No financial aid for middle class at public college???

[Anonymous]

Also, well-endowed privates might give you significant financial aid. Try running some Net Price Calculators. Start with Harvard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also, well-endowed privates might give you significant financial aid. Try running some Net Price Calculators. Start with Harvard.

The privates that give the most aid are the hardest to get into, almost a lottery system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We make that and paid $68k per year for OOS public. We had no savings, just paid out of pocket. Sure it was painful, but very doable.

. Which OOS? We have a child at Purdue and it is around $42k all in.

[Anonymous]

Community College does not offer the same quality of education as a well respected 4 year institution. If your goal is just to get a degree that is fine, but don’t kid yourself that a student is learning critical thinking or leadership skills. Both my MIL and aunt teach at different community colleges and it is a very different student body. Community College fills an extreme important niche, but don’t kid yourself on the quality of education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Community College does not offer the same quality of education as a well respected 4 year institution. If your goal is just to get a degree that is fine, but don’t kid yourself that a student is learning critical thinking or leadership skills. Both my MIL and aunt teach at different community colleges and it is a very different student body. Community College fills an extreme important niche, but don’t kid yourself on the quality of education.

MC or NVCC?
I don’t think this post is accurate

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Community College does not offer the same quality of education as a well respected 4 year institution. If your goal is just to get a degree that is fine, but don’t kid yourself that a student is learning critical thinking or leadership skills. Both my MIL and aunt teach at different community colleges and it is a very different student body. Community College fills an extreme important niche, but don’t kid yourself on the quality of education.

MC or NVCC?
I don’t think this post is accurate

Probably not PC thing to say but I have to agree. There is no free meals in education.

[Anonymous]

OP I have twins and make the exact same amount you do. My dh and I also got a late start because of advanced degrees. I would look into privates with good endowments for financial aid purposes. Have you looked at the FASFA at all? Your expected contribution might be less because you will have two in school at the same time in addition to the 6th grader. I agree with people who say reduced your expenses for the next four years and put away 10k per a kid. Also do you have parents who can help? I am wishing you the best.

[Anonymous]

Don't sweat it OP. At some point you can downsize--maybe move into a condo or smaller house. You should have some disposable income then to help pay tuition. It will all work out. I would keep your money in property. If you sell and rent, you will have a ton of liquid savings, which, combined with upper-middle-class income, will get you less financial aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they are really excellent students, there are public colleges and universities that will give them full tuition, and cover some of their room and board costs as well. Your kids are only freshmen so you have some time to do your research on this and figure out the requirements.

I’d like to know which colleges do this, i.e., FULL tuition. I know some that cover a large chunk for high stats kids, but the FULL tuition awards I’ve seen were for one or two highly competitive scholarships.

Alabama, South Carolina, University of New Mexico etc. There are a lot of solid but not spectacular schools that will give full rides to NMF super high stats kids.

[Anonymous]

Why are you touring colleges with freshmen? The school they love/hate today will be totally different from the one they love/hate tomorrow when you start this early.

Sick away money. Stop all unnecessary expenses. Don’t keep up with the Jones’.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Community College does not offer the same quality of education as a well respected 4 year institution. If your goal is just to get a degree that is fine, but don’t kid yourself that a student is learning critical thinking or leadership skills. Both my MIL and aunt teach at different community colleges and it is a very different student body. Community College fills an extreme important niche, but don’t kid yourself on the quality of education.

MC or NVCC?
I don’t think this post is accurate

Probably not PC thing to say but I have to agree. There is no free meals in education.

Honestly I think the education you get at a community college for the courses offered are just as good as you would get at most 4 year institutions. The student body will be significantly different, but the courses taught will be similar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have freshman twins and did our first college tour. The twins are excited to go to school together at the same school, and are willing to go wherever we can afford. They are very bright with great grades at public high school so they can likely get in many schools but we are only letting them go to public colleges that we can afford.

Even at public colleges, tuition plus expenses (room/board) will be about $25k each year at the cheapest options and we are not considering schools more than $10k tuition/year due to our finances. How can DH and I afford the $50k/year for the twins? We won't qualify for help with FAFSA. We make $200k together and and all that money goes to the mortgage that won't be paid off for another 29 years (we couldn't afford a house until we paid off our college debts). We've been saving in our 529 but will only have about $50k total, after scraping by.

We would be willing to sell our house but we have a younger child who will only be in 6th grade when they start college so we need to stay here meanwhile. Then we will sell our house and rent a small apartment to pay these debts.

How have other families managed? Did you take loans against your house? Did you rent out rooms in house when they were at college? Did you have your kids sign up for ROTC/join army? Other ideas? Did you take jobs you hated for more money? We are worried and don't know how to tell our twins that they may need to work for many years before they can go to college.

We had our son take out student loans in his own name without our finances being taken into consideration. He had a part time job and we filed tax returns the year before he entered college that he used as part of the process. He then was eligible for FAFSA and all loans were under his name. We are paying those for him in monthly increments, no way, even with diligent college saving on our part, could we have afforded the college he got into. This is how we have managed the process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Community College does not offer the same quality of education as a well respected 4 year institution. If your goal is just to get a degree that is fine, but don’t kid yourself that a student is learning critical thinking or leadership skills. Both my MIL and aunt teach at different community colleges and it is a very different student body. Community College fills an extreme important niche, but don’t kid yourself on the quality of education.

MC or NVCC?
I don’t think this post is accurate

Probably not PC thing to say but I have to agree. There is no free meals in education.

Not so.
"Community college students who transfer to selective four-year schools perform as well as—or even better than—their peers who come directly from high school."
https://www.forbes.com/sites/nancyleesanchez/2019/01/30/community-college-transfers-outperform-high-schoolers-at-top-colleges-so-why-do-we-ignore-them/?fbclid=IwAR0yErwsCz2BBIaUAxgL7VB5x0J00s-4BSwOEfnfCicTH2NL-d_DY6wJ_fY#25b3ec8859d7

Worth a read. I was impressed when doing visits with my son how many colleges are encouraging students to start out at community colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Community College does not offer the same quality of education as a well respected 4 year institution. If your goal is just to get a degree that is fine, but don’t kid yourself that a student is learning critical thinking or leadership skills. Both my MIL and aunt teach at different community colleges and it is a very different student body. Community College fills an extreme important niche, but don’t kid yourself on the quality of education.

MC or NVCC?
I don’t think this post is accurate

Probably not PC thing to say but I have to agree. There is no free meals in education.

Honestly I think the education you get at a community college for the courses offered are just as good as you would get at most 4 year institutions. The student body will be significantly different, but the courses taught will be similar.

Classes are frequently smaller at our community college. Freshman English at community college--40 students, Freshman English at our Division I college 300 students or more.
Professors are much more reachable/accessible at our community college. Professors at our Division I college in town (50,000 undergrad students) can be kind
of remote. Each year 1/3 of our community college students transfers to the 4 year college in town, the best 4 year college in our state.

The students that started at community college and transfer get the exact diploma that 4 year college students get upon graduation.

[Anonymous]

Check out

Mr. Money Mustache Blog and Forum

Also, I'd talk to the Army recruiter and see what ROTC
has to offer. If twins want to be RN's or medical
they can get some good deals.