Recommendations for Funding College

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is your HHI and what savings do you have outside of IRAs and 401ks?

OP here. We have about $150K in taxable brokerage and checking / savings accounts accounts, but a lot of this is earmarked as our emergency savings, not that a college would care. Our house is probably worth about $1.2M and we have a mortgage with an outstanding balance of $530K. Our base HHI is $400K, with $60K in annual bonus potential. DH and I both work and he also receives monthly ISOs from his company and quarterly RSUs as well. At the current share price for his company, the quarterly RSUs are worth about $7K. The ISOs would be worth $2K per month based on the strike price, if exercised. But, these need to vest over time and who can predict the stock price? Next quarter the RSUs could be valued at $4K.

NP. Wow that’s a lot of income and very little savings. You spend too much. With that income you can tighten your belt and pay quite a bit from that as you go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP are you insane or just stupid? You make $400k, have $2m+ in retirement accounts, and you're stumped about how to pay for college for your kids? You've been banking on the (mistaken) assumption that your kids would get merit scholarships to Ivy League and near peer schools?

I've got to say, as a two-nonprofit household that has forgone every luxury to be able to afford the best schools that our two kids might be able to get into, people like you just blow my mind.

OP again. I’m definitely not stupid nor am I insane, but I do appreciate your candor. We’ve programmed a great deal of discretionary spending into our budget. We have no debt with the exception of our mortgage, which is less than 20% of our base take home pay. I think we can make some significant spending cuts to make this work and augment, if necessary, with temporary cuts to our retirement contributions. Sort of feels like colleges expect parents to liquidate all savings and take out both loans and second mortgages, which is something I just didn’t see coming when we started putting money into 529 plans 16+ years ago.

And, yes, I was definitely surprised to learn that merit-based scholarships are not available at Ivy League and comparable schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP are you insane or just stupid? You make $400k, have $2m+ in retirement accounts, and you're stumped about how to pay for college for your kids? You've been banking on the (mistaken) assumption that your kids would get merit scholarships to Ivy League and near peer schools?

I've got to say, as a two-nonprofit household that has forgone every luxury to be able to afford the best schools that our two kids might be able to get into, people like you just blow my mind.

My vote is stupid lol!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP are you insane or just stupid? You make $400k, have $2m+ in retirement accounts, and you're stumped about how to pay for college for your kids? You've been banking on the (mistaken) assumption that your kids would get merit scholarships to Ivy League and near peer schools?

I've got to say, as a two-nonprofit household that has forgone every luxury to be able to afford the best schools that our two kids might be able to get into, people like you just blow my mind.

OP again. I’m definitely not stupid nor am I insane, but I do appreciate your candor. We’ve programmed a great deal of discretionary spending into our budget. We have no debt with the exception of our mortgage, which is less than 20% of our base take home pay. I think we can make some significant spending cuts to make this work and augment, if necessary, with temporary cuts to our retirement contributions. Sort of feels like colleges expect parents to liquidate all savings and take out both loans and second mortgages, which is something I just didn’t see coming when we started putting money into 529 plans 16+ years ago.

And, yes, I was definitely surprised to learn that merit-based scholarships are not available at Ivy League and comparable schools.

DH has a PhD —a RESEARCH degree—and you guys didn’t google this a tiny bit over the last 3-10 years??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’re you not making over $150,000 until very recently? If you didn’t want to save for college, then you either need to take parent plus loans or look at less expensive schools.

No, we’ve been making quite a bit more than this for some time. We have clearly underfunded our 529. Too late to fix it now and, honestly, we didn’t realize until just a year or two ago that many colleges don’t offer merit-only-based scholarships. There must also be a demonstrated financial need. DH grew up dirt poor and received a full scholarship to a T20 school and then a full ride after through to a Ph.D. I went to a cheap in-state school.

But…we ran multiple college financial aid net price calculators and even with our below-par 529 balances, we’re told our net price is whatever the college charges and that our affordability is more than double the actual $80K cost. So, sure seems like the colleges think we can easily afford to send our kids there. Just wondering what levers they’re expecting us to pull?

They’re expecting that a two parent family who both graduated from college (one from a T20 school) and are making more than 400k a year would be savvy enough to be aware of/research current tuition costs far in advance, recognize that they have 0 chance of getting aid for a top tier school and start saving accordingly early on. Our HHI is roughly half of yours and we have managed to amass significantly larger college funds for our tweens, because it’s a priority for us. Why on earth do you think your children should be entitled to a subsidized education because you deliberately chose to spend your money elsewhere? The good news is that at your income, unlike 99% of Americans, you could in fact cash flow the tuition. It would just require you to make cutbacks elsewhere in your budget.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP are you insane or just stupid? You make $400k, have $2m+ in retirement accounts, and you're stumped about how to pay for college for your kids? You've been banking on the (mistaken) assumption that your kids would get merit scholarships to Ivy League and near peer schools?

I've got to say, as a two-nonprofit household that has forgone every luxury to be able to afford the best schools that our two kids might be able to get into, people like you just blow my mind.

OP again. I’m definitely not stupid nor am I insane, but I do appreciate your candor. We’ve programmed a great deal of discretionary spending into our budget. We have no debt with the exception of our mortgage, which is less than 20% of our base take home pay. I think we can make some significant spending cuts to make this work and augment, if necessary, with temporary cuts to our retirement contributions. Sort of feels like colleges expect parents to liquidate all savings and take out both loans and second mortgages, which is something I just didn’t see coming when we started putting money into 529 plans 16+ years ago.

And, yes, I was definitely surprised to learn that merit-based scholarships are not available at Ivy League and comparable schools.

No, colleges expect parents in the top 15 of all wage earners in the United States to save enough money to pay for college, which you have not done, even though by your account you've been high HHI for quite a while. You're saying in one breath "we spend everything on funsies, was that the wrong approach?" and in next breath "woe is me, why is college so expensive??" Your kids are in high school. The time to be surprised by the cost of college is when you open your 529s, do some rudimentary research, and decide how much to allocate every month. Not after you've been on 4 safaris and you find out they don't hand out merit money to rich kids anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have any tips or recommendations for funding what will sure to be an expensive college experience for our kids?

We have two kids in high school, rising senior and rising sophomore. We’ve got $90K and $83K in 529 plans for them each, respectively. There is no chance we will qualify for need-based financial aid, even when both are in college at the same time. Several of the schools we’re contemplating are places like Cornell and Carnegie Mellon that no longer or simply don’t offer merit-based scholarships. So, we’re looking at $80K+ per year. 529 will cover about a fourth of the cost, but this is still $450K or so over 6 years. Kind of a lot to absorb as part of our monthly budget. What do most people do?

Outside, independent scholarships? Bonuses from work? Exercise stock options? Kids get student loans? Parents get loans? Refinance or second mortgage? Temporarily halt retirement contributions?

Are your kids rockstars or just regular DCUM smart? If the latter, then your state school, lower tier state schools that give you merit (Alabama, Kansas etc), or low tier privates that heavily discount. You choose which environment you want. This advice has been repeated nine thousand times on this forum.

Don’t know, but my rising senior has taken nearly every AP class available and has an unweighted GPA of 3.98 and a weighted one a lot higher. Took the SAT as a junior and got a 790 on math and a 740 on reading / writing on his first attempt. These seem like Cornell-worthy results.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have any tips or recommendations for funding what will sure to be an expensive college experience for our kids?

We have two kids in high school, rising senior and rising sophomore. We’ve got $90K and $83K in 529 plans for them each, respectively. There is no chance we will qualify for need-based financial aid, even when both are in college at the same time. Several of the schools we’re contemplating are places like Cornell and Carnegie Mellon that no longer or simply don’t offer merit-based scholarships. So, we’re looking at $80K+ per year. 529 will cover about a fourth of the cost, but this is still $450K or so over 6 years. Kind of a lot to absorb as part of our monthly budget. What do most people do?

Outside, independent scholarships? Bonuses from work? Exercise stock options? Kids get student loans? Parents get loans? Refinance or second mortgage? Temporarily halt retirement contributions?

Are your kids rockstars or just regular DCUM smart? If the latter, then your state school, lower tier state schools that give you merit (Alabama, Kansas etc), or low tier privates that heavily discount. You choose which environment you want. This advice has been repeated nine thousand times on this forum.

Don’t know, but my rising senior has taken nearly every AP class available and has an unweighted GPA of 3.98 and a weighted one a lot higher. Took the SAT as a junior and got a 790 on math and a 740 on reading / writing on his first attempt. These seem like Cornell-worthy results.

That's regular DCUM/NoVA/MoCo smart. Smart kid, plays by the rules, hard worker. Still like buying a lottery ticket to get into a T20.

The lack of research you've done on college seems both broad and deep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’ve programmed a great deal of discretionary spending into our budget.

Well you can always reprogram it towards education, I guess. Or keep up the luxury purchases and cheap out on college. Your choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP are you insane or just stupid? You make $400k, have $2m+ in retirement accounts, and you're stumped about how to pay for college for your kids? You've been banking on the (mistaken) assumption that your kids would get merit scholarships to Ivy League and near peer schools?

I've got to say, as a two-nonprofit household that has forgone every luxury to be able to afford the best schools that our two kids might be able to get into, people like you just blow my mind.

OP again. I’m definitely not stupid nor am I insane, but I do appreciate your candor. We’ve programmed a great deal of discretionary spending into our budget. We have no debt with the exception of our mortgage, which is less than 20% of our base take home pay. I think we can make some significant spending cuts to make this work and augment, if necessary, with temporary cuts to our retirement contributions. Sort of feels like colleges expect parents to liquidate all savings and take out both loans and second mortgages, which is something I just didn’t see coming when we started putting money into 529 plans 16+ years ago.
And, yes, I was definitely surprised to learn that merit-based scholarships are not available at Ivy League and comparable schools.

Different poster here and, sorry OP but you are definitely coming across as stupid, or at best mind boggling naive. I think many of us are struggling to understand how you and your husband can make the salaries you claim and yet be so financially/socially inept. I find it particularly hard to believe that your alleged T-20 graduate husband was unaware that ivys don’t give merit aid (and haven’t for at least the last 40 years).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have any tips or recommendations for funding what will sure to be an expensive college experience for our kids?

We have two kids in high school, rising senior and rising sophomore. We’ve got $90K and $83K in 529 plans for them each, respectively. There is no chance we will qualify for need-based financial aid, even when both are in college at the same time. Several of the schools we’re contemplating are places like Cornell and Carnegie Mellon that no longer or simply don’t offer merit-based scholarships. So, we’re looking at $80K+ per year. 529 will cover about a fourth of the cost, but this is still $450K or so over 6 years. Kind of a lot to absorb as part of our monthly budget. What do most people do?

Outside, independent scholarships? Bonuses from work? Exercise stock options? Kids get student loans? Parents get loans? Refinance or second mortgage? Temporarily halt retirement contributions?

Are your kids rockstars or just regular DCUM smart? If the latter, then your state school, lower tier state schools that give you merit (Alabama, Kansas etc), or low tier privates that heavily discount. You choose which environment you want. This advice has been repeated nine thousand times on this forum.

Yes that’s amazing!! No one around here does that! I am sure they will get in to T20, with merit aid to boot!!

Don’t know, but my rising senior has taken nearly every AP class available and has an unweighted GPA of 3.98 and a weighted one a lot higher. Took the SAT as a junior and got a 790 on math and a 740 on reading / writing on his first attempt. These seem like Cornell-worthy results.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have any tips or recommendations for funding what will sure to be an expensive college experience for our kids?

We have two kids in high school, rising senior and rising sophomore. We’ve got $90K and $83K in 529 plans for them each, respectively. There is no chance we will qualify for need-based financial aid, even when both are in college at the same time. Several of the schools we’re contemplating are places like Cornell and Carnegie Mellon that no longer or simply don’t offer merit-based scholarships. So, we’re looking at $80K+ per year. 529 will cover about a fourth of the cost, but this is still $450K or so over 6 years. Kind of a lot to absorb as part of our monthly budget. What do most people do?

Outside, independent scholarships? Bonuses from work? Exercise stock options? Kids get student loans? Parents get loans? Refinance or second mortgage? Temporarily halt retirement contributions?

Are your kids rockstars or just regular DCUM smart? If the latter, then your state school, lower tier state schools that give you merit (Alabama, Kansas etc), or low tier privates that heavily discount. You choose which environment you want. This advice has been repeated nine thousand times on this forum.

Don’t know, but my rising senior has taken nearly every AP class available and has an unweighted GPA of 3.98 and a weighted one a lot higher. Took the SAT as a junior and got a 790 on math and a 740 on reading / writing on his first attempt. These seem like Cornell-worthy results.

That's regular DCUM/NoVA/MoCo smart. Smart kid, plays by the rules, hard worker. Still like buying a lottery ticket to get into a T20.

The lack of research you've done on college seems both broad and deep.

PSA. These scores are commensurate with performance at TJ…which is NOT even close to the substantially lower performance of regular DCUM/NoVA/MoCo smart. Let’s not start with the typical DCUM inflation and falsified bragging!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have any tips or recommendations for funding what will sure to be an expensive college experience for our kids?

We have two kids in high school, rising senior and rising sophomore. We’ve got $90K and $83K in 529 plans for them each, respectively. There is no chance we will qualify for need-based financial aid, even when both are in college at the same time. Several of the schools we’re contemplating are places like Cornell and Carnegie Mellon that no longer or simply don’t offer merit-based scholarships. So, we’re looking at $80K+ per year. 529 will cover about a fourth of the cost, but this is still $450K or so over 6 years. Kind of a lot to absorb as part of our monthly budget. What do most people do?

Outside, independent scholarships? Bonuses from work? Exercise stock options? Kids get student loans? Parents get loans? Refinance or second mortgage? Temporarily halt retirement contributions?

Are your kids rockstars or just regular DCUM smart? If the latter, then your state school, lower tier state schools that give you merit (Alabama, Kansas etc), or low tier privates that heavily discount. You choose which environment you want. This advice has been repeated nine thousand times on this forum.

Yes that’s amazing!! No one around here does that! I am sure they will get in to T20, with merit aid to boot!!

Don’t know, but my rising senior has taken nearly every AP class available and has an unweighted GPA of 3.98 and a weighted one a lot higher. Took the SAT as a junior and got a 790 on math and a 740 on reading / writing on his first attempt. These seem like Cornell-worthy results.

Yes that’s amazing!! No one around here does that! I am sure they will get in to T20, with merit aid to boot!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have any tips or recommendations for funding what will sure to be an expensive college experience for our kids?

We have two kids in high school, rising senior and rising sophomore. We’ve got $90K and $83K in 529 plans for them each, respectively. There is no chance we will qualify for need-based financial aid, even when both are in college at the same time. Several of the schools we’re contemplating are places like Cornell and Carnegie Mellon that no longer or simply don’t offer merit-based scholarships. So, we’re looking at $80K+ per year. 529 will cover about a fourth of the cost, but this is still $450K or so over 6 years. Kind of a lot to absorb as part of our monthly budget. What do most people do?

Outside, independent scholarships? Bonuses from work? Exercise stock options? Kids get student loans? Parents get loans? Refinance or second mortgage? Temporarily halt retirement contributions?

Are your kids rockstars or just regular DCUM smart? If the latter, then your state school, lower tier state schools that give you merit (Alabama, Kansas etc), or low tier privates that heavily discount. You choose which environment you want. This advice has been repeated nine thousand times on this forum.

Don’t know, but my rising senior has taken nearly every AP class available and has an unweighted GPA of 3.98 and a weighted one a lot higher. Took the SAT as a junior and got a 790 on math and a 740 on reading / writing on his first attempt. These seem like Cornell-worthy results.

That's regular DCUM/NoVA/MoCo smart. Smart kid, plays by the rules, hard worker. Still like buying a lottery ticket to get into a T20.

The lack of research you've done on college seems both broad and deep.

PSA. These scores are commensurate with performance at TJ…which is NOT even close to the substantially lower performance of regular DCUM/NoVA/MoCo smart. Let’s not start with the typical DCUM inflation and falsified bragging!

You're not using "commensurate" correctly here, and I'm a reader for a scholarship organization. I know what kind of GPAs and SAT scores are out there, and OP's kid is in the "nothing obvious to improve, good luck, make sure you also get excited about targets and safeties" camp. aa

[Anonymous]

op, my household makes 110k but used to make more like ninety and we currently have sixty thousand saved for our ninth grader and sixty five thousand saved for our tenth grader. Which we are now realizing isn’t enough. We are going to have each kid go instate, take the maximum of 5k per year of loans, and tighten our belts and cash flow the rest.

The fact that you have saved so little while making 400k and assumed your kids would get scholarships to cover much of the costs is just insane. Why should YOUR kids get scholarships to places like Cornell?