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

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have 1 kid that will go 4 yrs in state. The other is doing HS DE and will finish his last 2 yrs in state. I think where they go for grad school is more important than where they go for undergrad.

Why waste $$$s on grad school? It’s usually a terrible investment.

Never understand this thinking.

[Anonymous]

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?[/quote]

The money comes from family and parents. People never share this info, but this is what’s making this magic happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:also, my real question is what type of income level is eligible for financial aid? I have been googling this and can't get a clear answer....

Here is an easy calculator for FA estimates used by some prestigious schools. You can mess around with the figures. Scroll to the bottom to find a school of interest.
https://myintuition.org/

[Anonymous]

My base Fed salary as a GS-14, step 10, is $190k. With bonuses slightly over $200k. That’s just one of our salaries. Married y to o myself HHI would bf $400k two Feds.

[Anonymous]

OP, haven’t you been saving since your kids were born?

[Anonymous]

we make less than 250.

one kid got full tuition merit aid.

the other one went to community college for the first 2 years.

i think 75k or more per year for college is nuts.

[Anonymous]

We are at 250k with twins entering this year and got no FA. We have about 85k per kid saved which limited them instate options. We will take loans/bank roll the rest (total will be about 120k per kid for all 4 years.)

[Anonymous]

Money was a serious issue for us. We found that if kid can accumulate enough credits through AP exams & community college classes taken while in high school, it makes graduating from college in 3 years possible. This saved a year’s worth of tuition & kid was a full-time finance worker at age 21.

[Anonymous]

$240k HHI with 2 kids in college and no financial aid (before the FAFSA change). You can get merit aid - best bet is to find the right fit (major, location, a place your kid really wants to be, and their scores are at the top for that school).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are at 250k with twins entering this year and got no FA. We have about 85k per kid saved which limited them instate options. We will take loans/bank roll the rest (total will be about 120k per kid for all 4 years.)

Which schools?
We are well over 300K with twins and got aid/scholarship from ND and Northeastern.
Paying little less than 40K for ND and little over 40K for Northeastern.
They are are juniors.

[Anonymous]

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.

There are a lot of private schools where merit can bring the price down to $50k or lower. Just have to look beyond T30ish

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Money was a serious issue for us. We found that if kid can accumulate enough credits through AP exams & community college classes taken while in high school, it makes graduating from college in 3 years possible. This saved a year’s worth of tuition & kid was a full-time finance worker at age 21.

3 years can typically put you at a big disadvantage applying for jobs, and you sometimes have to cram the academic experience with grueling overloaded classes. Can be great at some places, but I've seen the rush to graduate burn out friends and significantly handicap them later.

[Anonymous]

OP. Sorry people have been rude. You ask a good question. With what feels like a lot of schools costing $70k+, it feels crippling. I know I have saved a little but our income didn't grow enough to save more until the kids were teens. And earlier I was trying to squirrel away money for my retirement.

With kids that are 14 and 16, it feels like this mountain in my future.

[Anonymous]

You never really know what's going on with people's finances. Maybe they saved a long time, maybe grandparents are helping, maybe they are taking out a lot of loans. Maybe they get some employer help -- I know a couple people who work for an agency that will pay off student loans for the employee's child after x years of work.

And number of kids matters a lot. DD's best friend goes to one of those $80k LACs but she's an only child. Our budget was max $40k/kid with two kids. So if we'd had only one we certainly could have done the $80k schools. In the end we're paying a bit <$30k per kid because they picked an in-state public and a private with large merit.