FAFSA says we can pay $90K; should we have applied for FA?
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Anonymous
We make just north of $200k and have a $56k EFC as one data point. |
Anonymous
| Had right about $300k HHI which returned the $99k EFC. I think that's the highest EFC that they calculate so you may get that same EFC with a smaller number. If prices keep rising they may have to adjust the computer to another digit. |
Anonymous
Ugh, sounds just like us. So discouraging. What are they thinking? $56K per year? |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
Actually, I don't have a problem with it. It isn't supposed to come out of cash flow. It is a known expense and we have had almost 20 years to save for it. We can definitely afford it. |
Anonymous
Actually, since the EFC is calculated primarily on income, as opposed to savings, one could be forgiven for thinking it *is* supposed to come out of cash flow. You can have a million dollars socked away in a retirement account, and that doesn't get counted at all in calculating EFC. But if you make $200k in Northern VA (on two incomes), you are supposed to pony up one-quarter of annual gross income on college tuition. #notgonnahappen No worries, VA has great in-state options. But if you've ever wondered why so many TJ grads are going to UVA instead of the Ivy League....this is why. |
Anonymous
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^UVA is in the Ivy League. |
Anonymous
| UVA is definitely not in the Ivy League. |
Anonymous
No it most certainly is not. |
Anonymous
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The problem is that private college costs are TOO HIGH!!
We visited Bard College not long ago. They have a $60 million arts center designed by Frank Ghery. Why? Couldn't they have built a $20 million arts center and put that $40 million toward financial aid, or just toward lowering tutition? Bard costs $65K for freshman year. Insane. In-state tuition is under $25 K in every state. Private colleges are run like for-profit institutions. They ought to be taxed! Take away their non-profit status now! I'm middle class, and I have enough money to pay for Bard College, but DD is going to our state U. If Bard cost $30K, I'd think about it, but at $65K, no way! It's not worth it. Not even Harvard is worth it. I know a family whose kid got into MIT, but he chose the state U instead. MIT is a great school, but the family couldn't justify the extra $40K per year expense. Their kid's a genius, but he's at a state U in the midwest. I think lots more genius kids are going to head to state colleges in the future as private college costs continue to increase. It's crazy! Tax these schools! |
Anonymous
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Bard College is $63,626 for first year students. They gave financial aid to 68% of the group and an average grand of $37,800 institutional funds. So the average amount paid by 68% of the students is $25,826. Any you can likely take Pell grant money off of that. So, 68% of Bard students are paying exactly your quoted state school amount.
Bard's incoming class was 563 students. That means that 180 paid the full fee. That's out of 6960 applicants to the school. Bard's not too expensive as they only need to find 180 full pay students each year upon which to operate and subsidize the remaining 383. And I expect those 180 are happy to be there and pay the tab. Similar numbers for MIT. 1141 in the freshman class. 703 on financial aid. 438 full pay. Average financial aid recipient got $38,763. This is out of a total fee of about $58,000. They had a total of almost 19,000 applicants for those 1141 spots. Only needed 438 full pay from that 19,000. The reality is that the full-pay people at these type schools are seeing value for the expenditure and are unlikely to prefer a much less expensive UMass or SUNY-Albany. There are plenty of folks in cities paying HS tuition not that far from these numbers to entice to expensive colleges. And these schools have much larger percent of their students on financial aid than DC/NYC private HS. You don't think they are worth the price. Apparently enough other folks do so they are not likely to be closing their doors anytime soon. But genius kids who choose to go to state schools should take solace in study after study that shows they are likely to perform just as well in the long run as if they had taken the more expensive route. |
Anonymous
But that's not true. Only 180 Bard students are full-pay. Clearly the majority, 68% if your numbers are accurate, don't feel Bard is worth paying full price. And how many of Bard's 6960 applicants were accepted, but decided to go to other schools, including state schools? Perhaps the majority of those accepted applicants (my DD included) concluded that Bard is NOT worth the price. Your statistics don't address my point: Bard College and most other private colleges are too expensive! Perhaps 75% of the class would be full-pay if Bard only charged $30K. And they certainly could charge a lot less if they didn't spend so much on superficial things, including that $60 million Frank Ghery-designed art center. Also, according to the Bard College Financial Aid page on it's website, the cost for first year students is $64,988. (I rounded up the $12.) $65,000 is a lot of money to pay for nine months of school. Not worth it to me, no way, when my DD can get almost the same education for 1/3 the price at our state school. DD is smart, and she'll do fine, even at a "lesser" school. Plus, since a lot more people like us are opting for in-state tuition instead of more selective (and expensive) private colleges, a lot more smart kids are ending up at the state schools, so DD will be in good company. |
Anonymous
This cannot be true. Our HHI is $118K, yet our EFC is $69K. We are savers, so we've paid off our mortgage and put aside retirement money. We cannot possibly pay 58% of our income for college costs. We are a family of six people! We can barely make ends meet on $118K, and we live very frugally. The FAFSA asked for the value of our home and other assets, so clearly its calculating our EFC based mostly on our assets, not our income. |
Anonymous
Congrats on paying off your house and saing fro retirement. How much have you saved for college? |
Anonymous
This doesn't make sense. We have a gross income ~$200k, $600k in house value and $1.4m in retirement accounts and ours was ~$54k. Are your retirement funds in retirement vehicles or in other investments? |