How does most of America pay for these elite schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most high stats kids from donuts hole families give up on elite schools and go to the in state flagship

This is us. Our HHI is $145K. We didn't qualify for much FA, despite the fact that $80K per year is more than half our HHI!! Crazy.
State schools for our kids.
Meaning, the best and the brightest are NOT going to the Ivies or the SLACs like Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, etc.
My kids should be at these schools, but we can't afford to send them there.

Do you have a kid in college? Have you actually applied for financial aid? Our HHi is a bit higher than yours (in the 180ish range), and we have definitely qualified for significant financial aid at "expensive" schools. I could see that you don't qualify if you have other significant non-retirement assets, but, if you are making less than $150,000 and don't own multiple properties or have 6 figures in stocks/brokerage accounts/or shares of a private corp., you will get financial aid at a lot of schools. It may not be enough, but, that is a different argument.

Nope, NPC was way the hell off for my kid last year. NPC stated we would get ~40K yr/aid, we weren’t offered anything and our HHI is lower than yours. How on earth did you get aid with that HHI? Impressive, though, good for you.
Recognizing that everyone’s financial situation differs, it’s still a frustrating process.

That sucks. What college? Call them out. Colleges are required by law to have them and keep them accurate.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-03-27-some-colleges-are-failing-to-comply-with-cost-calculator-requirements.

You should report them for this error. I realize that may be too late to help you but you might help others from the same fate.

Thanks to the pp who linked to the 2019 Net Price Calculator Improvement Act, introduced by Sen Grassley in 2019. It was reintroduced in October on a bipartisan basis, yet it is only given a 3% chance of passing! We all need to call our Congresspeople to get behind this!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As soon as our first son was born we started saving for college A small smoothly amount at first and increased when daycare was no longer needed. We do have 80k a year saved for him and his brothers. We do fine but have 10 year old cars. No fancy handbags, clothes, etc.

Now if we had 6 kids no way could we afford college for all six.

2 kids. Did the same thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most high stats kids from donuts hole families give up on elite schools and go to the in state flagship

This is us. Our HHI is $145K. We didn't qualify for much FA, despite the fact that $80K per year is more than half our HHI!! Crazy.
State schools for our kids.
Meaning, the best and the brightest are NOT going to the Ivies or the SLACs like Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, etc.
My kids should be at these schools, but we can't afford to send them there.

Do you have a kid in college? Have you actually applied for financial aid? Our HHi is a bit higher than yours (in the 180ish range), and we have definitely qualified for significant financial aid at "expensive" schools. I could see that you don't qualify if you have other significant non-retirement assets, but, if you are making less than $150,000 and don't own multiple properties or have 6 figures in stocks/brokerage accounts/or shares of a private corp., you will get financial aid at a lot of schools. It may not be enough, but, that is a different argument.

Responding to pp and 8:48. We’re the ones with the millions in retirement but little in 529s. Our income is between yours (180ish and 145ish) for a family of four. We’re also the ones paying $30k a year in out of pocket medical expenses out of salary, and we live in this High Cost of Living DCUMLand. Please share at which institutions you received financial aid. I’ll have my second kid think about applying to those schools.

In my opinion, retirement accounts should be off the table for college purposes. Who else will fund your retirement? Our parents had no big estate to pass on to us; as I posted earlier, we helped them financially. We don't want to burden our kids, so we prioritized retirement savings. My husband came up in an era where you could fairly easily gain entrance to your state flagship (yes, even UVA if you were from NoVa), and he was against funding a 529. We really could not afford it anyway; we had a lot of medical debt on credit cards.

Our country will be in a heap of trouble if people empty 401ks to pay for college. Yet that is exactly what my A+ Forbes-financial health alma mater asked me to do. Ironically, they place a lot of grads into finance, presumably at places where they dream up college loan direct marketing campaigns to HS seniors.

I am trying, but failing to understand your logic. How is having millions in a retirement account (with little in taxable accounts or a 529) different from having millions in just your normal taxable accounts (but little retirement or 529 savings). Why should someone that saved $250,000 in a 529 and $750,000 in their 401k be treated differently than someone that opted to just put $1,000,000 in their 401k?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most high stats kids from donuts hole families give up on elite schools and go to the in state flagship

This is us. Our HHI is $145K. We didn't qualify for much FA, despite the fact that $80K per year is more than half our HHI!! Crazy.
State schools for our kids.
Meaning, the best and the brightest are NOT going to the Ivies or the SLACs like Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, etc.
My kids should be at these schools, but we can't afford to send them there.

Do you have a kid in college? Have you actually applied for financial aid? Our HHi is a bit higher than yours (in the 180ish range), and we have definitely qualified for significant financial aid at "expensive" schools. I could see that you don't qualify if you have other significant non-retirement assets, but, if you are making less than $150,000 and don't own multiple properties or have 6 figures in stocks/brokerage accounts/or shares of a private corp., you will get financial aid at a lot of schools. It may not be enough, but, that is a different argument.

Responding to pp and 8:48. We’re the ones with the millions in retirement but little in 529s. Our income is between yours (180ish and 145ish) for a family of four. We’re also the ones paying $30k a year in out of pocket medical expenses out of salary, and we live in this High Cost of Living DCUMLand. Please share at which institutions you received financial aid. I’ll have my second kid think about applying to those schools.

In my opinion, retirement accounts should be off the table for college purposes. Who else will fund your retirement? Our parents had no big estate to pass on to us; as I posted earlier, we helped them financially. We don't want to burden our kids, so we prioritized retirement savings. My husband came up in an era where you could fairly easily gain entrance to your state flagship (yes, even UVA if you were from NoVa), and he was against funding a 529. We really could not afford it anyway; we had a lot of medical debt on credit cards.

Our country will be in a heap of trouble if people empty 401ks to pay for college. Yet that is exactly what my A+ Forbes-financial health alma mater asked me to do. Ironically, they place a lot of grads into finance, presumably at places where they dream up college loan direct marketing campaigns to HS seniors.

I am trying, but failing to understand your logic. How is having millions in a retirement account (with little in taxable accounts or a 529) different from having millions in just your normal taxable accounts (but little retirement or 529 savings). Why should someone that saved $250,000 in a 529 and $750,000 in their 401k be treated differently than someone that opted to just put $1,000,000 in their 401k?

dp - people should not be forced to choose between college tuition and retirement. or between having a working car, or eating out and having a vacation, for that matter. and as much as the problem are colleges and governments, even more so are these idiots who lived crappy lives for 20 years so that their child can have a brand name degree. it is losers like this who will never accept change in the system. we suffered, because we valued "education"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most high stats kids from donuts hole families give up on elite schools and go to the in state flagship

This is us. Our HHI is $145K. We didn't qualify for much FA, despite the fact that $80K per year is more than half our HHI!! Crazy.
State schools for our kids.
Meaning, the best and the brightest are NOT going to the Ivies or the SLACs like Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, etc.
My kids should be at these schools, but we can't afford to send them there.

Do you have a kid in college? Have you actually applied for financial aid? Our HHi is a bit higher than yours (in the 180ish range), and we have definitely qualified for significant financial aid at "expensive" schools. I could see that you don't qualify if you have other significant non-retirement assets, but, if you are making less than $150,000 and don't own multiple properties or have 6 figures in stocks/brokerage accounts/or shares of a private corp., you will get financial aid at a lot of schools. It may not be enough, but, that is a different argument.

Responding to pp and 8:48. We’re the ones with the millions in retirement but little in 529s. Our income is between yours (180ish and 145ish) for a family of four. We’re also the ones paying $30k a year in out of pocket medical expenses out of salary, and we live in this High Cost of Living DCUMLand. Please share at which institutions you received financial aid. I’ll have my second kid think about applying to those schools.

In my opinion, retirement accounts should be off the table for college purposes. Who else will fund your retirement? Our parents had no big estate to pass on to us; as I posted earlier, we helped them financially. We don't want to burden our kids, so we prioritized retirement savings. My husband came up in an era where you could fairly easily gain entrance to your state flagship (yes, even UVA if you were from NoVa), and he was against funding a 529. We really could not afford it anyway; we had a lot of medical debt on credit cards.

Our country will be in a heap of trouble if people empty 401ks to pay for college. Yet that is exactly what my A+ Forbes-financial health alma mater asked me to do. Ironically, they place a lot of grads into finance, presumably at places where they dream up college loan direct marketing campaigns to HS seniors.

I am trying, but failing to understand your logic. How is having millions in a retirement account (with little in taxable accounts or a 529) different from having millions in just your normal taxable accounts (but little retirement or 529 savings). Why should someone that saved $250,000 in a 529 and $750,000 in their 401k be treated differently than someone that opted to just put $1,000,000 in their 401k?

Because the person who did not save for retirement will become a burden to society.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most high stats kids from donuts hole families give up on elite schools and go to the in state flagship

This is us. Our HHI is $145K. We didn't qualify for much FA, despite the fact that $80K per year is more than half our HHI!! Crazy.
State schools for our kids.
Meaning, the best and the brightest are NOT going to the Ivies or the SLACs like Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, etc.
My kids should be at these schools, but we can't afford to send them there.

Do you have a kid in college? Have you actually applied for financial aid? Our HHi is a bit higher than yours (in the 180ish range), and we have definitely qualified for significant financial aid at "expensive" schools. I could see that you don't qualify if you have other significant non-retirement assets, but, if you are making less than $150,000 and don't own multiple properties or have 6 figures in stocks/brokerage accounts/or shares of a private corp., you will get financial aid at a lot of schools. It may not be enough, but, that is a different argument.

Nope, NPC was way the hell off for my kid last year. NPC stated we would get ~40K yr/aid, we weren’t offered anything and our HHI is lower than yours. How on earth did you get aid with that HHI? Impressive, though, good for you.
Recognizing that everyone’s financial situation differs, it’s still a frustrating process.

That sucks. What college? Call them out. Colleges are required by law to have them and keep them accurate.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-03-27-some-colleges-are-failing-to-comply-with-cost-calculator-requirements.

You should report them for this error. I realize that may be too late to help you but you might help others from the same fate.

This is why applicants in the future should take a screenshot of the NPC page. Then when you get a different figure from the schools financial aid office, you send them the screenshot

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most high stats kids from donuts hole families give up on elite schools and go to the in state flagship

This is us. Our HHI is $145K. We didn't qualify for much FA, despite the fact that $80K per year is more than half our HHI!! Crazy.
State schools for our kids.
Meaning, the best and the brightest are NOT going to the Ivies or the SLACs like Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, etc.
My kids should be at these schools, but we can't afford to send them there.

Do you have a kid in college? Have you actually applied for financial aid? Our HHi is a bit higher than yours (in the 180ish range), and we have definitely qualified for significant financial aid at "expensive" schools. I could see that you don't qualify if you have other significant non-retirement assets, but, if you are making less than $150,000 and don't own multiple properties or have 6 figures in stocks/brokerage accounts/or shares of a private corp., you will get financial aid at a lot of schools. It may not be enough, but, that is a different argument.

I'm the PP. Yes, my kid applied to very selective SLACS and got accepted, but received very little FA. These schools don't offer merit aid. The private colleges wanted us to take out a mortgage on our house to pay for DC's college! Nope. not us. The public colleges cost so much less, so that's where my child went.

My kid graduated a couple years ago, and she says now that she wished she'd gone to a more selective, better college. She's in a top grad program, where she's finally among her peers. I wish I'd been able to send her to Amherst, etc., but it was financially impossible.

More people need to tell stories like this. Maybe we should all go testify on Capitol Hill.

Testify to what? That private colleges cost too much? I actually think its state schools that cost WAY too much, those should be very inexpensive for in state residents. That's the shame, and also that's what governments can actually do something about.

[Anonymous]

wow someone is terrified elite colleges could get cheaper

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most high stats kids from donuts hole families give up on elite schools and go to the in state flagship

This is us. Our HHI is $145K. We didn't qualify for much FA, despite the fact that $80K per year is more than half our HHI!! Crazy.
State schools for our kids.
Meaning, the best and the brightest are NOT going to the Ivies or the SLACs like Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, etc.
My kids should be at these schools, but we can't afford to send them there.

Do you have a kid in college? Have you actually applied for financial aid? Our HHi is a bit higher than yours (in the 180ish range), and we have definitely qualified for significant financial aid at "expensive" schools. I could see that you don't qualify if you have other significant non-retirement assets, but, if you are making less than $150,000 and don't own multiple properties or have 6 figures in stocks/brokerage accounts/or shares of a private corp., you will get financial aid at a lot of schools. It may not be enough, but, that is a different argument.

Responding to pp and 8:48. We’re the ones with the millions in retirement but little in 529s. Our income is between yours (180ish and 145ish) for a family of four. We’re also the ones paying $30k a year in out of pocket medical expenses out of salary, and we live in this High Cost of Living DCUMLand. Please share at which institutions you received financial aid. I’ll have my second kid think about applying to those schools.

In my opinion, retirement accounts should be off the table for college purposes. Who else will fund your retirement? Our parents had no big estate to pass on to us; as I posted earlier, we helped them financially. We don't want to burden our kids, so we prioritized retirement savings. My husband came up in an era where you could fairly easily gain entrance to your state flagship (yes, even UVA if you were from NoVa), and he was against funding a 529. We really could not afford it anyway; we had a lot of medical debt on credit cards.

Our country will be in a heap of trouble if people empty 401ks to pay for college. Yet that is exactly what my A+ Forbes-financial health alma mater asked me to do. Ironically, they place a lot of grads into finance, presumably at places where they dream up college loan direct marketing campaigns to HS seniors.

I am trying, but failing to understand your logic. How is having millions in a retirement account (with little in taxable accounts or a 529) different from having millions in just your normal taxable accounts (but little retirement or 529 savings). Why should someone that saved $250,000 in a 529 and $750,000 in their 401k be treated differently than someone that opted to just put $1,000,000 in their 401k?

dp - people should not be forced to choose between college tuition and retirement. or between having a working car, or eating out and having a vacation, for that matter. and as much as the problem are colleges and governments, even more so are these idiots who lived crappy lives for 20 years so that their child can have a brand name degree. it is losers like this who will never accept change in the system. we suffered, because we valued "education"

You are forcing someone to choose and rewarding them for their choice if you ignore retirement savings. Colleges should have no reason to incentivise that choice, they should treat money as fungible- the fact that one person parked it in a taxable account, one person in a 529 and one person in a brokerage should make no difference

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most high stats kids from donuts hole families give up on elite schools and go to the in state flagship

This is us. Our HHI is $145K. We didn't qualify for much FA, despite the fact that $80K per year is more than half our HHI!! Crazy.
State schools for our kids.
Meaning, the best and the brightest are NOT going to the Ivies or the SLACs like Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, etc.
My kids should be at these schools, but we can't afford to send them there.

Do you have a kid in college? Have you actually applied for financial aid? Our HHi is a bit higher than yours (in the 180ish range), and we have definitely qualified for significant financial aid at "expensive" schools. I could see that you don't qualify if you have other significant non-retirement assets, but, if you are making less than $150,000 and don't own multiple properties or have 6 figures in stocks/brokerage accounts/or shares of a private corp., you will get financial aid at a lot of schools. It may not be enough, but, that is a different argument.

I'm the PP. Yes, my kid applied to very selective SLACS and got accepted, but received very little FA. These schools don't offer merit aid. The private colleges wanted us to take out a mortgage on our house to pay for DC's college! Nope. not us. The public colleges cost so much less, so that's where my child went.

My kid graduated a couple years ago, and she says now that she wished she'd gone to a more selective, better college. She's in a top grad program, where she's finally among her peers. I wish I'd been able to send her to Amherst, etc., but it was financially impossible.

More people need to tell stories like this. Maybe we should all go testify on Capitol Hill.

Testify to what? That private colleges cost too much? I actually think its state schools that cost WAY too much, those should be very inexpensive for in state residents. That's the shame, and also that's what governments can actually do something about.

+100 public Us need much better funding. A student who has the profile to be competitive for elite colleges but won't get the aid to afford it should have the option of going to an affordable state flagship.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most high stats kids from donuts hole families give up on elite schools and go to the in state flagship

This is us. Our HHI is $145K. We didn't qualify for much FA, despite the fact that $80K per year is more than half our HHI!! Crazy.
State schools for our kids.
Meaning, the best and the brightest are NOT going to the Ivies or the SLACs like Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore, etc.
My kids should be at these schools, but we can't afford to send them there.

Do you have a kid in college? Have you actually applied for financial aid? Our HHi is a bit higher than yours (in the 180ish range), and we have definitely qualified for significant financial aid at "expensive" schools. I could see that you don't qualify if you have other significant non-retirement assets, but, if you are making less than $150,000 and don't own multiple properties or have 6 figures in stocks/brokerage accounts/or shares of a private corp., you will get financial aid at a lot of schools. It may not be enough, but, that is a different argument.

Responding to pp and 8:48. We’re the ones with the millions in retirement but little in 529s. Our income is between yours (180ish and 145ish) for a family of four. We’re also the ones paying $30k a year in out of pocket medical expenses out of salary, and we live in this High Cost of Living DCUMLand. Please share at which institutions you received financial aid. I’ll have my second kid think about applying to those schools.

In my opinion, retirement accounts should be off the table for college purposes. Who else will fund your retirement? Our parents had no big estate to pass on to us; as I posted earlier, we helped them financially. We don't want to burden our kids, so we prioritized retirement savings. My husband came up in an era where you could fairly easily gain entrance to your state flagship (yes, even UVA if you were from NoVa), and he was against funding a 529. We really could not afford it anyway; we had a lot of medical debt on credit cards.

Our country will be in a heap of trouble if people empty 401ks to pay for college. Yet that is exactly what my A+ Forbes-financial health alma mater asked me to do. Ironically, they place a lot of grads into finance, presumably at places where they dream up college loan direct marketing campaigns to HS seniors.

I am trying, but failing to understand your logic. How is having millions in a retirement account (with little in taxable accounts or a 529) different from having millions in just your normal taxable accounts (but little retirement or 529 savings). Why should someone that saved $250,000 in a 529 and $750,000 in their 401k be treated differently than someone that opted to just put $1,000,000 in their 401k?

dp - people should not be forced to choose between college tuition and retirement. or between having a working car, or eating out and having a vacation, for that matter. and as much as the problem are colleges and governments, even more so are these idiots who lived crappy lives for 20 years so that their child can have a brand name degree. it is losers like this who will never accept change in the system. we suffered, because we valued "education"

You are forcing someone to choose and rewarding them for their choice if you ignore retirement savings. Colleges should have no reason to incentivise that choice, they should treat money as fungible- the fact that one person parked it in a taxable account, one person in a 529 and one person in a brokerage should make no difference

529s should not exist
colleges should cut their tuition 5-10fold

[Anonymous]

Nearly all the Ivy schools (and most other universities) have a ROTC program on campus or at a neighboring school they partner with if wanting to participate. They will pay your tuition, but you have to work for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nearly all the Ivy schools (and most other universities) have a ROTC program on campus or at a neighboring school they partner with if wanting to participate. They will pay your tuition, but you have to work for it.

really?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nearly all the Ivy schools (and most other universities) have a ROTC program on campus or at a neighboring school they partner with if wanting to participate. They will pay your tuition, but you have to work for it.

really?

Yes, really.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nearly all the Ivy schools (and most other universities) have a ROTC program on campus or at a neighboring school they partner with if wanting to participate. They will pay your tuition, but you have to work for it.

I know they'd be overjoyed to have my diabetic child and my child who is on ADHD meds!