What is a "donut hole family"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Could someone please explain, because it sounds like people with nice resources feeling entitled to more than they can afford.

No. It is a family that won’t qualify for FA but that doesn’t have the resources to reasonably handle tuition at the priciest/most elite colleges. I don’t know about families feeling entitled, but from the colleges’ standpoint it is a real problem that they are concerned about. They don’t want their student populations to come from two stratified socioeconomic groups.

This is the most accurate and sound answer so far.

Most of the previous answers are marinated in judgment. The government won't allow me to liquidate my 401K without a 10% penalty yet that same money is counted by colleges as money I have available to pay for college. The schools don't even subtract the 10% that would be paid to the US government.

I'm not complaining. We just told the kids they could not apply to certain schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:new poster here

Wow. I thought we were a "donut hole" family but I guess not.

What is a step below "donut hole" called? We make too much to qualify for aid, but paying for an expensive school would involve far more than "liquidating assets." It would be more like taking on a second full time job, skipping at least one meal a day, absolutely zero entertainment budget (not even cable tv or netflix) etc.

Well, there is this thing that you had 18 years to save for college. Which is what most people do.

You're rich so that was more doable for you. There are also poor people in the world...

[Anonymous]

Not sure what the need is to shame people for not saving enough.

Housing costs have seriously outpaced earnings. Even if you don’t upgrade to a big house or a fancy kitchen (we didn’t) you still have to keep your roof from caving in. The cost of even basic repair is eye-popping.

Healthcare costs have seriously outpaced earnings — even when a family is perfectly healthy with no major catastrophe (and god help the family who dealing with catastrophic illness or chronic disease or motor vehicle trauma).

Eldercare, which many of us are dealing with, has seriously outpaced earnings.

And yes: education has seriously outpaced earnings. Half a million dollars per kid? Come on.

Nearly everyone I know is reeling from the high cost of living and the way things like healthcare premiums and deductibles and the occasional surprise ambulance bill and aging plumbing repairs eat into every scrap of security we might have expected at this point in our lives.

People keep trying to make this an individual problem. But it’s societal. We have been hollowing out the middle class for a long time. At this point, we seem to be hollowing out almost everyone who isn’t flat-out rich.

That said, we’ve been surprised and delighted by many of the merit aid schools. Both our kids chose merit aid LACs over more prestigious full-price schools, and it’s been great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, you nailed it. It’s people who have enough money but because of other choices they made, don’t have it available for other choices they wish they could make with respect to expensive schools.

I'm a WUSTL alumna. We make $250,000 a year as a household. We do not qualify for financial aid. DCs could get into WUSTL, but there's no way we could pay cash for WUSTL. It's over $87,000 a year. I don't know what "lifestyle choices" would have allowed us to pay for three kids to go to an expensive school.

It's fine. We have excellent state school choices available to us.

Live in less house, drive older cars, take less expensive vacations…

They probably do all of these things. Why is there this weird cult on this site that always repeats these same things (new cars and expensive vacations!) even though no one indicates otherwise? It’s like you read an article once about people who overspend and now just assume that anyone who raises any issue with money is therefore doing that exact thing you read about.

Most of them probably just had more kids than they could actually afford.

Who are you to say what they can afford? Maybe they still love their child and are happy for their existence even if they can only afford state school.

I'm talking to the ones who are complaining. I hear families complaining about the donut hole with three kids and, well, what did you think was going to happen?

[Anonymous]

100% agree with those pointing out the insane cost increases. You can’t avoid having that as any part of the discussion of affording college.

To highlight this point. Notre Dame’s tuition, fees and room and board were $3995 when my dad graduated in 1975. Had they increased with inflation, they would have been $14,502 when I was starting college in 2005 and $23,293 this school year. Instead, they were $39,552 in 2005 and $82,925 this year. It’s a staggering difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, you nailed it. It’s people who have enough money but because of other choices they made, don’t have it available for other choices they wish they could make with respect to expensive schools.

I'm a WUSTL alumna. We make $250,000 a year as a household. We do not qualify for financial aid. DCs could get into WUSTL, but there's no way we could pay cash for WUSTL. It's over $87,000 a year. I don't know what "lifestyle choices" would have allowed us to pay for three kids to go to an expensive school.

It's fine. We have excellent state school choices available to us.

Live in less house, drive older cars, take less expensive vacations…

They probably do all of these things. Why is there this weird cult on this site that always repeats these same things (new cars and expensive vacations!) even though no one indicates otherwise? It’s like you read an article once about people who overspend and now just assume that anyone who raises any issue with money is therefore doing that exact thing you read about.

Most of them probably just had more kids than they could actually afford.

Who are you to say what they can afford? Maybe they still love their child and are happy for their existence even if they can only afford state school.

I'm talking to the ones who are complaining. I hear families complaining about the donut hole with three kids and, well, what did you think was going to happen?

Until very recently what they thought was going to happen was the total family contribution would be adjusted for multiple kids in college at once.

[Anonymous]

Our EFC for our college daughter was over $150k per year. Now it appears to have been renamed Student Aid Index but it’s still over 150,000.

I’m not complaining but I’m just not paying that much for college. So it’s state schools for my kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not sure what the need is to shame people for not saving enough.

Agree there's no need for that, except maybe for the ones that complain that people with far less income get to pay less.

Those are the clueless ones.

College costs too much for EVERYONE. Not just you or your demographic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our EFC for our college daughter was over $150k per year. Now it appears to have been renamed Student Aid Index but it’s still over 150,000.

I’m not complaining but I’m just not paying that much for college. So it’s state schools for my kids.

NO school costs that much per year. Do you mean for 4 years?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our EFC for our college daughter was over $150k per year. Now it appears to have been renamed Student Aid Index but it’s still over 150,000.

I’m not complaining but I’m just not paying that much for college. So it’s state schools for my kids.

NO school costs that much per year. Do you mean for 4 years?

No I mean fafsa thinks I can contribute $158k per year to college. I have multiple kids that will be in college next year.

[Anonymous]

Everyone we know is staying in state, umc but not wealthy area. Last year there were more Tulane, Vanderbilt, couple ivies…people are opting out of high cost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:new poster here

Wow. I thought we were a "donut hole" family but I guess not.

What is a step below "donut hole" called? We make too much to qualify for aid, but paying for an expensive school would involve far more than "liquidating assets." It would be more like taking on a second full time job, skipping at least one meal a day, absolutely zero entertainment budget (not even cable tv or netflix) etc.

Well, there is this thing that you had 18 years to save for college. Which is what most people do.

You're rich so that was more doable for you. There are also poor people in the world...

And the poor will pay nothing to almost nothing for college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, you nailed it. It’s people who have enough money but because of other choices they made, don’t have it available for other choices they wish they could make with respect to expensive schools.

I'm a WUSTL alumna. We make $250,000 a year as a household. We do not qualify for financial aid. DCs could get into WUSTL, but there's no way we could pay cash for WUSTL. It's over $87,000 a year. I don't know what "lifestyle choices" would have allowed us to pay for three kids to go to an expensive school.

It's fine. We have excellent state school choices available to us.

Live in less house, drive older cars, take less expensive vacations…

They probably do all of these things. Why is there this weird cult on this site that always repeats these same things (new cars and expensive vacations!) even though no one indicates otherwise? It’s like you read an article once about people who overspend and now just assume that anyone who raises any issue with money is therefore doing that exact thing you read about.

Most of them probably just had more kids than they could actually afford.

Who are you to say what they can afford? Maybe they still love their child and are happy for their existence even if they can only afford state school.

I'm talking to the ones who are complaining. I hear families complaining about the donut hole with three kids and, well, what did you think was going to happen?

Until very recently what they thought was going to happen was the total family contribution would be adjusted for multiple kids in college at once.

There is a reason some families
Stop at one kid, or space their kids out. It is this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Could someone please explain, because it sounds like people with nice resources feeling entitled to more than they can afford.

No. It is a family that won’t qualify for FA but that doesn’t have the resources to reasonably handle tuition at the priciest/most elite colleges. I don’t know about families feeling entitled, but from the colleges’ standpoint it is a real problem that they are concerned about. They don’t want their student populations to come from two stratified socioeconomic groups.

This is the most accurate and sound answer so far.

Most of the previous answers are marinated in judgment. The government won't allow me to liquidate my 401K without a 10% penalty yet that same money is counted by colleges as money I have available to pay for college. The schools don't even subtract the 10% that would be paid to the US government.

I'm not complaining. We just told the kids they could not apply to certain schools.

If you are retirement age you can take out of your 401K. But, YOU CAN, you just lose that 10%. If you don't want to, that's ok. You give your kids a budget and they need to stick to it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our EFC for our college daughter was over $150k per year. Now it appears to have been renamed Student Aid Index but it’s still over 150,000.

I’m not complaining but I’m just not paying that much for college. So it’s state schools for my kids.

NO school costs that much per year. Do you mean for 4 years?

No I mean fafsa thinks I can contribute $158k per year to college. I have multiple kids that will be in college next year.

And, what's your income, savings and assests? You probably can.