Why do donut hole families

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Poor people do not have more options. Most truly poor people are not in the college pipeline.

Additionally, if those "donut hole" families lived like the poor people, rented where they rent, shopped where they shop, etc., they'd have tons of options too. Just saying.

+1

I get that some have special circumstances--medical debt or something unforeseen. But most donut hole families that I know made choices to spend elsewhere. New iPhone every year, 2 Starbucks trips per day, eating lunch out daily, eating half of dinners out, taking really nice vacations, new cars every 3-4 years, etc. Yes those are all "small things" in the grand scheme of savings, but that is just what is visible to me---I'm sure there is much more I don't even see. Someone with a mindset like that is choosing to spend on things when they could choose to save.
We knew our kids would get no aid, so we started saving as soon as they were born. We didn't start living a luxury lifestyle until we could afford it. We paid only 50% of what we could easily afford for our first house and lived there for 7 years. Sure we could afford a newer/nicer home, but we did not need it, this house had 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths so enough space for a young family---it was relatively speaking much nicer than the apartment we came from. So we lived nicely but not luxuriously and saved the extras. We drove cars for 8-10 years and saved to pay cash for the next ones.
We also choose to not have kids until 30, so that allowed us to consciously save the extra salary and live off of basically one. We aggressively paid off all student loans, invested in our retirement. Other than our honeymoon, I was 35 before I took a "fancy vacation", yet we could have easily afforded to do so at 25/26. But that restraint allowed us to front load saving for college and then we could change our lifestyle as desired.

Same here. Our children can go almost anywhere, but only because we got started saving early and let the savings compound. We never made more than $120K either, but we've always banked at least one income. The irony is that we can now afford to live on one modest income and maintain our lifestyle. Plus, since most of our money is tucked away in retirement accounts and our house is paid off, our EFC is pretty low.

I always think about our situation when people on this board talk about not getting married until you are much older. It's a choice, but you don't get to set your family up nearly as well as if you partnered up earlier in life. However, there is nothing wrong with state schools and lower ranked colleges either.

Exactly. It's all about choices. And of course, nothing wrong with any college. Pick what works for your family, pick what's affordable. But if you choose to have kids before you have paid off your own college debt, it will be harder to save for college and that choice will impact your kid's college choices, just a simple fact of life. Life is about choices, and you get to live with the consequences of your choices as a responsible adult

Right, and if you don't have many or any choices, you are irresponsible. The fact that college costs have far outpaced inflation for decades - increasing by almost 144% in two decades - isn't relevant.

Right?

It's reality, and it's your choice whether to ignore that reality or be prepared for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Complain about being a donut hole family? When there are thousands of colleges that could work between in state options and merit aid at lower tier privates and other oos public’s?l is it bc ivies and top 25 are not options?

I thought it was “hundreds” of options? Now you’re talking thousands? Care to share a list of say, a 100 or so of these options within an 8hr drive? Since there are apparently so many! TIA!

There are 3000 colleges in the United States. Only 25 are in the top 25. THOUSANDS. If you want to make a state college in Arizona or Oregon work for you, you could. That you don’t want to or want to self impose a driving limit of 8 hours, (why not 10 or 12), that’s on you.

Which of these Arizona or Oregon state colleges give significant aid to OOS students? Wasn't that your whole shtick, that there are all these affordable options out there that most of us aren't considering? Most students are not getting into a T25 school so I don't know why you are singularly focused on those anyway.

Distance is reasonable to consider because flying back and forth across the country costs $$.

Oh for pete's sake, Google is your friend
Here is ASU for a 3.5 GPA, 30 ACT score
Presidents Scholarship $15,500
Your Estimated 1st Year Cost $33,570

Here is U Arizona
Non-Resident Arizona Awards
Distinction Award ($30,000-$32,000) which would bring COA to 5-10K
Excellence Award ($12,500-$20,000) which would bring COA to 12-25K

Are those schools better than MD or VA state schools? Otherwise I'm not sure why you'd send your child across the country for some marginal tuition savings (provided your DC gets those scholarships), unless that's really the path they wanted to take. Surely you could find options closer to home where you could actually visit??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because $25K+ a year for tuition room and board is an awful lot of money even for families that make a good living. Especially if you have multiple kids.

More like $80k/year these days

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Poor people do not have more options. Most truly poor people are not in the college pipeline.

Additionally, if those "donut hole" families lived like the poor people, rented where they rent, shopped where they shop, etc., they'd have tons of options too. Just saying.

+1

I get that some have special circumstances--medical debt or something unforeseen. But most donut hole families that I know made choices to spend elsewhere. New iPhone every year, 2 Starbucks trips per day, eating lunch out daily, eating half of dinners out, taking really nice vacations, new cars every 3-4 years, etc. Yes those are all "small things" in the grand scheme of savings, but that is just what is visible to me---I'm sure there is much more I don't even see. Someone with a mindset like that is choosing to spend on things when they could choose to save.
We knew our kids would get no aid, so we started saving as soon as they were born. We didn't start living a luxury lifestyle until we could afford it. We paid only 50% of what we could easily afford for our first house and lived there for 7 years. Sure we could afford a newer/nicer home, but we did not need it, this house had 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths so enough space for a young family---it was relatively speaking much nicer than the apartment we came from. So we lived nicely but not luxuriously and saved the extras. We drove cars for 8-10 years and saved to pay cash for the next ones.
We also choose to not have kids until 30, so that allowed us to consciously save the extra salary and live off of basically one. We aggressively paid off all student loans, invested in our retirement. Other than our honeymoon, I was 35 before I took a "fancy vacation", yet we could have easily afforded to do so at 25/26. But that restraint allowed us to front load saving for college and then we could change our lifestyle as desired.

Same here. Our children can go almost anywhere, but only because we got started saving early and let the savings compound. We never made more than $120K either, but we've always banked at least one income. The irony is that we can now afford to live on one modest income and maintain our lifestyle. Plus, since most of our money is tucked away in retirement accounts and our house is paid off, our EFC is pretty low.

I always think about our situation when people on this board talk about not getting married until you are much older. It's a choice, but you don't get to set your family up nearly as well as if you partnered up earlier in life. However, there is nothing wrong with state schools and lower ranked colleges either.

Exactly. It's all about choices. And of course, nothing wrong with any college. Pick what works for your family, pick what's affordable. But if you choose to have kids before you have paid off your own college debt, it will be harder to save for college and that choice will impact your kid's college choices, just a simple fact of life. Life is about choices, and you get to live with the consequences of your choices as a responsible adult

+1. Also it is very important to choose a spouse wisely- who has a good job, good health, no student debt of their own, and is faithful and responsible. Make good choices and you will have good results.

Lol! You’re insane

While I'm guessing that was sarcasm, two parents both carrying student loans makes it extremely hard to get ahead.

And I've seen divorce wipe out a family's finances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Complain about being a donut hole family? When there are thousands of colleges that could work between in state options and merit aid at lower tier privates and other oos public’s?l is it bc ivies and top 25 are not options?

I thought it was “hundreds” of options? Now you’re talking thousands? Care to share a list of say, a 100 or so of these options within an 8hr drive? Since there are apparently so many! TIA!

There are 3000 colleges in the United States. Only 25 are in the top 25. THOUSANDS. If you want to make a state college in Arizona or Oregon work for you, you could. That you don’t want to or want to self impose a driving limit of 8 hours, (why not 10 or 12), that’s on you.

Which of these Arizona or Oregon state colleges give significant aid to OOS students? Wasn't that your whole shtick, that there are all these affordable options out there that most of us aren't considering? Most students are not getting into a T25 school so I don't know why you are singularly focused on those anyway.

Distance is reasonable to consider because flying back and forth across the country costs $$.

Oh for pete's sake, Google is your friend
Here is ASU for a 3.5 GPA, 30 ACT score
Presidents Scholarship $15,500
Your Estimated 1st Year Cost $33,570

Here is U Arizona
Non-Resident Arizona Awards
Distinction Award ($30,000-$32,000) which would bring COA to 5-10K
Excellence Award ($12,500-$20,000) which would bring COA to 12-25K

Are those schools better than MD or VA state schools? Otherwise I'm not sure why you'd send your child across the country for some marginal tuition savings (provided your DC gets those scholarships), unless that's really the path they wanted to take. Surely you could find options closer to home where you could actually visit??

Merely an example of thousands of options. Personally, I'd send my kid to private but I saved for college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Complain about being a donut hole family? When there are thousands of colleges that could work between in state options and merit aid at lower tier privates and other oos public’s?l is it bc ivies and top 25 are not options?

I thought it was “hundreds” of options? Now you’re talking thousands? Care to share a list of say, a 100 or so of these options within an 8hr drive? Since there are apparently so many! TIA!

No one ever said “within an 8 hr drive”. If you put limits like that there will be less choices, that’s a given.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Complain about being a donut hole family? When there are thousands of colleges that could work between in state options and merit aid at lower tier privates and other oos public’s?l is it bc ivies and top 25 are not options?

I thought it was “hundreds” of options? Now you’re talking thousands? Care to share a list of say, a 100 or so of these options within an 8hr drive? Since there are apparently so many! TIA!

There are 3000 colleges in the United States. Only 25 are in the top 25. THOUSANDS. If you want to make a state college in Arizona or Oregon work for you, you could. That you don’t want to or want to self impose a driving limit of 8 hours, (why not 10 or 12), that’s on you.

Which of these Arizona or Oregon state colleges give significant aid to OOS students? Wasn't that your whole shtick, that there are all these affordable options out there that most of us aren't considering? Most students are not getting into a T25 school so I don't know why you are singularly focused on those anyway.

Distance is reasonable to consider because flying back and forth across the country costs $$.

Oh for pete's sake, Google is your friend
Here is ASU for a 3.5 GPA, 30 ACT score
Presidents Scholarship $15,500
Your Estimated 1st Year Cost $33,570

Here is U Arizona
Non-Resident Arizona Awards
Distinction Award ($30,000-$32,000) which would bring COA to 5-10K
Excellence Award ($12,500-$20,000) which would bring COA to 12-25K

Are those schools better than MD or VA state schools? Otherwise I'm not sure why you'd send your child across the country for some marginal tuition savings (provided your DC gets those scholarships), unless that's really the path they wanted to take. Surely you could find options closer to home where you could actually visit??

Merely an example of thousands of options. Personally, I'd send my kid to private but I saved for college.

Lol, if you can afford full freight private you are not a donut hole family! Geez.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Complain about being a donut hole family? When there are thousands of colleges that could work between in state options and merit aid at lower tier privates and other oos public’s?l is it bc ivies and top 25 are not options?

I thought it was “hundreds” of options? Now you’re talking thousands? Care to share a list of say, a 100 or so of these options within an 8hr drive? Since there are apparently so many! TIA!

There are 3000 colleges in the United States. Only 25 are in the top 25. THOUSANDS. If you want to make a state college in Arizona or Oregon work for you, you could. That you don’t want to or want to self impose a driving limit of 8 hours, (why not 10 or 12), that’s on you.

Which of these Arizona or Oregon state colleges give significant aid to OOS students? Wasn't that your whole shtick, that there are all these affordable options out there that most of us aren't considering? Most students are not getting into a T25 school so I don't know why you are singularly focused on those anyway.

Distance is reasonable to consider because flying back and forth across the country costs $$.

Oh for pete's sake, Google is your friend
Here is ASU for a 3.5 GPA, 30 ACT score
Presidents Scholarship $15,500
Your Estimated 1st Year Cost $33,570

Here is U Arizona
Non-Resident Arizona Awards
Distinction Award ($30,000-$32,000) which would bring COA to 5-10K
Excellence Award ($12,500-$20,000) which would bring COA to 12-25K

Do either of these schools have good chemistry programs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Poor people do not have more options. Most truly poor people are not in the college pipeline.

Additionally, if those "donut hole" families lived like the poor people, rented where they rent, shopped where they shop, etc., they'd have tons of options too. Just saying.

+1

I get that some have special circumstances--medical debt or something unforeseen. But most donut hole families that I know made choices to spend elsewhere. New iPhone every year, 2 Starbucks trips per day, eating lunch out daily, eating half of dinners out, taking really nice vacations, new cars every 3-4 years, etc. Yes those are all "small things" in the grand scheme of savings, but that is just what is visible to me---I'm sure there is much more I don't even see. Someone with a mindset like that is choosing to spend on things when they could choose to save.
We knew our kids would get no aid, so we started saving as soon as they were born. We didn't start living a luxury lifestyle until we could afford it. We paid only 50% of what we could easily afford for our first house and lived there for 7 years. Sure we could afford a newer/nicer home, but we did not need it, this house had 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths so enough space for a young family---it was relatively speaking much nicer than the apartment we came from. So we lived nicely but not luxuriously and saved the extras. We drove cars for 8-10 years and saved to pay cash for the next ones.
We also choose to not have kids until 30, so that allowed us to consciously save the extra salary and live off of basically one. We aggressively paid off all student loans, invested in our retirement. Other than our honeymoon, I was 35 before I took a "fancy vacation", yet we could have easily afforded to do so at 25/26. But that restraint allowed us to front load saving for college and then we could change our lifestyle as desired.

Same here. Our children can go almost anywhere, but only because we got started saving early and let the savings compound. We never made more than $120K either, but we've always banked at least one income. The irony is that we can now afford to live on one modest income and maintain our lifestyle. Plus, since most of our money is tucked away in retirement accounts and our house is paid off, our EFC is pretty low.

I always think about our situation when people on this board talk about not getting married until you are much older. It's a choice, but you don't get to set your family up nearly as well as if you partnered up earlier in life. However, there is nothing wrong with state schools and lower ranked colleges either.

Exactly. It's all about choices. And of course, nothing wrong with any college. Pick what works for your family, pick what's affordable. But if you choose to have kids before you have paid off your own college debt, it will be harder to save for college and that choice will impact your kid's college choices, just a simple fact of life. Life is about choices, and you get to live with the consequences of your choices as a responsible adult

Right, and if you don't have many or any choices, you are irresponsible. The fact that college costs have far outpaced inflation for decades - increasing by almost 144% in two decades - isn't relevant.

Right?

Obviously that is an issue. And we should work to address that, but given that majority of colleges are private not much can/will be done. However, there ARE affordable options to get an education and that’s the goal. So if you can’t afford on choice search for what you can afford. Not everything in life is fair, but majority of people can afford to get a college degree—just not at a top U for some

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Complain about being a donut hole family? When there are thousands of colleges that could work between in state options and merit aid at lower tier privates and other oos public’s?l is it bc ivies and top 25 are not options?

I thought it was “hundreds” of options? Now you’re talking thousands? Care to share a list of say, a 100 or so of these options within an 8hr drive? Since there are apparently so many! TIA!

There are 3000 colleges in the United States. Only 25 are in the top 25. THOUSANDS. If you want to make a state college in Arizona or Oregon work for you, you could. That you don’t want to or want to self impose a driving limit of 8 hours, (why not 10 or 12), that’s on you.

Which of these Arizona or Oregon state colleges give significant aid to OOS students? Wasn't that your whole shtick, that there are all these affordable options out there that most of us aren't considering? Most students are not getting into a T25 school so I don't know why you are singularly focused on those anyway.

Distance is reasonable to consider because flying back and forth across the country costs $$.

Oh for pete's sake, Google is your friend
Here is ASU for a 3.5 GPA, 30 ACT score
Presidents Scholarship $15,500
Your Estimated 1st Year Cost $33,570

Here is U Arizona
Non-Resident Arizona Awards
Distinction Award ($30,000-$32,000) which would bring COA to 5-10K
Excellence Award ($12,500-$20,000) which would bring COA to 12-25K

Do either of these schools have good chemistry programs?

Google or ChatGPT

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Complain about being a donut hole family? When there are thousands of colleges that could work between in state options and merit aid at lower tier privates and other oos public’s?l is it bc ivies and top 25 are not options?

I thought it was “hundreds” of options? Now you’re talking thousands? Care to share a list of say, a 100 or so of these options within an 8hr drive? Since there are apparently so many! TIA!

There are 3000 colleges in the United States. Only 25 are in the top 25. THOUSANDS. If you want to make a state college in Arizona or Oregon work for you, you could. That you don’t want to or want to self impose a driving limit of 8 hours, (why not 10 or 12), that’s on you.

Which of these Arizona or Oregon state colleges give significant aid to OOS students? Wasn't that your whole shtick, that there are all these affordable options out there that most of us aren't considering? Most students are not getting into a T25 school so I don't know why you are singularly focused on those anyway.

Distance is reasonable to consider because flying back and forth across the country costs $$.

Oh for pete's sake, Google is your friend
Here is ASU for a 3.5 GPA, 30 ACT score
Presidents Scholarship $15,500
Your Estimated 1st Year Cost $33,570

Here is U Arizona
Non-Resident Arizona Awards
Distinction Award ($30,000-$32,000) which would bring COA to 5-10K
Excellence Award ($12,500-$20,000) which would bring COA to 12-25K

Are those schools better than MD or VA state schools? Otherwise I'm not sure why you'd send your child across the country for some marginal tuition savings (provided your DC gets those scholarships), unless that's really the path they wanted to take. Surely you could find options closer to home where you could actually visit??

Merely an example of thousands of options. Personally, I'd send my kid to private but I saved for college.

Lol, if you can afford full freight private you are not a donut hole family! Geez.

Obviously. Are you donut hole? describe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's because it just feels unfair to people that if they were richer or poorer, their kids might have more options. It isn't necessarily unfair, or maybe it is, but this is how people feel. I also think that many donut hole families have parents who attended top private universities at a time when they were more affordable and it is a shock that their kids can't do the same, even though they have been saving for years. We are not a donut hole family, so this is just my guess as to how people feel.

Yes. It's if we were just a little bit poorer we could have gone to pretty much any school with financial aid and not have the very huge loans required to go to those private, selective LAC or ivy type colleges.

But you realize that narrative is a lie right? That you have fallen for a lie.

The vast majority of schools in this country don't guarantee to meet full need. Of the schools that do meet full need, most of them are going by a figure that requires loans, and those loans would be much harder for a lower income family to pay off than they would be for you.

I don't know any lower income kids who didn't work during college.

Low income kids working has shown that they miss out on internships/clubs. Now FA includes spending money do they don’t have to work.

What schools do that? I'm a high school teacher, so I talk to lots of college students coming to visit during break. How many low income kids do you know who get FA and don't have PT jobs in college?

If they go T50, none. It’s part of their contract. They are given stipends for spending money, travel to and from home is covered, they are given living expenses for unpaid internships.

I am baffled at the fact that you think that there are no students on financial aid at T50's who have part time jobs. Work study is a huge part of how the federal goverment funds colleges and university, and you can be assured that at T50 state schools like UT Austin, UVA, UGA etc . . . kids are holding work study jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's because it just feels unfair to people that if they were richer or poorer, their kids might have more options. It isn't necessarily unfair, or maybe it is, but this is how people feel. I also think that many donut hole families have parents who attended top private universities at a time when they were more affordable and it is a shock that their kids can't do the same, even though they have been saving for years. We are not a donut hole family, so this is just my guess as to how people feel.

Yes. It's if we were just a little bit poorer we could have gone to pretty much any school with financial aid and not have the very huge loans required to go to those private, selective LAC or ivy type colleges.

But you realize that narrative is a lie right? That you have fallen for a lie.

The vast majority of schools in this country don't guarantee to meet full need. Of the schools that do meet full need, most of them are going by a figure that requires loans, and those loans would be much harder for a lower income family to pay off than they would be for you.

I don't know any lower income kids who didn't work during college.

Low income kids working has shown that they miss out on internships/clubs. Now FA includes spending money do they don’t have to work.

What schools do that? I'm a high school teacher, so I talk to lots of college students coming to visit during break. How many low income kids do you know who get FA and don't have PT jobs in college?

If they go T50, none. It’s part of their contract. They are given stipends for spending money, travel to and from home is covered, they are given living expenses for unpaid internships.

I am baffled at the fact that you think that there are no students on financial aid at T50's who have part time jobs. Work study is a huge part of how the federal goverment funds colleges and university, and you can be assured that at T50 state schools like UT Austin, UVA, UGA etc . . . kids are holding work study jobs.

Partial FA YES but full ride kids no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's because it just feels unfair to people that if they were richer or poorer, their kids might have more options. It isn't necessarily unfair, or maybe it is, but this is how people feel. I also think that many donut hole families have parents who attended top private universities at a time when they were more affordable and it is a shock that their kids can't do the same, even though they have been saving for years. We are not a donut hole family, so this is just my guess as to how people feel.

Yes. It's if we were just a little bit poorer we could have gone to pretty much any school with financial aid and not have the very huge loans required to go to those private, selective LAC or ivy type colleges.

But you realize that narrative is a lie right? That you have fallen for a lie.

The vast majority of schools in this country don't guarantee to meet full need. Of the schools that do meet full need, most of them are going by a figure that requires loans, and those loans would be much harder for a lower income family to pay off than they would be for you.

I don't know any lower income kids who didn't work during college.

Low income kids working has shown that they miss out on internships/clubs. Now FA includes spending money do they don’t have to work.

What schools do that? I'm a high school teacher, so I talk to lots of college students coming to visit during break. How many low income kids do you know who get FA and don't have PT jobs in college?

If they go T50, none. It’s part of their contract. They are given stipends for spending money, travel to and from home is covered, they are given living expenses for unpaid internships.

I am baffled at the fact that you think that there are no students on financial aid at T50's who have part time jobs. Work study is a huge part of how the federal goverment funds colleges and university, and you can be assured that at T50 state schools like UT Austin, UVA, UGA etc . . . kids are holding work study jobs.

Partial FA YES but full ride kids no.

But full rides are generally MERIT scholarships.

Yes, if you get something like GT Stamps, or UMD Banneker Key the above applies. And if you get into a merit based program like Questbridge. But to say "none" when you're talking about a tiny fraction of all students is wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Poor people do not have more options. Most truly poor people are not in the college pipeline.

Additionally, if those "donut hole" families lived like the poor people, rented where they rent, shopped where they shop, etc., they'd have tons of options too. Just saying.

+1

I get that some have special circumstances--medical debt or something unforeseen. But most donut hole families that I know made choices to spend elsewhere. New iPhone every year, 2 Starbucks trips per day, eating lunch out daily, eating half of dinners out, taking really nice vacations, new cars every 3-4 years, etc. Yes those are all "small things" in the grand scheme of savings, but that is just what is visible to me---I'm sure there is much more I don't even see. Someone with a mindset like that is choosing to spend on things when they could choose to save.
We knew our kids would get no aid, so we started saving as soon as they were born. We didn't start living a luxury lifestyle until we could afford it. We paid only 50% of what we could easily afford for our first house and lived there for 7 years. Sure we could afford a newer/nicer home, but we did not need it, this house had 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths so enough space for a young family---it was relatively speaking much nicer than the apartment we came from. So we lived nicely but not luxuriously and saved the extras. We drove cars for 8-10 years and saved to pay cash for the next ones.
We also choose to not have kids until 30, so that allowed us to consciously save the extra salary and live off of basically one. We aggressively paid off all student loans, invested in our retirement. Other than our honeymoon, I was 35 before I took a "fancy vacation", yet we could have easily afforded to do so at 25/26. But that restraint allowed us to front load saving for college and then we could change our lifestyle as desired.

Same here. Our children can go almost anywhere, but only because we got started saving early and let the savings compound. We never made more than $120K either, but we've always banked at least one income. The irony is that we can now afford to live on one modest income and maintain our lifestyle. Plus, since most of our money is tucked away in retirement accounts and our house is paid off, our EFC is pretty low.

I always think about our situation when people on this board talk about not getting married until you are much older. It's a choice, but you don't get to set your family up nearly as well as if you partnered up earlier in life. However, there is nothing wrong with state schools and lower ranked colleges either.

Exactly. It's all about choices. And of course, nothing wrong with any college. Pick what works for your family, pick what's affordable. But if you choose to have kids before you have paid off your own college debt, it will be harder to save for college and that choice will impact your kid's college choices, just a simple fact of life. Life is about choices, and you get to live with the consequences of your choices as a responsible adult

Right, and if you don't have many or any choices, you are irresponsible. The fact that college costs have far outpaced inflation for decades - increasing by almost 144% in two decades - isn't relevant.

Right?

Obviously that is an issue. And we should work to address that, but given that majority of colleges are private not much can/will be done. However, there ARE affordable options to get an education and that’s the goal. So if you can’t afford on choice search for what you can afford. Not everything in life is fair, but majority of people can afford to get a college degree—just not at a top U for some

The only real affordable options out there for the AVERAGE American (not the "feel poor" DCUMers making $300k per year) is community college or commuting to a state university. Look up average HHIs around the country and tell me how these people are supposed to sock away hundreds of dollars per month for their kid to live on campus at even a state university? And then do that for multiple kids. It's just not reality for most. I'm not saying these are bad options but lets not pretend they're not limited.

I will never cease to be shocked by the clueless posters on here who think people could fully fund college if only they never got Starbucks, got rid of cable, or stop driving BMWs.