250k household income - did you receive any aid in financial aid packages?

[Anonymous]

Yeah, our sai was over 70k. No freaking way could we realistically pay that!

[Anonymous]

No, zero need based aid from any public or private college.

Son will be full pay with a little merit aid at in state public.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Zero. from FAFSA. I think the previous posters are lying. From FAFSA at 250K HHI I think the D of Ed will say you should fund at 100 percent, which is what happened to us

CSS will give you a lot more, especially if you have multiple kids

Not necessarily. We filled that out and still got nada. Also got a weird message from a board member calling us poor…?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If so, what was the offer for private vs public colleges and universities?

FAFSA - loans only

$15k/year merit at Pitt (honors college)

$5k/year merit at Penn State (honors)

No FA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the difference between merit and financial aid?

One is based on academics (GPA, test scores...merit) the other is based on finances (your parent's income and assets...financial).

Most of what is called merit aid is actually combined merit/need. If you have to fill out the CSS profile or submit the FAFSA to apply for it, it’s combo aid.

Merit aid is offered without that information and with the offer of admission or immediately after with more selective schools. The criteria are also clearer. Some schools are more open with that information than others.

[Anonymous]

HHI of 330 and was offered merit aid of about 50% at three SLACS. Half a million in the 529 (3 kids) but I think he's going to be full pay OOS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:$240k a year. got about 35k from princeton (total coa is now ~50k)

Princeton says most families with income of up to $300,000 will get some financial aid. I think at the tippy-top schools, you can get aid with an income of $240,000.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why? That’s not a small income.

-Only just got to this income recently
-Prior student loans just finally paid off
-Prior car loans (not fancy cars but still)
-All of above meant behind in retirement and trying to catch up
-High cost of living area (did ok for awhile by living cheaply in a high crime area but had to go more expensive when we couldn't take the gunshot sounds anymore)
-Essentially in the "donut hole"

It sucks that you just got to this level and now must pivot to saving for retirement. Wish FAFSA could take intergenerational wealth into account. Yet that's not the case. Folks need to make sure that their kids consider schools known to be generous with merit aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I helped a couple kids in this bracket this year (with admissions and with applying for and negotiating FA). Both got excellent aid -- one from an Ivy, another from a few top LACs. Both offered about 1/2 coa worth of aid. Need based.

Also got some great merit offers too.

NP: Were these ED or EA candidates? Ran the NPC on a bunch of schools. Most have EFC at $30-$40K, which is doable for us with 529, Grandmas, and our earnings. A few were $50K+. I don't think ED is an option for us. DC's favorite school so far is one of the $50Ks, of course. I would prefer to have the option to compare offers.

Both of these were RD. But one other in ED on 150k HHI with excellent FA from Ivy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The new provision in the FAFSA about not counting multiple kids makes it really challenging for families with HHI of 200,000 to 250,000. I feel like the rules of the game changed. When we ran numbers of saving for college we always counted that it was a total cost of college by number of kids in college. We have kids one year apart and the oldest is young for his grade. We have always planned for a gap year. Both our kids will be in college at the same time.

So even for public our expected contribution is around $45000. So maybe doable with one child but not with two kids. We didn't used to make so much money and because housing is so expensive we weren't able to save any money for college. If we are expected to pay $90,000 a year it makes more sense for my spouse who makes 95,000 to not work for the years the kids are in college.

You were never going to qualify for federal financial aid of $45000 anyway. You would have needed 8 students in college to qualify. The new calculation has no effect on you.

[Anonymous]

No aid, but two college kids got full ride 4 and 5 year engineering scholarships with a monthly and book stipends. Hoping our other two kids still at home follow in their footsteps.

[Anonymous]

Does this mean you don’t need to fill out FAFSA if you make a high income?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why? That’s not a small income.

-Only just got to this income recently
-Prior student loans just finally paid off
-Prior car loans (not fancy cars but still)
-All of above meant behind in retirement and trying to catch up
-High cost of living area (did ok for awhile by living cheaply in a high crime area but had to go more expensive when we couldn't take the gunshot sounds anymore)
-Essentially in the "donut hole"

It sucks that you just got to this level and now must pivot to saving for retirement. Wish FAFSA could take intergenerational wealth into account. Yet that's not the case. Folks need to make sure that their kids consider schools known to be generous with merit aid.

The problem with intergenerational wealth is not all grandparents/relatives will not help. My grandparents help. My parents are stingy and will not buy a birthday gift, a meal, let alone help for college. They could afford to help. So, their money means nothing and we've saved since birth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$240k a year. got about 35k from princeton (total coa is now ~50k)

Princeton says most families with income of up to $300,000 will get some financial aid. I think at the tippy-top schools, you can get aid with an income of $240,000.

What are your assets (excluding home equity) to get 35k from Princeton with HHI of 240k/year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No aid, but two college kids got full ride 4 and 5 year engineering scholarships with a monthly and book stipends. Hoping our other two kids still at home follow in their footsteps.

what colleges offer this kind of (merit based?) engineering scholarship?