I feel like I failed my kids

[Anonymous]

What ECs are you paying for? Can you cut back on those?

[Anonymous]

What is wrong with UVA, W&M, and Virginia Tech?

[Anonymous]

Actually, we make about $285k and our kid gets financial aid from Georgetown, which is known for being stingy with aid. Are you sure your child won't be able to get financial aid?

[Anonymous]

How much have you saved since they switched to public school? Why hasn't all that money gone into a 529? I'm guessing you have an overspending problem and it's not just expensive private tuition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is wrong with UVA, W&M, and Virginia Tech?

[phone]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Really really loved William and Mary but the tuition didn’t make sense for us, being OOS. Virginia families are lucky!

+1 W&M is DD’s first choice. Sadly, we can’t afford it OOS. Coming from MD, I have no sympathy for VA parents lamenting their kids’ options. Please.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Really really loved William and Mary but the tuition didn’t make sense for us, being OOS. Virginia families are lucky!

+1 W&M is DD’s first choice. Sadly, we can’t afford it OOS. Coming from MD, I have no sympathy for VA parents lamenting their kids’ options. Please.

Cost aside, there are so many OOS parents who would love to have their kids at UVA or W & M or Va Tech and are willing to pay OOS tuition for quality that’s a “relative” bargain for VA residents

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We don't have any money saved up for their college. We're an upper middle-class family with a 270k HHI, so they can't get much need-based financial aid. The money that was gonna go to their college fund was spent on private school that did get them ahead academically in the early years but has become useless now (they currently go to public). I just feel like I failed them, because none of their top choices are in-state (we're in VA) and they have, especially my oldest, spectacular grades, 99th percentile test scores and plenty of awards for both academic and art ECs. Many people think my oldest is going to be getting into the Ivies or at least a top 25. But we can't afford that. She's already been applying to various scholarships but have had no luck so far. Both DH and I paid our own way for college, but we were both in-state UMD. Our money now mostly goes towards their ECs. I feel like I'm going to hinder their success because I didn't save like I should have.

Honestly there are only a handful of school that are worth much more than UVA/WM/VT

If your kid gets into HYPSM and you can't really afford it, then that's that, but i would try very hard to make the budget work at these schools even if I don't eat out or get a new car for those years.

At the rest of the IVY+ I would go as far as my budget allowed but no further. If you have to cut back on eating out or whatever, fine but don't cut into your retirement of drastically change your lifestyle

Your children are lucky to have such great in state options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Really really loved William and Mary but the tuition didn’t make sense for us, being OOS. Virginia families are lucky!

+1 W&M is DD’s first choice. Sadly, we can’t afford it OOS. Coming from MD, I have no sympathy for VA parents lamenting their kids’ options. Please.

Cost aside, there are so many OOS parents who would love to have their kids at UVA or W & M or Va Tech and are willing to pay OOS tuition for quality that’s a “relative” bargain for VA residents

Yes, what do you do in MD if you're not admitted to UMD?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Understandable at 275k feds with 3 kids. They will likely have to go to in-state public, or else pick an SREB program for in-state tuition out of state.

No, its not understandable. You save, spend less.

In NOVA with 3 kids on 270k HHI? maybe if parents helped out with home purchase, private school, etc. oh brother. 270k HHI is almost poor here without family money.

It depends on the sequencing. If all three kids are in college at the same time, that's tough. But if there's no overlap, or even with two kids at the same time, should be do-able.

[Anonymous]

OP, what are your current expenses. If you share them, we can tell you where you could cut expenses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You prepared your kids.

A no-cost Ivy education is never guaranteed and shouldn't be considered commensurate with a *current* 270k income (surely built upon over the years). There are fantastic in-state opportunities. You set them up for a successful path that's within their reach.

Case closed.

It's a tough journey, OP! Eventually though, what PP is saying will begin to ring true. It's your only true path forward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's wrong with UVA/W&M/VTech?

Nothing. On the contrary, they are great schools.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My neighbor was a public high school teacher. He took a second job at Target and worked at Target 30 hours a week in addition to his teaching job to pay for his daughter's Mt Holyoke College.

He liked working at Target.

On a teacher’s salary, I’m surprised Mt Holyoke did not offer substantial FA??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ivy grad in a prestigious field here. I work with many, many W&M and UVA grads. These schools are very well-regarded by employers.

Truth.