Amherst College COA $92,816 per year

[Anonymous]

“Our HHI is $320K. We have two kids, and we are about to retire soon. We cannot afford close to $400K for college for each child. And we get 0 financial aid.“

Roll Tide!

[Anonymous]

Only about 30% pay full cost of attendance at Amherst. I think that's the same at most private elites. UMC decline and wealthy grab their seats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does it justify costing a full $10K more than peer institutions like Williams, Bowdoin, Swarthmore?

That’s not the cost differential.

Yes, it is. All three are ~82K.

Sigh. Once again: tuition and room and board costs vs. tuition and room and board costs and personal expenses and travel etc. Apples and oranges.

Difference is maybe 2 grand at most. Maybe Amherst should not put these other expenses on their website — Williams does not, though they are obviously budgeted for financial aid — to avoid this confusion. But at a certain point, if this thread wants to willfully stay confused, have at it.

Personal expenses and travel are not budgeted for mainstream financial aid. Maybe they are for special "dirt poor" programs.

Amherst has always budgeted travel for financial aid as well as all food and board. It’s one reason why their financial aid packages are better than some others. I’m also a little confused by the stat that 50% are in the top 10% of income. If that’s right that means Amherst is giving financial aid to many students in the top 10% of income which would suggest the whole middle class is getting financial aid (since 65% of class gets financial aid).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only about 30% pay full cost of attendance at Amherst. I think that's the same at most private elites. UMC decline and wealthy grab their seats.

This is incorrect.

467 enrolled as FT freshman, of those 318 applied for FA, of those 267 determined to have need.

So fully 200 of of the 467 got no FA. About 43% of the class pay full cost of attendance. A lot of private elites are in this 45% area.

These are the kids who enrolled. You might also consider the kids who were accepted to this highly selective school and said, LOL no to 90k.

This is all in the common data set.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ridiculous. Hard to think of many schools that are worth a cost like that. Probably the only ones that are certain are HPSM Caltech and Wharton. Maybe Duke, Yale, Columbia, Dartmouth.

Why would you put Duke in that list?

You meant Dartmouth?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Amherst is extraordinarily generous with financial aid and also recruits heavily from a lot of different income levels with things like all expenses paid visits for lower income kids to visit campus (or at least they used to do that—I doubt they e cut that program). I was middle class (real middle class not DCUM middle class) and they covered the vast majority of my tuition. I got into 9 schools and even though they all supposedly were using the same Fafsa need info, Amherst came out more generous than any of the other schools (other than my instate public). It was cheaper than going to UVA out of state.

Amherst caps "typical assets" at 200k.

So if you make 150k in nyc and have a Vanguard fund outside retirement that's over 200k, you're paying full freight.

np.. Our HHI is $320K. We have two kids, and we are about to retire soon. We cannot afford close to $400K for college for each child. And we get 0 financial aid.

My daughter graduated Amherst in 2020 the year cut short by covid. At the time our family income averaged just north of $200k with a $600k mortgage and 1 other kid in college for 3 of her 4 years. Our total cost of attendance averaged about $40k per year with $35k+ per yr in financial aid. We scratched and clawed our way through those years financially and spent some of our savings but were able to get 2 kids through college without taking on more debt (and the kids graduated debt free). The cost was a little more than instate at UVA but it was well worth it to us. She had a fabulous 4 years at Amherst and, after working and living at home for 2 years to save money, is now in med school at NYU (free tuition!). It's possible she may have ended up doing about as well had she gone to UVA, but her father and I are extremely thankful for Amherst's financial support and the education Amherst provided our daughter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does it justify costing a full $10K more than peer institutions like Williams, Bowdoin, Swarthmore?

That’s not the cost differential.

Yes, it is. All three are ~82K.

Sigh. Once again: tuition and room and board costs vs. tuition and room and board costs and personal expenses and travel etc. Apples and oranges.

Difference is maybe 2 grand at most. Maybe Amherst should not put these other expenses on their website — Williams does not, though they are obviously budgeted for financial aid — to avoid this confusion. But at a certain point, if this thread wants to willfully stay confused, have at it.

Personal expenses and travel are not budgeted for mainstream financial aid. Maybe they are for special "dirt poor" programs.

Amherst has always budgeted travel for financial aid as well as all food and board. It’s one reason why their financial aid packages are better than some others. I’m also a little confused by the stat that 50% are in the top 10% of income. If that’s right that means Amherst is giving financial aid to many students in the top 10% of income which would suggest the whole middle class is getting financial aid (since 65% of class gets financial aid).

Always may be a stretch. I think this is a more recent phenomenon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:“Our HHI is $320K. We have two kids, and we are about to retire soon. We cannot afford close to $400K for college for each child. And we get 0 financial aid.“

Roll Tide!

um. no..never. DC#1 going to UMD honors with merit. DC#2 don't know yet but it won't be Alabama.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you can get significant merit scholarship at Vanderbilt or USC, why ... pay twice as much at Amherst or Columbia or even Harvard or MIT.

Tuition is around $60K at these schools. Harvard and MIT have amazing connections. They also have some truly excellent departments. If you want your kid to go to school in NYC, Columbia is pretty great. Personally, I would prefer my child to attend an elite liberal arts college like Amherst or Williams.

USC is fine, but in a bad part of L.A. I suspect that funding cuts have hurt programs at UCLA. If your kid does not attend a nerd school like Caltech or Harvey Mudd, Pomona would be nice. I might balk at paying full price for USC, unless my spoiled kid really wants warm California weather.

Vanderbilt is great, like Washington University in St. Louis, Notre Dame, or Emory. I'm not sure I want my kid to develop friends and career contacts in the south or midwest. So yes, I would definitely consider paying an extra $120K to give my child friends, a spouse, and elite career connections in the northeast.

DH attended one of the elite schools referred to here and none of his school contacts ever parlayed into a job/connections. Perhaps the diploma helped land him the very first job out of school (in a field he never worked in again), but his very successful career did not come out of his college network (though lots of fun gatherings and school reunions).

Isn't that the entire point the first job. Also do they utilize alumni events.

Yes, get that on the first job, but didn't even last a year in the field.

No, only attends reunions. His closest friends are from college, but none have been sources of employment referrals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Our HHI is $320K. We have two kids, and we are about to retire soon. We cannot afford close to $400K for college for each child. And we get 0 financial aid.“

Roll Tide!

um. no..never. DC#1 going to UMD honors with merit. DC#2 don't know yet but it won't be Alabama.

Look, I wouldn't want to attend Bama and neither of my DCs would look at southern schools, but if I were in the above scenario, then yeah, I might be pushing Roll Tide.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Amherst is extraordinarily generous with financial aid and also recruits heavily from a lot of different income levels with things like all expenses paid visits for lower income kids to visit campus (or at least they used to do that—I doubt they e cut that program). I was middle class (real middle class not DCUM middle class) and they covered the vast majority of my tuition. I got into 9 schools and even though they all supposedly were using the same Fafsa need info, Amherst came out more generous than any of the other schools (other than my instate public). It was cheaper than going to UVA out of state.

Amherst caps "typical assets" at 200k.

So if you make 150k in nyc and have a Vanguard fund outside retirement that's over 200k, you're paying full freight.

np.. Our HHI is $320K. We have two kids, and we are about to retire soon. We cannot afford close to $400K for college for each child. And we get 0 financial aid.

i would consider working through the last college year of the youngest.

[Anonymous]

A lot of private universities and colleges are 80-90K a year, total cost of attendance. My son just move-in at George Washington University, and this year it's 85K: he has a 20K award, but that just lowers it to 65K, which is already scandalous, when you think about it.

Our younger kids will probably face 100K a year COA. We can afford it, but if we had doubts about that, it would be UMD, our state university, without a second thought. I don't think any undergrad diploma is worth getting into debt for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Our HHI is $320K. We have two kids, and we are about to retire soon. We cannot afford close to $400K for college for each child. And we get 0 financial aid.“

Roll Tide!

um. no..never. DC#1 going to UMD honors with merit. DC#2 don't know yet but it won't be Alabama.

Look, I wouldn't want to attend Bama and neither of my DCs would look at southern schools, but if I were in the above scenario, then yeah, I might be pushing Roll Tide.

No. Never. Not the culture I want for my children, and they're not interested either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand the focus on Amherst. Every top private costs about this much nowadays. And Amherst is among the best of them.

No LAC is a top school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does it justify costing a full $10K more than peer institutions like Williams, Bowdoin, Swarthmore?

That’s not the cost differential.

Yes, it is. All three are ~82K.

Sigh. Once again: tuition and room and board costs vs. tuition and room and board costs and personal expenses and travel etc. Apples and oranges.

Difference is maybe 2 grand at most. Maybe Amherst should not put these other expenses on their website — Williams does not, though they are obviously budgeted for financial aid — to avoid this confusion. But at a certain point, if this thread wants to willfully stay confused, have at it.

Personal expenses and travel are not budgeted for mainstream financial aid. Maybe they are for special "dirt poor" programs.

Amherst has always budgeted travel for financial aid as well as all food and board. It’s one reason why their financial aid packages are better than some others. I’m also a little confused by the stat that 50% are in the top 10% of income. If that’s right that means Amherst is giving financial aid to many students in the top 10% of income which would suggest the whole middle class is getting financial aid (since 65% of class gets financial aid).

Always may be a stretch. I think this is a more recent phenomenon.

Well, they e done it for at least 30 years. They probably didn’t do it in 1820, so always was a stretch.