No financial aid for middle class at public college???

[Anonymous]

We have freshman twins and did our first college tour. The twins are excited to go to school together at the same school, and are willing to go wherever we can afford. They are very bright with great grades at public high school so they can likely get in many schools but we are only letting them go to public colleges that we can afford.

Even at public colleges, tuition plus expenses (room/board) will be about $25k each year at the cheapest options and we are not considering schools more than $10k tuition/year due to our finances. How can DH and I afford the $50k/year for the twins? We won't qualify for help with FAFSA. We make $200k together and and all that money goes to the mortgage that won't be paid off for another 29 years (we couldn't afford a house until we paid off our college debts). We've been saving in our 529 but will only have about $50k total, after scraping by.

We would be willing to sell our house but we have a younger child who will only be in 6th grade when they start college so we need to stay here meanwhile. Then we will sell our house and rent a small apartment to pay these debts.

How have other families managed? Did you take loans against your house? Did you rent out rooms in house when they were at college? Did you have your kids sign up for ROTC/join army? Other ideas? Did you take jobs you hated for more money? We are worried and don't know how to tell our twins that they may need to work for many years before they can go to college.

[Anonymous]

What are you defining as middle class? We are at $130-150K and save about $10K a year for college. We did the prepaid at birth and now 529. There is no excuse you don't have the money saved for college when you make $200K. We live in a tiny modest house and drive older cars. It depends on your priority. You choose to have three kids, high student loans and clearly are spending a lot/high mortgage if you cannot put much away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have freshman twins and did our first college tour. The twins are excited to go to school together at the same school, and are willing to go wherever we can afford. They are very bright with great grades at public high school so they can likely get in many schools but we are only letting them go to public colleges that we can afford.

Even at public colleges, tuition plus expenses (room/board) will be about $25k each year at the cheapest options and we are not considering schools more than $10k tuition/year due to our finances. How can DH and I afford the $50k/year for the twins? We won't qualify for help with FAFSA. We make $200k together and and all that money goes to the mortgage that won't be paid off for another 29 years (we couldn't afford a house until we paid off our college debts). We've been saving in our 529 but will only have about $50k total, after scraping by.

We would be willing to sell our house but we have a younger child who will only be in 6th grade when they start college so we need to stay here meanwhile. Then we will sell our house and rent a small apartment to pay these debts.

How have other families managed? Did you take loans against your house? Did you rent out rooms in house when they were at college? Did you have your kids sign up for ROTC/join army? Other ideas? Did you take jobs you hated for more money? We are worried and don't know how to tell our twins that they may need to work for many years before they can go to college.

Better private schools may give you much better need-based aid than public universities.

Weaker private’s may provide decent merit aid.

For bright, academically inclined kids: I think starting at any accredited four-year school with a dorm and transferring is usually better than community college, unless the community college clearly has a great faculty and a terrific, straightforward pipeline between it and a four-year school.

I think you can see here that most of the people talking about the community college-to-university route think of college as a barrier between the kid and good jobs. They don’t think of the education itself as having any value. And they have a terrible time actually getting bachelor’s degrees. Some great, education-minded kids may end up at community colleges, anyway, because the aid situation is so chaotic, but I think you should think of that as an emergency backup option, not a first choice.

I think the big thing is to be open and honest with your kids about what you can spend, then go from there.

[Anonymous]

If they are really excellent students, there are public colleges and universities that will give them full tuition, and cover some of their room and board costs as well. Your kids are only freshmen so you have some time to do your research on this and figure out the requirements.

[Anonymous]

I noticed that you did not include community college as an option and I would encourage you to consider this seriously. Assuming you are in the DMV you have some strong options with Montgomery College or with NVCC. There are lots of smart, hard working students at MC and NVCC who earn their associates degree in two years and then transfer to their state universities (including UMD-CP and UVA) or other local universities (such as Georgetown) that have articulation agreements with local CCs.

If you are in MCPS your child could even take classes at MC while in high school and earn an associates degree at the same time as they graduate from high school. The Associates degree costs $5800 and you would then only need to spend an additional $50K per child to get them a degree at UMD. They only accept 50 students and they only offer a couple of degree options so this might not be the ideal solution but it is worth considering.
http://mcblogs.montgomerycollege.edu/atmc/students-can-now-get-their-high-school-and-college-diplomas-at-once/

My main advice for you is not to let your children take on debt for their undergraduate degree. You know from personal experience that it takes a really long time to dig out from student loan debt even with a very high household income of $200k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they are really excellent students, there are public colleges and universities that will give them full tuition, and cover some of their room and board costs as well. Your kids are only freshmen so you have some time to do your research on this and figure out the requirements.

I’d like to know which colleges do this, i.e., FULL tuition. I know some that cover a large chunk for high stats kids, but the FULL tuition awards I’ve seen were for one or two highly competitive scholarships.

[Anonymous]

A couple of things, OP. First, you aren't "middle class." I know you feel like you are living pay check to paycheck, but $200k annual income is definitely Not middle class.

Second, it sounds like you and your spouse had a LOT of education debt and that all your extra money was going toward that for the last 15+ years. As a result, you weren't saving a lot for your double whammie kids' college expense. I guess you essentially were passing on the same situation to your kids...they will take out loans and be paying tjose iff instead of saving college money for their kids! Of course, the wsy to break the cycle is to reduce how much rhe kids spend on college. If they are good students, they would be great candidayes for the guaranteed admission programs where kids do the first 2 yrs at local community colleges.

Then, your kids can get a part time job. And perhsps live at home while in college. I think it all depends on how much debt you want your kids to take on, and how much debt you want to take on their behalf. The smart move is to get them a degree with the least debt posdible. That would give them the financial freedom you didn't have...and still don't.

Other people take out home equity loans, but sounds like you don't have much equity. It's unfortunate that you were using your HHI to pay off your own educationsl debt all these years...but, money can only be spent once...your educational choices precluded saving for your twins. Time to get frugal...or add more debt burden to you or pass it to your kids. Your choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have freshman twins and did our first college tour. The twins are excited to go to school together at the same school, and are willing to go wherever we can afford. They are very bright with great grades at public high school so they can likely get in many schools but we are only letting them go to public colleges that we can afford.

Even at public colleges, tuition plus expenses (room/board) will be about $25k each year at the cheapest options and we are not considering schools more than $10k tuition/year due to our finances. How can DH and I afford the $50k/year for the twins? We won't qualify for help with FAFSA. We make $200k together and and all that money goes to the mortgage that won't be paid off for another 29 years (we couldn't afford a house until we paid off our college debts). We've been saving in our 529 but will only have about $50k total, after scraping by.

We would be willing to sell our house but we have a younger child who will only be in 6th grade when they start college so we need to stay here meanwhile. Then we will sell our house and rent a small apartment to pay these debts.

How have other families managed? Did you take loans against your house? Did you rent out rooms in house when they were at college? Did you have your kids sign up for ROTC/join army? Other ideas? Did you take jobs you hated for more money? We are worried and don't know how to tell our twins that they may need to work for many years before they can go to college.

You were supposed to save long before you get to this point. We saved, saved, and saved for our kids. They will pay for your mistakes.

[Anonymous]

You aren’t middle class.

Two-years of CC and transfer to 4-year.

Many privates offer merit to bring cost down to that of in-state public.

You really should have been saving all along. Make your money work for you rather than try to play catch up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they are really excellent students, there are public colleges and universities that will give them full tuition, and cover some of their room and board costs as well. Your kids are only freshmen so you have some time to do your research on this and figure out the requirements.

I’d like to know which colleges do this, i.e., FULL tuition. I know some that cover a large chunk for high stats kids, but the FULL tuition awards I’ve seen were for one or two highly competitive scholarships.

Mary Washington did; don’t know if the rules changed. Full tuition for good grades and tests scores. Not even astronomical test scores. It did not cover room and board. Still, made it completely doable for many.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they are really excellent students, there are public colleges and universities that will give them full tuition, and cover some of their room and board costs as well. Your kids are only freshmen so you have some time to do your research on this and figure out the requirements.

I’d like to know which colleges do this, i.e., FULL tuition. I know some that cover a large chunk for high stats kids, but the FULL tuition awards I’ve seen were for one or two highly competitive scholarships.

Mary Washington did; don’t know if the rules changed. Full tuition for good grades and tests scores. Not even astronomical test scores. It did not cover room and board. Still, made it completely doable for many.

Both of my kids got full tuition from Pitt. From MD.

[Anonymous]

St. Mary's in MD is another good option. From DC, my son was offered enough in aid (stats driven) that the total cost would have been $19,000 a year.

[Anonymous]

OP - I agree that perhaps you should have handled your finances differently. But what's done is done. Your twins won't go to college for 4 years.

Go see a financial planner (not someone selling investment vehicles) NOW and see how you can cut expenses and find ways to save.

Worrying about what college might offer them financial aid is not a great use of time right now, largely because things will change in 4 years. Focus on what is ahead of you now -- which is creating a solid financial plan.

As for your twins, hopefully, they will get strong grades in challenging classes and achieve high standardized test scores to be in the running for merit aid scholarships. But there is no point in freaking them out now, and no point in starting things like test prep in 9th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they are really excellent students, there are public colleges and universities that will give them full tuition, and cover some of their room and board costs as well. Your kids are only freshmen so you have some time to do your research on this and figure out the requirements.

I’d like to know which colleges do this, i.e., FULL tuition. I know some that cover a large chunk for high stats kids, but the FULL tuition awards I’ve seen were for one or two highly competitive scholarships.

WVU does for students with a 3.5 GPA + national merit finalist. Full 4 years of tuition, in or out of state. And you could get other scholarships to cover some of room and board costs. Ole Miss will give an out of state tuition waiver and quite a bit of money (not sure if it’s full tuition but probably close) to ACT 33+ and GPA 3.0+.

[Anonymous]

"very bright kids with great grade from public schools" are dime and dozen in the DMV. Just about everyone at Mclean or Langley HS is bright with great grade. It is not that special.

Our HHI is 350k/yr and we have about 400k in 529 for 4 kids. The plan is to have them attend either NVCC or GMU in the first year while living @home. Assume they have good grade after the first year, they can transfer to UVA through the "guaranteed admission" program. Your kids can also stay at home while attending GMU for only 11K/year in tuition.