At what income are you unlikely to get any aid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our HHI is $145K, but we have $350K in savings outside of retirement accounts. Three years ago, we were denied any aid at every private college including Yale. The FAFSA said we could pay $59K. Ha. Ha. Ha. We're very close to retirement too.
Our youngest child is going in-state with merit aid and a bunch of scholarships. We would not allow DC to apply to any private colleges because even with merit, in-state would always be cheaper.
I really don't get what "qualifies" you for FA, especially at very wealthy colleges (think Northwestern, HYPSM, Haverford, etc.). We're middle class, live in a small house, drive old cars, live frugally. Why should we spend most of our savings to send our DC to a fancy private college? Why do the colleges think this is reasonable? We'd be crazy to do so, especially so near to retirement. It would be irresponsible of us to spend down our rainy-day fund. What if one of us gets laid off? We'd have no savings to fall back on.
Thank God for in-state colleges!!!

Are you self employed? Otherwise, I can't explain Yale. My kid is in another T10 school which doesn't count home equity, and our EFC from FAFSA was also $59K. This is about what we are paying, so about $20K FA, no loans.

Not self employed, but can't pay $59K. In-state is about $19K with merit and scholarships. Yale gave us nothing three years ago, but we only had one kid in college. Now we'll have two. No mortgage, as we inherited our house, so maybe that's why we got no FA. But that's crazy too. We're supposed to mortgage our house to pay for our kid to go to college right before we retire?

The whole system is broken for middle class people like us.

Yes, it was the house— Yales counts equity in home and if you live in a high housing cost area they counted it as a high equity towards your total assets.

I thought the $350K saving in non-retirement accounts is more significant than the house. If you have $350K sitting on your bank account, why would colleges give your child need-based aid? You should use at least part of the $350K towards tuition first, right? For a family with $145K HHI, emergency funds should be about $50K (6 months of after-tax HHI)?

5% of the $350k is expected to be used towards tuition in calculating EFC. My point was that the OP’s contribution may have been lower at schools that use CSS and don’t count home equity. OP’s income is way below Yale’s threshold for no aid. So yes, the $350k is considered but that is not the only reason they didn’t get aid. OP has to have other assets not accounted for in the post and my guess is home equity which many people on this board and people I know in NYC and CA never consider. That is why Stanford and USC dropped home equity in their financial aid formulas. People in high COL areas with expensive homes tend to have more equity because of the rapid increase in real estate value.

But PP said they live in a small house.

Small house where? I have a friend in the LA area that lives in a small house worth $2m! Bethesda, Arlington, etc.? Does that small house have a mortgage? If no mortgage and worth $550k that all equity.

[Anonymous]

Colleges don’t care if you are “near retirement.” Couldn’t the majority of parents say this?

[Anonymous]

If you make $300k and have some assets and no debt, don’t bother filling out FAFSA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Didn’t get any aid at 106k HHI, EFC 29k.

Where did you apply? Were these schools that say they meet 100% need?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

dvandivier wrote:If significant amount in savings (outside of retirement), it almost doesn't seem to matter the income (either/or).

+1

It doesn’t take much
1 million => 56k EFC

That’s a lot of money to have outside of college funds and retirement.

Not if you are older parents and very close to retirement

It’s outside of retirement!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you make $300k and have some assets and no debt, don’t bother filling out FAFSA. [/quo

Cut this in half. $150 need not apply.

[Anonymous]

Some schools have a higher limit for financial aid, most families with $150k and under with average assets and liabilities get a full ride.

Some of these colleges doesn’t count student loans in financial aid any more so students graduate completely debt free. Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth, Rice, MIT, Amherst, Pomona, Brown, Columbia, Bowdoin, Davidson, Stanford, Swarthmore, U Chicago come to mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some schools have a higher limit for financial aid, most families with $150k and under with average assets and liabilities get a full ride.

Some of these colleges doesn’t count student loans in financial aid any more so students graduate completely debt free. Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth, Rice, MIT, Amherst, Pomona, Brown, Columbia, Bowdoin, Davidson, Stanford, Swarthmore, U Chicago come to mind.

Kid got nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Colleges don’t care if you are “near retirement.” Couldn’t the majority of parents say this?

Well sure, but shouldn't it be relevant if a parent is 45 or 65, when assessing ability to pay? It seems weird to treat people with 20 years of earnings left as equal to someone who may soon be unable to work or have high medical expenses. They might have the same monetary assets but the 45 year old has time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Colleges don’t care if you are “near retirement.” Couldn’t the majority of parents say this?

Well sure, but shouldn't it be relevant if a parent is 45 or 65, when assessing ability to pay? It seems weird to treat people with 20 years of earnings left as equal to someone who may soon be unable to work or have high medical expenses. They might have the same monetary assets but the 45 year old has time.

The 65 year old had 20 years more to save up money that could be used for college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some schools have a higher limit for financial aid, most families with $150k and under with average assets and liabilities get a full ride.

Some of these colleges doesn’t count student loans in financial aid any more so students graduate completely debt free. Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth, Rice, MIT, Amherst, Pomona, Brown, Columbia, Bowdoin, Davidson, Stanford, Swarthmore, U Chicago come to mind.

That describes us, but we get $40k-55k on npc (40k on ones that don't include home equity). Except Harvard said 16k. I read it was under $120k gross income where you get free tuition (not free everything).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Colleges don’t care if you are “near retirement.” Couldn’t the majority of parents say this?

Well sure, but shouldn't it be relevant if a parent is 45 or 65, when assessing ability to pay? It seems weird to treat people with 20 years of earnings left as equal to someone who may soon be unable to work or have high medical expenses. They might have the same monetary assets but the 45 year old has time.

+1
We can’t afford to spend most of my retirement money on colleges when we are near retirement

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some schools have a higher limit for financial aid, most families with $150k and under with average assets and liabilities get a full ride.

Some of these colleges doesn’t count student loans in financial aid any more so students graduate completely debt free. Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth, Rice, MIT, Amherst, Pomona, Brown, Columbia, Bowdoin, Davidson, Stanford, Swarthmore, U Chicago come to mind.

Kid got nothing.

From these schools? Do you have high assets and no debt?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our HHI is $145K, but we have $350K in savings outside of retirement accounts. Three years ago, we were denied any aid at every private college including Yale. The FAFSA said we could pay $59K. Ha. Ha. Ha. We're very close to retirement too.
Our youngest child is going in-state with merit aid and a bunch of scholarships. We would not allow DC to apply to any private colleges because even with merit, in-state would always be cheaper.
I really don't get what "qualifies" you for FA, especially at very wealthy colleges (think Northwestern, HYPSM, Haverford, etc.). We're middle class, live in a small house, drive old cars, live frugally. Why should we spend most of our savings to send our DC to a fancy private college? Why do the colleges think this is reasonable? We'd be crazy to do so, especially so near to retirement. It would be irresponsible of us to spend down our rainy-day fund. What if one of us gets laid off? We'd have no savings to fall back on.
Thank God for in-state colleges!!!

Are you self employed? Otherwise, I can't explain Yale. My kid is in another T10 school which doesn't count home equity, and our EFC from FAFSA was also $59K. This is about what we are paying, so about $20K FA, no loans.

Not self employed, but can't pay $59K. In-state is about $19K with merit and scholarships. Yale gave us nothing three years ago, but we only had one kid in college. Now we'll have two. No mortgage, as we inherited our house, so maybe that's why we got no FA. But that's crazy too. We're supposed to mortgage our house to pay for our kid to go to college right before we retire?

The whole system is broken for middle class people like us.

I may be mistaken but believe there was either a new law or rulemaking that no longer takes the number of kids into account when figuring out EFC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our HHI is $145K, but we have $350K in savings outside of retirement accounts. Three years ago, we were denied any aid at every private college including Yale. The FAFSA said we could pay $59K. Ha. Ha. Ha. We're very close to retirement too.
Our youngest child is going in-state with merit aid and a bunch of scholarships. We would not allow DC to apply to any private colleges because even with merit, in-state would always be cheaper.
I really don't get what "qualifies" you for FA, especially at very wealthy colleges (think Northwestern, HYPSM, Haverford, etc.). We're middle class, live in a small house, drive old cars, live frugally. Why should we spend most of our savings to send our DC to a fancy private college? Why do the colleges think this is reasonable? We'd be crazy to do so, especially so near to retirement. It would be irresponsible of us to spend down our rainy-day fund. What if one of us gets laid off? We'd have no savings to fall back on.
Thank God for in-state colleges!!!

Are you self employed? Otherwise, I can't explain Yale. My kid is in another T10 school which doesn't count home equity, and our EFC from FAFSA was also $59K. This is about what we are paying, so about $20K FA, no loans.

Not self employed, but can't pay $59K. In-state is about $19K with merit and scholarships. Yale gave us nothing three years ago, but we only had one kid in college. Now we'll have two. No mortgage, as we inherited our house, so maybe that's why we got no FA. But that's crazy too. We're supposed to mortgage our house to pay for our kid to go to college right before we retire?

The whole system is broken for middle class people like us.

I may be mistaken but believe there was either a new law or rulemaking that no longer takes the number of kids into account when figuring out EFC.

2021 republican tax bill changed EFC so it’s a per child number, not per family. Set to start 2024-25 year