Do families with $250K in income get financial aid? If not, how do they afford college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We make less, we save starting at birth, make savings a priority, no vacations, etc. and state school.

Yep. Started saving when we were TRYING to have our first. Opened a 529 with monthly contributions of $25. Neither of us are "rich" but we are doing fine. Lived in the same house for 24 years. Only the past couple of years do we have combined salaries in excess of $250k. Limited our two children to $50K/yr each which pretty much limits them to public.

I call BS. You need the child's social to open a 529 plan, which isn't possible before they're born.

You are wrong. We opened a 529 in my SSN prior to my children being born, then transferred funds over once they were here/had a SSN.

[Anonymous]

You are funny, OP!

1. Attend cheaper college.
2. Pay the $70k you can afford if you earn $250k.

So funny!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question says it all. I have been hearing all of my friends who are federal government workers saying their kids are not eligible for financial aid. But I don't think this is enough $ in income to afford $70K in college costs per kid per year. And it's not as though these families had extra income before their kids went to college - in this area, a mortgage, saving for retirement, and cost of raising kids will eat up all of that income. Where does the extra $ come from if they don't get financial aid?

No. They get zero aid and send their kids to places like Towson or UMBC.

Yep! This poster nailed it.
We have a similar income to OP and just sent our DS to Towson. He is looking forward to it now but it was a heartbreaking process. (DS got no aid to his "dream school" and the debt we would haved faced would have been a real hardship.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are funny, OP!

1. Attend cheaper college.
2. Pay the $70k you can afford if you earn $250k.

So funny!

OP, you are allowed to be a person! Saving 70K per year on this salary is feasible in some situations but also let's give OP a little grace! There are many reasons that this level of saving may have been difficult.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We make less, we save starting at birth, make savings a priority, no vacations, etc. and state school.

Yep. Started saving when we were TRYING to have our first. Opened a 529 with monthly contributions of $25. Neither of us are "rich" but we are doing fine. Lived in the same house for 24 years. Only the past couple of years do we have combined salaries in excess of $250k. Limited our two children to $50K/yr each which pretty much limits them to public.

I call BS. You need the child's social to open a 529 plan, which isn't possible before they're born.

It's true. Put in my spouse's name and then transferred to first born.
https://www.savingforcollege.com/article/how-to-open-a-529-plan-before-the-baby-is-born#:~:text=To%20open%20a%20529%20plan%20before%20a%20child's%20birth%2C%20a,make%20the%20child%20the%20beneficiary.

[Anonymous]

CSS Profile schools will absolutely provide financial assistance at this income level if your kids are admitted.

Do the preparatory work using the cost calculators.

[Anonymous]

We are at around that income bracket with a highly achieving kid. We figured that we can cash flow the state flagship (UMD-CP is relatively cheap / subsidized), so we never opened a 529 or anything else that would ever impact our financial aid should the kid get into a top college. We also restructured our assets and savings to maximize financial aid.

We have been paying 30k-50k per year for an Ivy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question says it all. I have been hearing all of my friends who are federal government workers saying their kids are not eligible for financial aid. But I don't think this is enough $ in income to afford $70K in college costs per kid per year. And it's not as though these families had extra income before their kids went to college - in this area, a mortgage, saving for retirement, and cost of raising kids will eat up all of that income. Where does the extra $ come from if they don't get financial aid?

No. They get zero aid and send their kids to places like Towson or UMBC.

Yep! This poster nailed it.
We have a similar income to OP and just sent our DS to Towson. He is looking forward to it now but it was a heartbreaking process. (DS got no aid to his "dream school" and the debt we would haved faced would have been a real hardship.)

+1 DS got into Pitt which he loved. But we couldn't manage the nearly 60k/year (no merit offered.) Like PP, he is also headed to Towson, which is likes, but doesn't love. I am hoping he ends up loving it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are at around that income bracket with a highly achieving kid. We figured that we can cash flow the state flagship (UMD-CP is relatively cheap / subsidized), so we never opened a 529 or anything else that would ever impact our financial aid should the kid get into a top college. We also restructured our assets and savings to maximize financial aid.

We have been paying 30k-50k per year for an Ivy.

Can you give some examples of this? I know taking savings and paying off your mortgage is one strategy. Any others?

[Anonymous]

Four kids with an income maybe 20K higher than OP here. We started saving before they were born when we earned significantly less and had our own student loans, live in a small house that needs work, husband and I share one old car, no fancy vacations or extravagant lifestyle and have made saving for our retirement a priority too. Youngest of the 4 is now 2 years from finishing college. Three have gone to instate to UVA and the 4th was awarded a scholarship at a SLAC that made the cost of attending same as if she was in-state Virginia.

It’s called lots of sacrifice OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Four kids with an income maybe 20K higher than OP here. We started saving before they were born when we earned significantly less and had our own student loans, live in a small house that needs work, husband and I share one old car, no fancy vacations or extravagant lifestyle and have made saving for our retirement a priority too. Youngest of the 4 is now 2 years from finishing college. Three have gone to instate to UVA and the 4th was awarded a scholarship at a SLAC that made the cost of attending same as if she was in-state Virginia.

It’s called lots of sacrifice OP.

and that's something wrong in the US for the hard working middle class

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Four kids with an income maybe 20K higher than OP here. We started saving before they were born when we earned significantly less and had our own student loans, live in a small house that needs work, husband and I share one old car, no fancy vacations or extravagant lifestyle and have made saving for our retirement a priority too. Youngest of the 4 is now 2 years from finishing college. Three have gone to instate to UVA and the 4th was awarded a scholarship at a SLAC that made the cost of attending same as if she was in-state Virginia.

It’s called lots of sacrifice OP.

and that's something wrong in the US for the hard working middle class

Right here is the real point OP isn’t saying. You make $250k and you want a nice house, multiple nice cars, 2 vacations a year, AND be able to afford to send your kids to private university on someone else’s dime. You can afford public universities, OP. That is fine. Your kids will be fine. They aren’t “owed” an education at a $90k a year school. They aren’t “owed” financial aid. You could pay for it if you made a lot of sacrifices for many, many years. You didn’t and now you are annoyed. Why does everyone think private universities are meant for the middle class? They are not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Four kids with an income maybe 20K higher than OP here. We started saving before they were born when we earned significantly less and had our own student loans, live in a small house that needs work, husband and I share one old car, no fancy vacations or extravagant lifestyle and have made saving for our retirement a priority too. Youngest of the 4 is now 2 years from finishing college. Three have gone to instate to UVA and the 4th was awarded a scholarship at a SLAC that made the cost of attending same as if she was in-state Virginia.

It’s called lots of sacrifice OP.

and that's something wrong in the US for the hard working middle class

Right here is the real point OP isn’t saying. You make $250k and you want a nice house, multiple nice cars, 2 vacations a year, AND be able to afford to send your kids to private university on someone else’s dime. You can afford public universities, OP. That is fine. Your kids will be fine. They aren’t “owed” an education at a $90k a year school. They aren’t “owed” financial aid. You could pay for it if you made a lot of sacrifices for many, many years. You didn’t and now you are annoyed. Why does everyone think private universities are meant for the middle class? They are not.

because those schools have a lot of money and a lot of place for students. if they can give aid to the "poor" they can give it to middle class as well.

[Anonymous]

You won't even define what's poor and middle class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We make less, we save starting at birth, make savings a priority, no vacations, etc. and state school.

Yep. Started saving when we were TRYING to have our first. Opened a 529 with monthly contributions of $25. Neither of us are "rich" but we are doing fine. Lived in the same house for 24 years. Only the past couple of years do we have combined salaries in excess of $250k. Limited our two children to $50K/yr each which pretty much limits them to public.

I call BS. You need the child's social to open a 529 plan, which isn't possible before they're born.

It's true. Put in my spouse's name and then transferred to first born.
https://www.savingforcollege.com/article/how-to-open-a-529-plan-before-the-baby-is-born#:~:text=To%20open%20a%20529%20plan%20before%20a%20child's%20birth%2C%20a,make%20the%20child%20the%20beneficiary.

+1. I set up 529 when my kid was 3 and accidentally had my mom as the beneficiary for years before realizing this error. I'd meant to add her to my Roth IRA instead but instead added her on both. Anyway, I switched to DD around age 8.