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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

He could have gone to a more reasonable school. Our children are young and we tell them that we can pay for a state school. If they get in somewhere else with aide, great but otherwise state.

[Anonymous]

Mr. Money Mustache would tell you to sell a car and move
to a smaller house/apartment to reduce your payments.
Check out the forum section.

You are high income. Only 8% of Americans make
more than your family in gross income. Take a look
at where you can cut expenses.

Also not a bad idea for twins to get jobs at 16. Even
if they work 1 4 hour shift a week it will add up over
the next 4 years and help with incidentals. Plus
they will be more serious with their college studies
once they've worked $10 per hour unskilled jobs.

[Anonymous]

I saw PP who mentioned asking grandparents if they can help.
This is a decent Idea if grandparents have money.

[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

I've taken classes at MC for a career change, and the observation is accurate. At the very least, take as many honors courses as possible.

[Anonymous]

Your problem is you have three kids on a middle class salary in a HCOL area. You also started having kids before you paid for your own education. Both are recipes for disaster. Your kids will need to take out loans. Tell them not to have kids before they are paid off. Seriously.

[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.

You’re bringing home let’s say $9k per month. How much is your mortgage?!? You should be able to contribute $3k per month towards college.

You say that college is $50k per year for both kids

That’s $36k of your own money
$10k in loans
$4k your kids working over the summer

Not understanding why you can’t afford this?

Here’s what a budget should look like at your income level:

3k - mortgage
500 - transportation
500 - utilities
2k - living expenses
2k - savings
1k - other crap

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"very bright kids with great grade from public schools" are dime and dozen in the DMV. Just about everyone at Mclean or Langley HS is bright with great grade. It is not that special.

Our HHI is 350k/yr and we have about 400k in 529 for 4 kids. The plan is to have them attend either NVCC or GMU in the first year while living @home. Assume they have good grade after the first year, they can transfer to UVA through the "guaranteed admission" program. Your kids can also stay at home while attending GMU for only 11K/year in tuition.

To succeed in the guaranteed admissions program, the student must take certain courses at NVCC and get certain grades. It does take grit. https://www.nvcc.edu/schedule/crs2194/gaa.html

[Anonymous]

OP - while you got some suggestions above about some schools that may provide financial assistance, I think you need to realize that MC and UMC parents for the most parent don't get a break anymore at most public or private institutions. We didn't. The FAFSA gave us the min. $5K loans, which we took but not one of my three kids received merit offers. Granted we took advantage of in-state schools (less merit aid) but even at the top Ivies they applied to, we were not offered any merit aid. It's pretty much dried up for people like us. The community college guaranteed admissions program is the best way to go. If your kids can to ROTC I know of a number of fine young men and women who succeeded brilliantly in those programs. Be upfront with your children about how much you can afford in after-tax dollars and don't tour any schools that you cannot afford. Also, BTW, we tried for all sorts of private scholarships (some requiring essays) but didn't snag even one.

[Anonymous]

I am around where you are in HHI. Assets are limited to retirement and home equity. And I did not have student loans. I did have extensive medical bills (cancer) beyond insurance. Net result is DD has about 40K in savings.

We are looking at schools that are in-state (Va Tech) or give good merit aid (UDel, some midwestern schools)...Either way, the net will be about 30K per year. Oh, for her senior year, I can pull from my 401K.

[Anonymous]

I don’t understand how you thought you would be handed free college for both twins when you make $200k a year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand how you thought you would be handed free college for both twins when you make $200k a year.

She never said free tuition. She is suffering from sticker shock and made some decisions you wouldn’t have. No reason to be an ass.

[Anonymous]

Middle class kids don't expect their parents to finance college. They seek out financial aid, get jobs, go to community college if financial aid doesn't work out at four year schools, take a gap year to work and save, take out loans, etc. And middle class kids don't have parents making $200k/year, Christ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

You were supposed to save long before you get to this point. We saved, saved, and saved for our kids. They will pay for your mistakes.

Obviously the OP had been saving for a long time to buy a house -- I've been saving for 20 years and I still don't have the $300k that is the minimum down payment with good schools. Any OP also was paying college debt then. Just because OP had $200k now doesn't mean that they had $200k for the past 15 years. It sounds like they were scraping by.

Wait - so you are saying that the minimum you can spend on a house in a good school district is . . . $1.5m?

You are a blithering idiot.

[Anonymous]

How did we manage? We started saving from birth or actually before, when we knew we intended to conceive a child. We knew this huge expense was coming and we planned accordingly. That means we prioritized college savings over a bigger house, fancier cars, vacations, etc.

We did eventually get all those things but only after our income rose. Savings (retirement then college) always came first. Pay yourself first. That's my motto.

[Anonymous]

Let me see if I have this straight . . .

Last year, when you made $200,000, you had saved a total of $50,000 in 529 plans, and had just finished paying off your own education loans. At that time, you had twin 8th graders and a first grader. You also decided to buy a house at a price level that requires that "all that money [on a $200,000 salary] goes to the mortgage."

And you're asking how other families manage? They make different decisions, for a long time. But you decided to take on a long-term debt that chews up most of your income just 5 years before you have two (!!) kids going into college, without the savings required to pay for their schooling.

I'm not sure what you're looking for here, or why you are acting like this is unexpected.

But, all of the suggestions other have made are the right ones - CC, ROTC, substantial loans, schools with significant aid. Also, you need to stop taking your kids as freshman (!!) to look at schools, and tell them - now - what the situation is, and if they want to go someplace more expensive, they need to do the work to get the aid.

And don't leave your youngest out of the planning.