current income (260K), our child will not get any money until his brother enters college in 2 years. We have only made this income for 18 months, prior to that, (although 2 full time incomes, one was quite low because of family obligations) we were in the mid 100s Can we get this accounted for at all? Son is a jr with pretty perfect stats (but no real hook, just a well-rounded smart kids, like a lot of others).

I know how this post will come across to some people, but it seems to me like the expectation that we could have saved 70K for each year of school is based on the fact that we have made this for a significant amount of time, and I'm wondering if there is a way to counteract that. We are in our early 40s.

I'm afraid your situation is common. We have the same HHI (roughly) but when we began saving for college when our kids were babies, it was maybe 1/3 of that.

You will not get FA. Even when you have two in college, you won't get FA.