Donut hole reality

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s not donut hole. That’s a comfortable family. The rest of our kids go to state schools.

This. If you have sticker shock, but the ability to pay you aren't really a donut hole.

Ability to pay when that ability means constant struggle, isn’t really comfortable.

Families with more than one kid and $250-300k don’t get financial aid. Paying $180-200k/year for kids’ tuition isn’t easy.

You save starting at birth, consider your spending and live way below your means.

That’s not enough, PP.

And you should not HAVE to do so, scrimp and save, just to educate your kids. And I'm still not sure why people accept this reality as something that should be allowed to continue.

[Anonymous]

We don’t qualify for need-based aid. Here’s how it shook out for us, including merit aid:

Regional in-state: 15k
Flagship in-state: 30k
Flagship out-of-state public: $48k
Higher-ranked private: $72k

We went with the third option. My guess is that employers will begin to take private school grads with a grain of salt: they may be very bright, or they may just be very rich.

[Anonymous]

Too much whining. There are also cars that cost $400,000. If you don’t want to pay that, there are reliable options that are a fraction of that. Same with colleges.

Community colleges, GI Bill, colleges away from the coasts, graduate in 3 years etc. Out-of-state merit aid at large public universities in unglamorous states can be amazing even if kid isn’t brilliant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Part of why it's gotten so insanely expensive to go to many colleges is because families that are UMC are expected to shoulder not just the cost of their own kid attending but all the kids that are attending for free or at low rates. I want those kids to go to college too but that should be funded from either government money or endowments not jacking up tuition on other families struggling to pay for school too.

💯

That’s the big secret of the schools that no one talks about. Who is really funding all of the need blind awards. It’s not the endowments. And it’s def not the government.

It’s the fact that tuition goes up every year and insane amount and families with over $300,000 in income are expected to be full pay. That is robbery from one group to satisfy the other.

Is this really true? Colleges are such an insane cost because the people who pay full price are also covering the costs of poor kids?

Yes! How exactly do you think it works? Look at the financials of these universities.

Honestly, I never really thought about it. For those of us who can't read financials, can you show us an example of a university's financials that would show this? That the full pays are subsidizing the poors? What would I look for on a financial statement to see this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is a thread like this every year. The top privates have no problem finding full pay kids.

A lot of them could not get into the top schools in their own state, UMD, UVA, W&M, and the parents want prestige name still or equivalent education.

I find in our UMC if a kid gets into top in-state flagship they go there---if not--they go to an OOS state flagship or the parents suck it up for a private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a thread like this every year. The top privates have no problem finding full pay kids.

A lot of them could not get into the top schools in their own state, UMD, UVA, W&M, and the parents want prestige name still or equivalent education.

I find in our UMC if a kid gets into top in-state flagship they go there---if not--they go to an OOS state flagship or the parents suck it up for a private.

and the top flagships are more and more out of reach for even top students in the state. You have more 'ivy stat' kids going in-state due to cost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, it's ridiculous. Send your kid to a decent public school - there are plenty of them.

Most likely what we are doing- W&M or UVA

I just read all these people fighting over prestige and it’s crazy. My kid got into many of these schools they are raving about, but not worth the $.

That's the decision we came to last year. This makes the competition for those in state seats all the more tough because lots of others in the donut hole reality come to the same realization. I am grateful every day that DC got into UVA (did not apply to Wm and Mary).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Too much whining. There are also cars that cost $400,000. If you don’t want to pay that, there are reliable options that are a fraction of that. Same with colleges.

Community colleges, GI Bill, colleges away from the coasts, graduate in 3 years etc. Out-of-state merit aid at large public universities in unglamorous states can be amazing even if kid isn’t brilliant.

Your analogy is stupid. People do not need a luxury vehicle. Education is necessary. And when you have certain families cut out of the "luxury" market, while subsidizing others who will get to go to those institutions for free or low cost, that is the sign of a problem. It should not be this way for anyone.

[Anonymous]

some of the lower tier VA schools have started offering the free tuition deal to anyone with an HHI of $100K and under.

And there are VA privates that are somewhat reasonably priced with their merit awards and then adding in the VTAG money. We currently are looking at a bill of probably $22K/year at one of them without any further financial aid info. If you have a child with better grades than my daughter (we are still debating if she really is ready for a 4 year), it would be even cheaper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My god— my niece paid $100k freshmen year to attend Boston College.

It’s not very different from Georgetown or any of the SLACs.

My child has been accepted to some very adjective universities (5-6%%) acceptance rate—but paying $70k more per year over the very good VA public university seems ludicrous.

This is the point we have come to in higher education. A $400k undergrad degree?

There are many high stat northern Virginia students (1500 ish SAT, above 4.0 range) who were rejected from the top Virginia universities and now have to go out of state and pah out of state rates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My god— my niece paid $100k freshmen year to attend Boston College.

It’s not very different from Georgetown or any of the SLACs.

My child has been accepted to some very adjective universities (5-6%%) acceptance rate—but paying $70k more per year over the very good VA public university seems ludicrous.

This is the point we have come to in higher education. A $400k undergrad degree?

There are many high stat northern Virginia students (1500 ish SAT, above 4.0 range) who were rejected from the top Virginia universities and now have to go out of state and pah out of state rates.

don't HAVE to

just won't accept anything less than UVA, W&M and/or VT

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Too much whining. There are also cars that cost $400,000. If you don’t want to pay that, there are reliable options that are a fraction of that. Same with colleges.

Community colleges, GI Bill, colleges away from the coasts, graduate in 3 years etc. Out-of-state merit aid at large public universities in unglamorous states can be amazing even if kid isn’t brilliant.

Your analogy is stupid. People do not need a luxury vehicle. Education is necessary. And when you have certain families cut out of the "luxury" market, while subsidizing others who will get to go to those institutions for free or low cost, that is the sign of a problem. It should not be this way for anyone.

You’re an idiot. Nobody is saying people don’t need college. But they don’t “need” expensive colleges, & PP named several ways to bring costs back down to earth. But you’d rather complain than use any of those tactics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s not donut hole. That’s a comfortable family. The rest of our kids go to state schools.

This. If you have sticker shock, but the ability to pay you aren't really a donut hole.

Ability to pay is often at the cost of liquidating retirement funds, home equity, life style and nursing home savings.

Shouldn't be. The top schools have excellent need based FA. Many who would be a fafsa doughnut hole would get FA. To be paying full price means, you are well off in earnings and non-retirement assets. Even home equity is often capped (not 2nd or 3rd home of course).

The real problem is failing to save. No one should expect to cashflow college. We started saving when kids in elementary and thought we were late to the game.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Too much whining. There are also cars that cost $400,000. If you don’t want to pay that, there are reliable options that are a fraction of that. Same with colleges.

Community colleges, GI Bill, colleges away from the coasts, graduate in 3 years etc. Out-of-state merit aid at large public universities in unglamorous states can be amazing even if kid isn’t brilliant.

Your analogy is stupid. People do not need a luxury vehicle. Education is necessary. And when you have certain families cut out of the "luxury" market, while subsidizing others who will get to go to those institutions for free or low cost, that is the sign of a problem. It should not be this way for anyone.

You’re an idiot. Nobody is saying people don’t need college. But they don’t “need” expensive colleges, & PP named several ways to bring costs back down to earth. But you’d rather complain than use any of those tactics.

I agree the donut hole families don't "need" expensive colleges. But couldn't the same be said about poor students? They don't "need" expensive colleges either. Have them go to an in-state school where the government will fund their education 100%.

Then full pay families wouldn't have to subsidize them at the fancy, private colleges. Since full pay families are no longer subsidizing poor students, the full pay tuition can be reduced to the true cost of educating their own student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s not donut hole. That’s a comfortable family. The rest of our kids go to state schools.

This. If you have sticker shock, but the ability to pay you aren't really a donut hole.

Ability to pay when that ability means constant struggle, isn’t really comfortable.

Families with more than one kid and $250-300k don’t get financial aid. Paying $180-200k/year for kids’ tuition isn’t easy.

250k does at top tier schools, especially with more than one in at the same time.