How do people fully fund 529s

[Anonymous]

Pshhh...

My older kid will be going to Stanford on a full athletic ride. There he will be a multiple Olympic gold medal winner and will also win a Rhodes scholarship to study at Oxford. Then he will go on to NYU medical school for free under a Langone grant and become the founder of a medical startup that cures all cancers.

My younger kid will get a full ride to Julliard where she will be trained to be the next conductor of the NY Philharmonic. She will also start a music label that distributes music to every corner of the world, which she will sell to Amazon. Under her direction it will go on to crush Apple music.

Why do I need a 529 plan? You set your goals way too low.

I have the my kids will rule the world plan.

[Anonymous]

I’m not sure, we send $60/month for each kid which we know is too low. But it’s more than our parents did for me and my husband. I wish we had more

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here - These are helpful responses, for the most part. We are in MD, so I'd love for both kids to go to UMD, but older one is already expressing interest for out of state somewhere. I'd like to cover their undergrad expenses and am pretty sure I can for in-state based upon what I've read on UMD's, Towson's, etc., websites. Based on what posters have said, it sounds like for out of state and private, my kids just need to apply and see what aid is offered if they're accepted, then decide if it's financial advisable. We've come into some financial challenges and I'm not sure I can continue to fund them beyond what's currently in there, and I don't expect much additional growth since they're both near maturity, i.e., 2021 and 2024 life cycle funds.

Purdue, Clemson, Pitt would be in budget most likely, but not, say, Umich.

OP, if your child simply wants to travel, try Miami of Ohio, U of South Carolina, UVM, Alabama, Arizona State, U of Arizona, etc. There are state schools that offer large merit scholarships to just about anyone with the necessary stats. Other state schools don't offer anything to out-of-staters. You just need to educate yourself and tell your children your financial limits. Nothing wrong with that.

[Anonymous]

This thread is depressing, and many of you have no idea how privileged you are. We have $50K saved for each of our middle school aged kids, and will not have the ability to save substantially more. Our kids will be living at home and going to George Mason at this rate.

Most Americans have very little saved for college or retirement. DCUM =/= the average person's reality.

[Anonymous]

Being able to pay for college is one of the benefits of only having one child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People sending their kids to private college make more than $200k or get merit aid. To get substantial merit aid, you often have to be willing to go to a “lesser” school than your highest ranked school. Ie: you get into Duke with no merit aid, but Vandy offers a substantial scholarship.

In our neighborhood of 2 fed families or equivalent salaries, most kids go instate.

Bahaha more like Denison or American for a substantial scholarship. Nothing wrong with those schools, but you’re not getting a “substantial scholarship” from Vandy.

Maybe not for undergrad. I gave that example because I got into higher ranked law schools and Vandy offered me a free ride to come there instead. I figured UG was the same but I guess not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Being able to pay for college is one of the benefits of only having one child.

Or one of the benefits of having lots of money.

[Anonymous]

We have $50K saved for each of our middle school aged kids, and will not have the ability to save substantially more. Our kids will be living at home and going to George Mason at this rate.

Poor babies! Seriously, lots of people have to take out loans to do NOVA for two years in the hopes of affording any college at all, so buck up.

If they want to do something else, they can take out loans and pay them back, like many people do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Grandparents for sure.

In case it's helpful to know, I have a senior with a 3.17 GPA and a mediocre ACT, and I am surprised at the number of colleges that seem to be pursuing him and offering merit aid. These are not "top schools" but they are colleges that seem like fine places to go. So I haven't entirely found it to be the case that there is absolutely no merit aid available. (We have fully funded 529s and are UMC and so would not expect any aid.)

Op here. This would be great if that happens for our DC. Currently 3.8 GPA and 31 ACT, but there are so many smart kids around here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have 2 girls in HS and a total of $250K saved for college, and yet this only fully funds them for an in-state school. If either goes out of state to public or private, the costs are prohibitive. Even within the confines of the DCUMer, how do people fully fund their child's undergraduate education. Second, do most colleges provide some form of merit aid for strong students, such that that actual costs are less than what I'm seeing on college websites?

Costs are indeed prohibitive. Both of our kids went to LACs out of state, with large merit scholarships (~$30K/year). Our younger DC is a college junior now, and we pay about $44K/year for her tuition, room, and board.

The book _The College Solution_ and the website by the same name provide excellent information on this topic.

https://www.thecollegesolution.com/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think they: (1) don't, (2) get help from grandparents, or (3) do so at the expense of their own retirement.

We make $300K/year. We fund two 529s for our young children with the goal of paying for in-state tuition/room and board 100% for each child. When they are college age that is predicted to cost $200K each, so $400K total. It requires saving about $500 per month each from birth. That is all we are willing to do at this time.

We ask ourselves the following question: how much of our net worth at our age our children go to college should we pay for college? If at age 50 we are fortunate enough to have $3M saved for retirement, are we going to pay $500K each, $1M total, or a third of our net worth to send them to private colleges? No. I would want to have $5M net worth to pay that. So the answer is probably 10-15%, maybe 20% at most of our net worth spent on college. Depending on our own job and financial situation at the time, we will consider whether it makes sense for us to pay more, either through cash flow or other savings/investments.

We both went to expensive private colleges, major universities, including Ivy league, not liberal arts colleges. We also have advanced degrees in STEM. We value education highly. I think the cost of college, particularly private college, is becoming out of reach, or at least not sensible, for many upper middle class families.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here - These are helpful responses, for the most part. We are in MD, so I'd love for both kids to go to UMD, but older one is already expressing interest for out of state somewhere. I'd like to cover their undergrad expenses and am pretty sure I can for in-state based upon what I've read on UMD's, Towson's, etc., websites. Based on what posters have said, it sounds like for out of state and private, my kids just need to apply and see what aid is offered if they're accepted, then decide if it's financial advisable. We've come into some financial challenges and I'm not sure I can continue to fund them beyond what's currently in there, and I don't expect much additional growth since they're both near maturity, i.e., 2021 and 2024 life cycle funds.

It is actually more strategic than that. If you do your homework in advance including running the Net Price Calculator for each school (see _The College Solution_), you will mostly know what each school will cost in advance of receiving offers of admission and merit scholarships. Acceptance letters should not contain anything terribly surprising.

Out of the ~22 schools my two kids applied to (between them), only one merit scholarship offer came as (an unpleasant) surprise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here - These are helpful responses, for the most part. We are in MD, so I'd love for both kids to go to UMD, but older one is already expressing interest for out of state somewhere. I'd like to cover their undergrad expenses and am pretty sure I can for in-state based upon what I've read on UMD's, Towson's, etc., websites. Based on what posters have said, it sounds like for out of state and private, my kids just need to apply and see what aid is offered if they're accepted, then decide if it's financial advisable. We've come into some financial challenges and I'm not sure I can continue to fund them beyond what's currently in there, and I don't expect much additional growth since they're both near maturity, i.e., 2021 and 2024 life cycle funds.

It is actually more strategic than that. If you do your homework in advance including running the Net Price Calculator for each school (see _The College Solution_), you will mostly know what each school will cost in advance of receiving offers of admission and merit scholarships. Acceptance letters should not contain anything terribly surprising.

Out of the ~22 schools my two kids applied to (between them), only one merit scholarship offer came as (an unpleasant) surprise.

How was it an unpleasant surprise - you mean it was less than you anticipated?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here - These are helpful responses, for the most part. We are in MD, so I'd love for both kids to go to UMD, but older one is already expressing interest for out of state somewhere. I'd like to cover their undergrad expenses and am pretty sure I can for in-state based upon what I've read on UMD's, Towson's, etc., websites. Based on what posters have said, it sounds like for out of state and private, my kids just need to apply and see what aid is offered if they're accepted, then decide if it's financial advisable. We've come into some financial challenges and I'm not sure I can continue to fund them beyond what's currently in there, and I don't expect much additional growth since they're both near maturity, i.e., 2021 and 2024 life cycle funds.

It is actually more strategic than that. If you do your homework in advance including running the Net Price Calculator for each school (see _The College Solution_), you will mostly know what each school will cost in advance of receiving offers of admission and merit scholarships. Acceptance letters should not contain anything terribly surprising.

Out of the ~22 schools my two kids applied to (between them), only one merit scholarship offer came as (an unpleasant) surprise.

Well, maybe your kids didn't have needed stats?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Grandparents for sure.

In case it's helpful to know, I have a senior with a 3.17 GPA and a mediocre ACT, and I am surprised at the number of colleges that seem to be pursuing him and offering merit aid. These are not "top schools" but they are colleges that seem like fine places to go. So I haven't entirely found it to be the case that there is absolutely no merit aid available. (We have fully funded 529s and are UMC and so would not expect any aid.)

Op here. This would be great if that happens for our DC. Currently 3.8 GPA and 31 ACT, but there are so many smart kids around here.

I wouldn't believe posts like that. 3.17/so-so ACT will not get you merit aid from MOST schools. Now, they will send you post cards asking you to apply and telling (or misleading) you that you "may" qualify for merit aid. Those are all games. 3.8/31 is tough to get merit and tough for UMDCP admission. No good news here.