How do most middle to UMC families pay for college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Life in the donut hole is brutal. Oldest went to Honors College at state flagship (small scholarship), second went OOS with large merit scholarship. Who knows what the third will do.

No, its not if you plan well and don't overbuy a house and cars and vacations.

And do not have more kids than you can manage to afford. Yes kids cost money. Don't have too many if you cannot provide for them (and yes I consider a path thru state u without too much debt something mc/inc parents should aim. For)

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I for the life of me do not understand how this country let college cost be determined by parent income. Middle class and UMC are in no more financial position to pay for college than those making 50-60k a year, unless those MC and UMC forewent houses, cars, etc. - which would undermine a large portion of the economy. The fact that the equity in my home is considered accessible to pay for college is ludicrous. The whole system is broken, very broken.

This is ludicrous, as it relates to UMC families. We are UMC, and have saved more than $300k in various 529s for our rising senior's college tuition and other college expenses. That's sufficient, when including available cashflow, for one kid to attend a private college, or two to attend state schools. And that was not, by any means, the limit to what we could have saved; we stopped dedicated college savings a few years ago and redirected to a taxable account, to provide more flexibility.

It requires planning, and dedication to savings, but UMC families can (and should, in my view) absolutely pay for their children's college. Or are you one of those people who whines that you shoudl get financial aid on your $350k income because you have overspent for decades?

Also, please tell us why why home equity shouldn't be included in financial aid calculations, and if it isn't, how abuses can be curtailed.

You are the exception. You still are not in a position to pay full freight at Gettysburg College or Washington and Lee without an impact on you. But in the latter, a kid’s whose parents make $80k or below goes for free.

The system also does not account for the fact that people make more money as their kids grow up, so capturing the income made the year prior to college is just a snapshot.

If we are the exception, it's because other people choose not to prioritize college savings.

Also, you have dramatically shifted the goalposts - from "UMC are in no more financial position to pay for college than those making 50-60k a year" (which is obviously nonsense) to "well, you can't pay for a private college 'without an impact on you.'" Sure. If the measuring stick you are using is that "college is unaffordable if you can't pay for it out of pocket change," then of course virtually no one will satisfy it.

Rather than nit picking my personal situation, please address the larger point - that if UMC families start saving early and stick to it (as another PP said, slow and steady) they will have substantial college savings by the time their kid(s) are college age. How much for any given college depends on a variety of factors, such as market performance, number of children, etc. And as you say, their incomes likely will have risen by then, which means they can pay for some costs out of earnings. Unless, of course, they have increased their lifestyle in conjunction with their larger paychecks - which, again, doesn't make college unaffordable. It just means that they didn't prioritize it.

Still waiting for some principled reason as to why home equity shouldn't be considered in financial aid calculations.

Home equity comprises part of people's financial plans in that it is generally considered the best practice to pay off the mortgage on the primary home before retirement. This enables retirees to live on a fixed income more easily.

For older parents especially, this is very important. If a parent will retire within a few or several years of having children in college, the parents have no time to recoup the loss of home equity that was tapped for college expenses.

This translates to either "it is not financially optimal to use this asset for college" or "if I use this asset to pay for college, I may not be able to retire as easily as I otherwise might."

Neither of those is compelling. In fact, they're both ridiculous. At the end of the day, you are still asking for financial aid so that you don't have to tap one of your assets.

Also, please tell us why why retirement accounts shouldn't be included in financial aid calculations.

Because you cannot access those unless you are old enough.

[Anonymous]

Approximately 30% of physicians in the United States are foreign-born. This includes international medical graduates, who make up 23-28% of the physician workforce, with a significant portion from countries like India and the Philippines.

[Anonymous]

The loan thing really bothers me. My son in law took loans for law school and when I gift money to him (which I hope will go to the loans), he puts it in his son’s 529.

I don’t know if my SIL would have been able to go to law school with the new $50k limit on the federal loan.

And my Ds who graduated from a SLAC and a LAC in 2014 and 2020 have been fully employed since graduation— I don’t regret being full pay for either.

We were a military family (without the VA scholarships for our Ds) and I never earned a high income. We entered our marriage without loans due to his ROTC scholarship and my parents full paying mine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Life in the donut hole is brutal. Oldest went to Honors College at state flagship (small scholarship), second went OOS with large merit scholarship. Who knows what the third will do.

The donut hole is a myth created by parents who did not plan well. College isn’t exactly a surprise. You have two decades to save.

It’s the same for retirement.

[Anonymous]

People will have to apply for loans from the private sector.

[Anonymous]

There is was weird dislike for state universities in this forum. I went to Stony Brook University which is part of the State University of NY system and majored in Physics. Some of you probably never heard of it, but I got a world class education at a steep discount. I make the same if not more than most people who went to some of the best private colleges 10 years into my career.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People will have to apply for loans from the private sector.

And that's the aim of the bill. Sofi is very happy.

[Anonymous]

The medical school loan cap is a disaster for countries such as mine that offer free medical education. My cousin finished med school 2 years ago. His entire education was paid of by the government. She was the only surgeon serving in an African city and was doing several surgeries a day. Guess what? She is in the process of moving here. She got a special visa I don't know the details to come practice medicine here. In my country she couldn't even afford a car. Essentially the US will suck up a bunch of doctors from overseas. Sounds familiar? That's how wal street shiped jobs to China in the 90s. That's how the Valley imported cheaper Tech workers. The American capitalist system is obsessed with getting richer and richer and richer.

This is a disaster because the medical training of an American is of higher quality than that of an African. My cousin told me that apparently you start med school right after HS in my country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Life in the donut hole is brutal. Oldest went to Honors College at state flagship (small scholarship), second went OOS with large merit scholarship. Who knows what the third will do.

The donut hole is a myth created by parents who did not plan well. College isn’t exactly a surprise. You have two decades to save.

It’s the same for retirement.

This gives into the myth of it all - that the income level of families when their kids go to college was the same or equivalent when that child was born. The system does not account for upward career and financial mobility of families and relies on a snapshot of current income and assets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People will have to apply for loans from the private sector.

And that's the aim of the bill. Sofi is very happy.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2025/07/08/sofi-stock-up-36---may-rise-on-crypto-student-loan-policy-boosts/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Life in the donut hole is brutal. Oldest went to Honors College at state flagship (small scholarship), second went OOS with large merit scholarship. Who knows what the third will do.

The donut hole is a myth created by parents who did not plan well. College isn’t exactly a surprise. You have two decades to save.

It’s the same for retirement.

Not everyone has money leftover each month to save. I really didn’t make ends meet for years and when I did, I didn’t have money leftover to save.

[Anonymous]

My daughter is a junior and wants to go to med school. My dad said he will sell his second property that he is now renting to pay for her med school. The house is mortgage free and worth about $600k. So after taxes and everything perhaps she will have $400k to pay for med school.

What will kids who are less fortunate do? They will go overseas. This will have a massive impact on veterinary, dental, medical training of future Americans. A good portion of them will be trained overseas.

Do you guys know who were the lobbyists/ senators/congresspeople who worked on the student loans portion of this bill?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Life in the donut hole is brutal. Oldest went to Honors College at state flagship (small scholarship), second went OOS with large merit scholarship. Who knows what the third will do.

The donut hole is a myth created by parents who did not plan well. College isn’t exactly a surprise. You have two decades to save.

It’s the same for retirement.

Not everyone has money leftover each month to save. I really didn’t make ends meet for years and when I did, I didn’t have money leftover to save.

What you are saying will fall on many of the maniacs death ears on this forum. I'm very fortunate and wealthy. I do consider myself lucky and sympathize with people who arent so fortunate. It's actually true some people just don't make enough. It's funny, the reason many of us are wealthy is because there are generations of Americans who are stuck in low wages loop and work in the service sector that serve us at low costs. The peoples kids are likely going to serve our kids as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Life in the donut hole is brutal. Oldest went to Honors College at state flagship (small scholarship), second went OOS with large merit scholarship. Who knows what the third will do.

The donut hole is a myth created by parents who did not plan well. College isn’t exactly a surprise. You have two decades to save.

It’s the same for retirement.

Not everyone has money leftover each month to save. I really didn’t make ends meet for years and when I did, I didn’t have money leftover to save.

+100 ^ Me too. I barely made ends meet for a long time.

And then having kids is like "2 steps forward, 1 step back" trying to put money into 529s, retirement, abd paying bills.