Do families with $250K in income get financial aid? If not, how do they afford college?

[Anonymous]

If your kids get into selective colleges with needs-blind admissions, FA - even for families with $250k and no 529 savings - can be good. If you have multiple kids in college simultaneously, it’s even better. Yes, FAFSA removed the automatic multiple-kid-in-school discount, but our experience this year is that private, well-endowed schools still take it into account. The experience of the earlier poster with kids at Northwestern and ND is what we’ve also experienced.

[Anonymous]

Go to in state schools or community college and transfer to in state schools. Parents do not take out loans. You may think you can work another 20 years, but it is not certain. Companies fold, health issues arise. Do not put retirement at risk. It’s just not worth it. Life happens.

[Anonymous]

That's about what we make. We got no financial aid, other than the notice that our kid can take out the $5k federal loan.

We had: 1.) a 529 for each kid. Could have put more in, but it was a solid start.

2.) First kid picked a state flagship -- not as cheap as you would think, but helpful!
Second kid picked a private that was probably a little below her stats. Got great merit aid.

3.) We live below our means. Never left the starter house.

[Anonymous]

We make $250K and currently have $50k & $70K saved up in our 8 and 10 year olds' 529s. We are on track to send them full pay to state schools when they are in college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have 1 kid that will go 4 yrs in state. The other is doing HS DE and will finish his last 2 yrs in state. I think where they go for grad school is more important than where they go for undergrad.

Why waste $$$s on grad school? It’s usually a terrible investment.

Never understand this thinking.

Med school pays itself off easily. All our close friends did full loans and paid off within 15 yrs. Law school pays off for most. PhD’s worth getting are fully funded (ie tuition plus stipend to live on, yes even in humanities): they are Free!
Only terminal masters can be a $ suck, but some of them, depending on field, pay off well.

"Pay off easily" and "15 years" are not anywhere close to synonymous in my head. That's a debilitating wait to have freedom from just school debt.

When you marry another doc or marry a lawyer, your household income is up above 250k once residency is done and up above 400k combined within 8-10 yrs. This was graduating med and law 20 yrs ago, hitting 400k combined 10 yrs ago. It has gone up and they make more starting now. Med loans spread out over 10-15 yrs PLUS private k-8 for 2-3 kids was not a problem . All of our friend from prof school have done similar. It is not at all a problem. Most of us have homes valued over 1.5million, that we bought ourselves . The single-earner families have it harder and have chosen public or catholic school but their spouses have the same uva or georgetown or similar undergrad—they could have a lucrative job they didnt choose that.

[Anonymous]

^public or catholic k-8/12, they all are paying for T20s when their kids have gotten in. They chose college savings over k-12 fancy private

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP. Sorry people have been rude. You ask a good question. With what feels like a lot of schools costing $70k+, it feels crippling. I know I have saved a little but our income didn't grow enough to save more until the kids were teens. And earlier I was trying to squirrel away money for my retirement.

With kids that are 14 and 16, it feels like this mountain in my future.

It's not a good question. It was quite possibly one of the stupidest questions ever posted on DCUM.

It actually was a fair question. But you are quite possibly one of the most trash people on DCUM.

NP - no, it's a dumb question. Boiled down, it is, "Please speculate about how anonymous people, who you don't know anything about, afford college."

[Anonymous]

OP here. So, for all of the haters that say that I am 'stupid', have you considered that I am possibly just busy? Sandwich generation with kid and aging parents with problems. So.....perhaps that I haven't had time to think about this much yet and also wanted to hear thoughts from a wide range of people?

I really appreciate all of the honest answers here on what people are doing to make this work. A couple of insights have been particularly helpful. One, my friends who are doing this sometimes have $400K salaries because they are both Feds and we are actually one Fed+one non profit. Two, they have been saving since birth. As have we. We have $136K in the 529 and kid is a rising 7th grader. Three, we are actually doing the 15 year mortgage thing and mortgage will be done by the time that kid is 19. I wasn't thinking of that in terms of college but of course it will help. Four, number of kids matters. We actually have just one and cost has been a huge factor in that decision all along the way. Five, you at least get to stop shelling out costs for tutoring, activities, etc when they go to school. So that's good. Maybe we can move to a less expensive place to live?

I went to an Ivy league school and my network here is largely people who went there and are very very advantaged. But many chose not-the-highest-paying careers b/c they were passionate about health, the environment, etc. So I am just trying to see how people make it work....(cue the Ivy haters)....and to get opinions outside of my biased privileged circle. I have been surprised that so many of my friends are sending their kids to top name schools and don't know how they afford it, particularly since all have at least two kids. My husband has always said MC-->UMD is what the path should be or perhaps his home country which has a decent university system.

[Anonymous]

Your kid can always take out loans OP. If you have only 1 kid in 7th grade and $136K in a 529, you're better off than most parents.

Other than that 250K/year is a lot of money. Yes, a lot goes to taxes, but if you have a monthly mortgage/rent that isn't exorbitant and don't have a taste for fancy cars or have major medical bills, 250K is in the top 5% of household incomes in the country (even if it's DCUM poor).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP. Sorry people have been rude. You ask a good question. With what feels like a lot of schools costing $70k+, it feels crippling. I know I have saved a little but our income didn't grow enough to save more until the kids were teens. And earlier I was trying to squirrel away money for my retirement.

With kids that are 14 and 16, it feels like this mountain in my future.

It's not a good question. It was quite possibly one of the stupidest questions ever posted on DCUM.

It actually was a fair question. But you are quite possibly one of the most trash people on DCUM.

It was an idiotic question and you know this, too, since all you can come up with is an empty platitude and an ad hominem. Maybe DCUM isn't a place for you.

[Anonymous]

No they don’t. They must do a number of things to get their kids through college. Some or all of the below items:

Save from birth or earlier.
Invest wisely
Budget effectively
Look for merit aid/tuition discounts
Chose a school they can afford
Take out loans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. So, for all of the haters that say that I am 'stupid', have you considered that I am possibly just busy? Sandwich generation with kid and aging parents with problems. So.....perhaps that I haven't had time to think about this much yet and also wanted to hear thoughts from a wide range of people?

I really appreciate all of the honest answers here on what people are doing to make this work. A couple of insights have been particularly helpful. One, my friends who are doing this sometimes have $400K salaries because they are both Feds and we are actually one Fed+one non profit. Two, they have been saving since birth. As have we. We have $136K in the 529 and kid is a rising 7th grader. Three, we are actually doing the 15 year mortgage thing and mortgage will be done by the time that kid is 19. I wasn't thinking of that in terms of college but of course it will help. Four, number of kids matters. We actually have just one and cost has been a huge factor in that decision all along the way. Five, you at least get to stop shelling out costs for tutoring, activities, etc when they go to school. So that's good. Maybe we can move to a less expensive place to live?

I went to an Ivy league school and my network here is largely people who went there and are very very advantaged. But many chose not-the-highest-paying careers b/c they were passionate about health, the environment, etc. So I am just trying to see how people make it work....(cue the Ivy haters)....and to get opinions outside of my biased privileged circle. I have been surprised that so many of my friends are sending their kids to top name schools and don't know how they afford it, particularly since all have at least two kids. My husband has always said MC-->UMD is what the path should be or perhaps his home country which has a decent university system.

Keep saving as you are, add a little more if you can, and you are on track for having enough for the ivy. People always think there is “no way” we could be paying for the ivy and yet here we are. The key is to live low budgetish now then drop it more when the kid goes off! Also remember your food and Sports/music fees will go way down when they leave so count that as money that can swing into the “cash flow” portion of funding it. Not an ivy hater at all—have one there and it is worth every cent . Good luck to you and yours.

[Anonymous]

UMD in CP is a great school that has risen tremendously in the past 15 years. If your kid can get in, that is wonderful! Many MOCO families have kids with top grades and high SATs and were rejected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We make less, we save starting at birth, make savings a priority, no vacations, etc. and state school.

Yep. Started saving when we were TRYING to have our first. Opened a 529 with monthly contributions of $25. Neither of us are "rich" but we are doing fine. Lived in the same house for 24 years. Only the past couple of years do we have combined salaries in excess of $250k. Limited our two children to $50K/yr each which pretty much limits them to public.

There are a lot of private schools where merit can bring the price down to $50k or lower. Just have to look beyond T30ish

True but they are usually well below T50 for top easy attainable merit. Why pursue it if the publics in question are UVA and Wiilliam&Mary?

Because, for most, there is no guarantee your kid will get in to UVA and W&M so it's good to consider a wider range of options.

DD wanted a smaller school and was waitlisted at W&M. The privates with merit she had as options were preferable to her vs. next-best in-state, UMW.

Sure, the calculation may be different if your student is a superstar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question says it all. I have been hearing all of my friends who are federal government workers saying their kids are not eligible for financial aid. But I don't think this is enough $ in income to afford $70K in college costs per kid per year. And it's not as though these families had extra income before their kids went to college - in this area, a mortgage, saving for retirement, and cost of raising kids will eat up all of that income. Where does the extra $ come from if they don't get financial aid?

They have been saving in 529s since their children were newborns, idiot. And they aren’t sending them to schools that cost $70k annually. What kind of dumbass, tone-deaf question is this.

There is no need for rudeness. It is a valid question for discussion on a college board.