Does everyone on here with kids applying to top 50 schools really have the $80K per year to spend?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These schools may not offer merit aid, but they all offer need based aid and many are need blind. What's the issue?

Because donut hole families in high cost areas are screwed!!

Their kid can get into Ivies, Hopkins, etc., but will have to be full pay at $85-90k because at $175k HHI they aren’t considered in need. $360k for each kids’ undergrad is not doable without major loans even with $150k in each 529. In fact, the asserts and 529 count against them too.

Someone making $175k will receive significant aid at an Ivy. Not sure why folks continue to spread this myth.

This. Our HHI was around 190k and our kid got substantial aid. We live very, very frugally and had saved most of the ~55k/year that was our contribution. The top schools give aid packages that don't include loans, so while we still live very simply, our child received a fantastic education with no debt.

you'll receive aid as long as you have "typical assets" which for most ivy league schools is about 200k outside retirement. we maybe 150k HHI and got zero aid from Princeton, one of the more generous schools.

Sorry you had too much wealth in assets?

Yeah, I guess. No home equity and my retirement accounts are just okay, but I had about 350k in my investment account. I should have bought a place and "hid" my money in a house, I guess. DC didn't take Princeton and the debt that came along w it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These schools may not offer merit aid, but they all offer need based aid and many are need blind. What's the issue?

Because donut hole families in high cost areas are screwed!!

Their kid can get into Ivies, Hopkins, etc., but will have to be full pay at $85-90k because at $175k HHI they aren’t considered in need. $360k for each kids’ undergrad is not doable without major loans even with $150k in each 529. In fact, the asserts and 529 count against them too.

Someone making $175k will receive significant aid at an Ivy. Not sure why folks continue to spread this myth.

This. Our HHI was around 190k and our kid got substantial aid. We live very, very frugally and had saved most of the ~55k/year that was our contribution. The top schools give aid packages that don't include loans, so while we still live very simply, our child received a fantastic education with no debt.

you'll receive aid as long as you have "typical assets" which for most ivy league schools is about 200k outside retirement. we maybe 150k HHI and got zero aid from Princeton, one of the more generous schools.

Don't they offer full rides to students with HHI of less than 150k? I'm pretty sure they didn't offer you zero. Are you saying you have more than "typical assets"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These schools may not offer merit aid, but they all offer need based aid and many are need blind. What's the issue?

Because donut hole families in high cost areas are screwed!!

Their kid can get into Ivies, Hopkins, etc., but will have to be full pay at $85-90k because at $175k HHI they aren’t considered in need. $360k for each kids’ undergrad is not doable without major loans even with $150k in each 529. In fact, the asserts and 529 count against them too.

Someone making $175k will receive significant aid at an Ivy. Not sure why folks continue to spread this myth.

This. Our HHI was around 190k and our kid got substantial aid. We live very, very frugally and had saved most of the ~55k/year that was our contribution. The top schools give aid packages that don't include loans, so while we still live very simply, our child received a fantastic education with no debt.

you'll receive aid as long as you have "typical assets" which for most ivy league schools is about 200k outside retirement. we maybe 150k HHI and got zero aid from Princeton, one of the more generous schools.

Sorry you had too much wealth in assets?

Yeah, I guess. No home equity and my retirement accounts are just okay, but I had about 350k in my investment account. I should have bought a place and "hid" my money in a house, I guess. DC didn't take Princeton and the debt that came along w it.

I don't think I understand your priorities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These schools may not offer merit aid, but they all offer need based aid and many are need blind. What's the issue?

Because donut hole families in high cost areas are screwed!!

Their kid can get into Ivies, Hopkins, etc., but will have to be full pay at $85-90k because at $175k HHI they aren’t considered in need. $360k for each kids’ undergrad is not doable without major loans even with $150k in each 529. In fact, the asserts and 529 count against them too.

There is no such thing as donut hole. Our kids will go to a state school which we saved for since birth. No vacations now, no nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had the money to pay for top 50 but that doesn’t mean it would have been smart to just pay it. Our kids went to UVA and William & Mary. No way were we going to pay for private. That’s nuts.

Not all states have such good options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here.
I get that $90K is a rounding error for some on here and two weeks' salaries for others.

But I bet that for most of us, $360K is not an insignificant amount.
And yet we're fighting each other for the privilege of paying it.

We are truly idiots for playing into this. Excuse my insult as I include myself in that group.

OP, you had many chances to get there with so little money. When Netflix raised their DVD monthly rental from $7 to $11, it was time to buy Netflix stock. When Apple came out with Iphone, you still had several years to buy the stock to get to $360k. When you were shopping on Amazon, you should have been buying the stock. All in all, ca $30k in any one of them, would have taken you there.
There are so many other companies that were clearly going to do well.
I started really late like in 2020 because of work and visa problems.Almost 20 years down the drain, and I still made it. My older one doesn't want me pay that much for college and wants to go to community college. Younger one is about to get $300k, but outside of 529 ofcourse. Younger DC has 10 years til college. We were never high earners. We had to make money work for us even if we knew nothing about it. Well, almost nothing. It's extremely good time to be in the market and/or enter the market now to forever. Not a financial advice.

First of all, not everyone is a savvy investor. And I'll go further than not many people know much about investing at all. So good for you? But you're expected a tremendous amount of financial know-all for most people. I grew up pretty poor and I can tell you I didn't have any sort of "investing" until I was nearly 30. Partly due to my debt (school) to income ratio and partly due to just not knowing.

Second, you imply that people should give up any sort of luxury, however small, to fund college. And I fundamentally disagree with that. Colleges are overpriced. Loans are predatory. And yet, despite what we say about "you can do well at any college" there aer many that will only hire from ivies, top tiers, etc. I saw that first hand in my own line of work. So people have valid reasons to want those schools.

Where did you work that would only hire from "ivies, top tiers, etc"? Because there really are not many areas that are like that. People do NOT have valid reasons to want those schools. There are literally only ~50-60K freshman matriculating at T25 schools each year. Yet millions of people are happy, succesful in their careers. Do the math, majority of them did not attend T25 schools.

At my aged agency- my incoming class I had 6 Ivy alum and me and two others with state university degrees. We all came in sane grade/step and all make the same 25 years later.

My takeaway is that 6 of 9 jobs were given to grads that came from 8 schools and 3 jobs from the remaining 3992 schools. Congrats…but those odds seem heavily stacked towards elite schools.

[Anonymous]

My son is an athlete and it ended up being about $40K/year after scholarships.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:“Any kid who can get into a "T10" school is likeliest going to succeed no matter where they go. Even to a state school that is not within the artificial list of T50 schools that a newspaper creates every year.”

This might be one of the most important things in this discussion…if your kid is Ivy material but somehow ends up at U of Oklahoma, make the most of it.

If kid is that special, get a high GPA, get in an honors program, get name on some research, get super recommendations from professors, take advantage of professors’ and dean’s’ connections around the world, win awards for academic excellence, get ahead of the game credit-wise so u can undertake some master’s program they might let super achievers into. On and on.

Even mediocre big public universities get their share of really smart students & have ways of keeping them entertained & challenged. Be resourceful in letting it be known that you are happy to be there but would happier if you could explore special opportunities.

I understand what you are trying to say, but your example is that you need to be the superstar at Oklahoma just to get to the same place as the average Harvard kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These schools may not offer merit aid, but they all offer need based aid and many are need blind. What's the issue?

Because donut hole families in high cost areas are screwed!!

Their kid can get into Ivies, Hopkins, etc., but will have to be full pay at $85-90k because at $175k HHI they aren’t considered in need. $360k for each kids’ undergrad is not doable without major loans even with $150k in each 529. In fact, the asserts and 529 count against them too.

Someone making $175k will receive significant aid at an Ivy. Not sure why folks continue to spread this myth.

This. Our HHI was around 190k and our kid got substantial aid. We live very, very frugally and had saved most of the ~55k/year that was our contribution. The top schools give aid packages that don't include loans, so while we still live very simply, our child received a fantastic education with no debt.

The aid packages say no loans, but that plenty still have to take them. We have a similar HHI and two kids, so they will be taking loans if they want to go to a school that costs more than our EFC. I would love to meet the person who managed to save twice their current hhi in addition to funding retirement

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These schools may not offer merit aid, but they all offer need based aid and many are need blind. What's the issue?

Because donut hole families in high cost areas are screwed!!

Their kid can get into Ivies, Hopkins, etc., but will have to be full pay at $85-90k because at $175k HHI they aren’t considered in need. $360k for each kids’ undergrad is not doable without major loans even with $150k in each 529. In fact, the asserts and 529 count against them too.

Someone making $175k will receive significant aid at an Ivy. Not sure why folks continue to spread this myth.

This. Our HHI was around 190k and our kid got substantial aid. We live very, very frugally and had saved most of the ~55k/year that was our contribution. The top schools give aid packages that don't include loans, so while we still live very simply, our child received a fantastic education with no debt.

The aid packages say no loans, but that plenty still have to take them. We have a similar HHI and two kids, so they will be taking loans if they want to go to a school that costs more than our EFC. I would love to meet the person who managed to save twice their current hhi in addition to funding retirement

You're responding to me. Granted that I don't think we could have done it with two kids. Our limited resources were the reason we stopped at one. For my family, being able to pay for a superior undergraduate education even though we're government/non-profit types was part of a large plan with many moving parts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These schools may not offer merit aid, but they all offer need based aid and many are need blind. What's the issue?

Because donut hole families in high cost areas are screwed!!

Their kid can get into Ivies, Hopkins, etc., but will have to be full pay at $85-90k because at $175k HHI they aren’t considered in need. $360k for each kids’ undergrad is not doable without major loans even with $150k in each 529. In fact, the asserts and 529 count against them too.

Someone making $175k will receive significant aid at an Ivy. Not sure why folks continue to spread this myth.

This. Our HHI was around 190k and our kid got substantial aid. We live very, very frugally and had saved most of the ~55k/year that was our contribution. The top schools give aid packages that don't include loans, so while we still live very simply, our child received a fantastic education with no debt.

The aid packages say no loans, but that plenty still have to take them. We have a similar HHI and two kids, so they will be taking loans if they want to go to a school that costs more than our EFC. I would love to meet the person who managed to save twice their current hhi in addition to funding retirement

They meet your EFC with no loans. You may not like your EFC, but elite schools do make up that whole difference in aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These schools may not offer merit aid, but they all offer need based aid and many are need blind. What's the issue?

Because donut hole families in high cost areas are screwed!!

Their kid can get into Ivies, Hopkins, etc., but will have to be full pay at $85-90k because at $175k HHI they aren’t considered in need. $360k for each kids’ undergrad is not doable without major loans even with $150k in each 529. In fact, the asserts and 529 count against them too.

Someone making $175k will receive significant aid at an Ivy. Not sure why folks continue to spread this myth.

This. Our HHI was around 190k and our kid got substantial aid. We live very, very frugally and had saved most of the ~55k/year that was our contribution. The top schools give aid packages that don't include loans, so while we still live very simply, our child received a fantastic education with no debt.

The aid packages say no loans, but that plenty still have to take them. We have a similar HHI and two kids, so they will be taking loans if they want to go to a school that costs more than our EFC. I would love to meet the person who managed to save twice their current hhi in addition to funding retirement

You're responding to me. Granted that I don't think we could have done it with two kids. Our limited resources were the reason we stopped at one. For my family, being able to pay for a superior undergraduate education even though we're government/non-profit types was part of a large plan with many moving parts.

Unless your kids are very young, the rules changed after they were born. FAFSA used to take siblings into account, now it doesn't which means that each dollar in either 529 is theoretically available to simultaneously pay both tuitions according to the new calculation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These schools may not offer merit aid, but they all offer need based aid and many are need blind. What's the issue?

Because donut hole families in high cost areas are screwed!!

Their kid can get into Ivies, Hopkins, etc., but will have to be full pay at $85-90k because at $175k HHI they aren’t considered in need. $360k for each kids’ undergrad is not doable without major loans even with $150k in each 529. In fact, the asserts and 529 count against them too.

Someone making $175k will receive significant aid at an Ivy. Not sure why folks continue to spread this myth.

This. Our HHI was around 190k and our kid got substantial aid. We live very, very frugally and had saved most of the ~55k/year that was our contribution. The top schools give aid packages that don't include loans, so while we still live very simply, our child received a fantastic education with no debt.

The aid packages say no loans, but that plenty still have to take them. We have a similar HHI and two kids, so they will be taking loans if they want to go to a school that costs more than our EFC. I would love to meet the person who managed to save twice their current hhi in addition to funding retirement

They meet your EFC with no loans. You may not like your EFC, but elite schools do make up that whole difference in aid.

On a 200k HHI, our EFC from FAFSA schools is over 100k (50k per kid). To us that makes the no loans pledge a joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Any kid who can get into a "T10" school is likeliest going to succeed no matter where they go. Even to a state school that is not within the artificial list of T50 schools that a newspaper creates every year.”

This might be one of the most important things in this discussion…if your kid is Ivy material but somehow ends up at U of Oklahoma, make the most of it.

If kid is that special, get a high GPA, get in an honors program, get name on some research, get super recommendations from professors, take advantage of professors’ and dean’s’ connections around the world, win awards for academic excellence, get ahead of the game credit-wise so u can undertake some master’s program they might let super achievers into. On and on.

Even mediocre big public universities get their share of really smart students & have ways of keeping them entertained & challenged. Be resourceful in letting it be known that you are happy to be there but would happier if you could explore special opportunities.

I understand what you are trying to say, but your example is that you need to be the superstar at Oklahoma just to get to the same place as the average Harvard kid.

+1

True. From the U of Ok, the kid needed an ivy masters degree to even compete with an ivy undergrad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These schools may not offer merit aid, but they all offer need based aid and many are need blind. What's the issue?

Because donut hole families in high cost areas are screwed!!

Their kid can get into Ivies, Hopkins, etc., but will have to be full pay at $85-90k because at $175k HHI they aren’t considered in need. $360k for each kids’ undergrad is not doable without major loans even with $150k in each 529. In fact, the asserts and 529 count against them too.

Someone making $175k will receive significant aid at an Ivy. Not sure why folks continue to spread this myth.

This. Our HHI was around 190k and our kid got substantial aid. We live very, very frugally and had saved most of the ~55k/year that was our contribution. The top schools give aid packages that don't include loans, so while we still live very simply, our child received a fantastic education with no debt.

you'll receive aid as long as you have "typical assets" which for most ivy league schools is about 200k outside retirement. we maybe 150k HHI and got zero aid from Princeton, one of the more generous schools.

Sorry you had too much wealth in assets?

Yeah, I guess. No home equity and my retirement accounts are just okay, but I had about 350k in my investment account. I should have bought a place and "hid" my money in a house, I guess. DC didn't take Princeton and the debt that came along w it.

I thought some schools took home value into account. We were told what we have in 529s abs our home equity (just not retirement savings) would be a mark against us for aid.