What Top 30 colleges give most aid to 250k families...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You have no idea how long the income has been 250K. You have no idea of their expenses (supporting elderly parents, or special needs children).

On average, that should be reflected in lower assets compared to families who have been making 250K for longer. FA decisions typically don't factor income solely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$250K families are getting merit aid at T30? Since when?

I am OP and I ran a few calculators and you can get a lot of aid at Harvard and Princeton. The cost gets pretty close to UMD (we are in MD).

I got almost zero aid at, for example Carnegie Mellon. Since there are a lot of schools and we are still some year out of applying, I am looking for leads on other top schools where aid is available.

I ran the NPC for CMU, and it came back at FEC $100K per year. Our HHI was about $300K at the time.

Guessing you have more than $400 of assets (not including retirement and primary residence)?

We had a total of $200K in two 529s, one for another child, and cash savings of $200K *at the time*.

But CMU is like $80K/yr, and we have another DC right behind to pay for college.

two kids at $80K/year * 4 yrs = $640K.

But the NPC doesn't care about that. I'm not saying it's unfair. I'm just saying those colleges don't give out much aid to people in our income bracket.

[Anonymous]

For non-loan financial aid to UMC families, it's useful to look at the endowment per student numbers. It's not a surprise that Princeton is so generous with aid. They have the highest endowment per student in the country - more than $4 million per student. Similarly, Pomona is also typically very good with aid. Again, they have a very high endowment per student ratio. No one is saying no to Princeton or Pomona because they can't afford it.

The interesting thing is that the competition for admission to rich, elite private universities is going to get fiercer and fiercer in the years ahead even as colleges more broadly face a demographic cliff. With costs approaching $100,000 a year, fewer and fewer families are able to even consider schools that cannot compete for talent with aid. 2 kids. That's $800,000. There aren't that many families that can roll with those kind of numbers. So ultimately, for a lot of families with bright, accomplished kids, it really is a T20 private or State U as the only viable options - unless they want to go to much lower ranked schools that will compete with merit offers. But that's not happening at the T20 level except for a small number of merit scholarships at the non-Ivy private universities. It really is a Princeton or bust moment for a lot of UMC families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:... without including home equity and retirement savings?

Depending on the details, 250k HHI can get need based aid at most of the ivies and Duke and Stanford. Some people with 250HHI get none.
OP run the net price calculators for all the T30s and you will start to see that the best need-based aid comes from the higher ranked subset of these schools .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For non-loan financial aid to UMC families, it's useful to look at the endowment per student numbers. It's not a surprise that Princeton is so generous with aid. They have the highest endowment per student in the country - more than $4 million per student. Similarly, Pomona is also typically very good with aid. Again, they have a very high endowment per student ratio. No one is saying no to Princeton or Pomona because they can't afford it.

The interesting thing is that the competition for admission to rich, elite private universities is going to get fiercer and fiercer in the years ahead even as colleges more broadly face a demographic cliff. With costs approaching $100,000 a year, fewer and fewer families are able to even consider schools that cannot compete for talent with aid. 2 kids. That's $800,000. There aren't that many families that can roll with those kind of numbers. So ultimately, for a lot of families with bright, accomplished kids, it really is a T20 private or State U as the only viable options - unless they want to go to much lower ranked schools that will compete with merit offers. But that's not happening at the T20 level except for a small number of merit scholarships at the non-Ivy private universities. It really is a Princeton or bust moment for a lot of UMC families.

In general I agree . However there do seem to be a LOT of full pay families at our DC’s high school who drop 90k per year for 3 or 4 kids. Half of the prep school is full pay for college, and they do not chase merit at all. The neighboring high school has the same: they are paying full pay for middling private schools without batting an eye, often turning down in-state JMU or VT for privates in the T30-70 range, just to have a “private” school. We are not DMV or NY or Boston: presumably these areas have many more wealthy families who are not going to blink when the average crosses 100k

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very curious about how anyone with multiple children in college at the same time did this year with need-based financial aid with CSS Profile schools in this $250k-$400k+ income range? As a parent with twins going to college in a couple of years, the new FAFSA rule changes eliminating the ability to split the family contribution among the number of kids in college at the same time pretty much directly hammered us, but it’s opaque to me what the CSS Profile schools have been doing for families with multiple children in college.

We are in the upper end of that range but arrived there only a a few years before college started, we have less than 50k in 529 and we are cash flowing two ivies , staggered by 3 yrs. I did a Net price calculator 2 years before the first started and it said 100k when full pay was 80k, even when I put in 2 kids instead of 1. We accepted we would not qualify at all for any aid--nor should we! We started saving a big block of cash the 2 years we had left, added it to the meager 529 funds, tightened the budget and moved on with a plan. Cash flowing ever since, now with an overlap year and guess what cutting the budget works when you are in the very high income range of 250-400k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$250K families are getting merit aid at T30? Since when?

I am OP and I ran a few calculators and you can get a lot of aid at Harvard and Princeton. The cost gets pretty close to UMD (we are in MD).

I got almost zero aid at, for example Carnegie Mellon. Since there are a lot of schools and we are still some year out of applying, I am looking for leads on other top schools where aid is available.

I ran the NPC for CMU, and it came back at FEC $100K per year. Our HHI was about $300K at the time.

Guessing you have more than $400 of assets (not including retirement and primary residence)?

We had a total of $200K in two 529s, one for another child, and cash savings of $200K *at the time*.

But CMU is like $80K/yr, and we have another DC right behind to pay for college.

two kids at $80K/year * 4 yrs = $640K.

But the NPC doesn't care about that. I'm not saying it's unfair. I'm just saying those colleges don't give out much aid to people in our income bracket.

Just to be clear you have 300k Household income plus 200k in 529 plus you had 200k cash at some point before college payments started and yet for some reason you cannot afford 640k, covering the difference with cash flow from your 300k income? Honest question. That does not add up. Or maybe you're just explaining why you did not get need based aid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:An unhooked kid is unlikely to get into any of these schools, particularly the ivies. Op, start with schools your kid is likely to get into and can afford. Adding reaches is never a difficult process.

Maybe the OP's kid is one of the unhooked super stars who gets into multiple T15/Ivies. It happens, they do exist. Since the OP did not ask for admission odds, best to focus on the answer to the query

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you PP.

So all Ivy League schools are providing about 30k off sticker price? How about MIT? U of Chicago? Johns Hopkins? Obviously I can run a calculator for each school individually but I assume many people have done it already and have the ballpark answer ready.

It seems kind of lazy you want others to do your specific search for you. And that you think you won’t have to compromise on rank or cost. Sort of entitled TBH.

Ugh. I am just looking for leads; my kid certainly won't be applying based on rough numbers thrown out here.

I am looking for information if some schools are, in fact, affordable. If they aren't, I move on. I just need to know. There are likely other people in a similar situation who will find this helpful. Not sure why this upsets you?

Keep in mind the NPCs shift every year. My guess is all of the T10s are your best bet, as they are the most endowed, but honestly it would take you 45 minutes to run the data for all of the T30 and find all the ones that are close to your budget based on your specific income and assets.
Target the initial college list from there(plus add safeties), just remember to re-run NPCs next summer and reassess the final list. In 45 minutes this thread will still be circling about with various users providing varied advice and you could already have the data that you need for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$250K families are getting merit aid at T30? Since when?

I am OP and I ran a few calculators and you can get a lot of aid at Harvard and Princeton. The cost gets pretty close to UMD (we are in MD).

I got almost zero aid at, for example Carnegie Mellon. Since there are a lot of schools and we are still some year out of applying, I am looking for leads on other top schools where aid is available.

I ran the NPC for CMU, and it came back at FEC $100K per year. Our HHI was about $300K at the time.

Guessing you have more than $400 of assets (not including retirement and primary residence)?

We had a total of $200K in two 529s, one for another child, and cash savings of $200K *at the time*.

But CMU is like $80K/yr, and we have another DC right behind to pay for college.

two kids at $80K/year * 4 yrs = $640K.

But the NPC doesn't care about that. I'm not saying it's unfair. I'm just saying those colleges don't give out much aid to people in our income bracket.

Assets matter just as much as income, if not more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$250K families are getting merit aid at T30? Since when?

I am OP and I ran a few calculators and you can get a lot of aid at Harvard and Princeton. The cost gets pretty close to UMD (we are in MD).

I got almost zero aid at, for example Carnegie Mellon. Since there are a lot of schools and we are still some year out of applying, I am looking for leads on other top schools where aid is available.

I ran the NPC for CMU, and it came back at FEC $100K per year. Our HHI was about $300K at the time.

Guessing you have more than $400 of assets (not including retirement and primary residence)?

We had a total of $200K in two 529s, one for another child, and cash savings of $200K *at the time*.

But CMU is like $80K/yr, and we have another DC right behind to pay for college.

two kids at $80K/year * 4 yrs = $640K.

But the NPC doesn't care about that. I'm not saying it's unfair. I'm just saying those colleges don't give out much aid to people in our income bracket.

So you have 400k saved for college, and you want a handout? When you make 250K and you could cash flow the remaining costs if you really wanted to? Don’t tell me you couldn’t live on 200K for 4 years if you really needed to, plenty of people do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank you PP.

So all Ivy League schools are providing about 30k off sticker price? How about MIT? U of Chicago? Johns Hopkins? Obviously I can run a calculator for each school individually but I assume many people have done it already and have the ballpark answer ready.

It all depends on your liquid assets. We make less than 250k; however, we live well within our means and saved, saved, saved. Running the numbers in individual net price calculators, we do not qualify for aid, even at the most generous colleges like Princeton.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$250K families are getting merit aid at T30? Since when?

I am OP and I ran a few calculators and you can get a lot of aid at Harvard and Princeton. The cost gets pretty close to UMD (we are in MD).

I got almost zero aid at, for example Carnegie Mellon. Since there are a lot of schools and we are still some year out of applying, I am looking for leads on other top schools where aid is available.

I ran the NPC for CMU, and it came back at FEC $100K per year. Our HHI was about $300K at the time.

Guessing you have more than $400 of assets (not including retirement and primary residence)?

We had a total of $200K in two 529s, one for another child, and cash savings of $200K *at the time*.

But CMU is like $80K/yr, and we have another DC right behind to pay for college.

two kids at $80K/year * 4 yrs = $640K.

But the NPC doesn't care about that. I'm not saying it's unfair. I'm just saying those colleges don't give out much aid to people in our income bracket.

So you have 400k saved for college, and you want a handout? When you make 250K and you could cash flow the remaining costs if you really wanted to? Don’t tell me you couldn’t live on 200K for 4 years if you really needed to, plenty of people do.

You missed the PP’s point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you PP.

So all Ivy League schools are providing about 30k off sticker price? How about MIT? U of Chicago? Johns Hopkins? Obviously I can run a calculator for each school individually but I assume many people have done it already and have the ballpark answer ready.

It seems kind of lazy you want others to do your specific search for you. And that you think you won’t have to compromise on rank or cost. Sort of entitled TBH.

Ugh. I am just looking for leads; my kid certainly won't be applying based on rough numbers thrown out here.

I am looking for information if some schools are, in fact, affordable. If they aren't, I move on. I just need to know. There are likely other people in a similar situation who will find this helpful. Not sure why this upsets you?

How did you not save at all? Did you buy an expensive house and lifestyle or are there other reasons? Many of us live in 1/2 that and saved for a state school. He should go to a state school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$250K families are getting merit aid at T30? Since when?

I am OP and I ran a few calculators and you can get a lot of aid at Harvard and Princeton. The cost gets pretty close to UMD (we are in MD).

I got almost zero aid at, for example Carnegie Mellon. Since there are a lot of schools and we are still some year out of applying, I am looking for leads on other top schools where aid is available.

I ran the NPC for CMU, and it came back at FEC $100K per year. Our HHI was about $300K at the time.

Guessing you have more than $400 of assets (not including retirement and primary residence)?

We had a total of $200K in two 529s, one for another child, and cash savings of $200K *at the time*.

But CMU is like $80K/yr, and we have another DC right behind to pay for college.

two kids at $80K/year * 4 yrs = $640K.

But the NPC doesn't care about that. I'm not saying it's unfair. I'm just saying those colleges don't give out much aid to people in our income bracket.

Assets matter just as much as income, if not more.

THIS!