Which private colleges have the best financial aid for donut hole families?

[Anonymous]

Somewhere on the college website they have “average cost of attendance “ most people pay $35k year for private college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Somewhere on the college website they have “average cost of attendance “ most people pay $35k year for private college.

I have not found any private colleges that cost so little. Most of the families on this forum are primarily interested in top 100 colleges and those typically cost closer to twice that amount which is why it can be hard for a family earning as much as $200k to afford without financial aid

[Anonymous]

People’s perspectives, particularly on the DMV, are pretty skewed because on the whole, this is a wealthy pet of the country. .

Colleges recruit nationally. A HHI of $180,000 is in the top 10% nationally. https://dqydj.com/household-income-percentile-calculator/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Somewhere on the college website they have “average cost of attendance “ most people pay $35k year for private college.

I have not found any private colleges that cost so little. Most of the families on this forum are primarily interested in top 100 colleges and those typically cost closer to twice that amount which is why it can be hard for a family earning as much as $200k to afford without financial aid

Very few people pay the private college sticker price.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Somewhere on the college website they have “average cost of attendance “ most people pay $35k year for private college.

I have not found any private colleges that cost so little. Most of the families on this forum are primarily interested in top 100 colleges and those typically cost closer to twice that amount which is why it can be hard for a family earning as much as $200k to afford without financial aid

Average cost of attendance.

Tuition and room and bird at hypothetical elite college — $75K

1 full pay student + 1 first generation student who is paying $10,000 a year = average COA of $45K

[Anonymous]

It’s all accounting.

[Anonymous]

No one making $200k is paying $75K a year yet private colleges are full of students. Colleges are constantly discounting the price then writing it off. There are just not as many folks making that $$ as there are students in private colleges.
Ours lists $70k/year. Ha. The only person paying that is from an extremely wealthy foreign family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one making $200k is paying $75K a year yet private colleges are full of students. Colleges are constantly discounting the price then writing it off. There are just not as many folks making that $$ as there are students in private colleges.
Ours lists $70k/year. Ha. The only person paying that is from an extremely wealthy foreign family.

The CDS makes this clear.

FA: How many applied for aid, how many were determined to have need, many of those with need had need 100% met, average FA award
Merit: How many without need received grants or scholarships.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not really. As much as people like to say they're being penalized for having saved, the formulas are not that harsh. Rule of thumb, at donut hole level, every extra dollar of savings raises tuition by 5%, every extra dollar of income raises tuition by 50%. So if you spend down 65K in savings to pay for freshman year, possibly next year's calculation will go down by $3250. But that's assuming income is level. If that same year your income increases by $6500, it's a wash.

Interesting. What is the source of your knowledge if I may ask? The NPC seem to be web applications that provide output to an input. They could probably be easily reverse-engineered, and I'd be surprised if no one has done that, but are the formulas published anywhere?

Second, are you saying that there's a cumulative/compounding effect from spending down savings over the 4 years, i.e., in year 1 you enter $65K in saving, then you spend that in year 1, and then you're considered to have saved $0 for year 2? That would create perverse incentives, wouldn't it?

DP. That rule of thumb is based on the FAFSA formula that is published. Each individual college is making their own adjustments as they see fit. You can play with the numbers on the individual colleges websites. One major source of differences is home equity - some count it, some don’t, and some count it only up to % of HHI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People’s perspectives, particularly on the DMV, are pretty skewed because on the whole, this is a wealthy pet of the country. .

Colleges recruit nationally. A HHI of $180,000 is in the top 10% nationally. https://dqydj.com/household-income-percentile-calculator/

There are also a lot of students in this area with high stats who would naturally be more interested in a top
100 school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People’s perspectives, particularly on the DMV, are pretty skewed because on the whole, this is a wealthy pet of the country. .

Colleges recruit nationally. A HHI of $180,000 is in the top 10% nationally. https://dqydj.com/household-income-percentile-calculator/

There are also a lot of students in this area with high stats who would naturally be more interested in a top
100 school.

And since only about the top 25-30 offer no merit aid at all, most families make it work somehow. However, if you are fixated on only the top 30 schools, full pay or not, you are setting yourself up for disappointment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not really. As much as people like to say they're being penalized for having saved, the formulas are not that harsh. Rule of thumb, at donut hole level, every extra dollar of savings raises tuition by 5%, every extra dollar of income raises tuition by 50%. So if you spend down 65K in savings to pay for freshman year, possibly next year's calculation will go down by $3250. But that's assuming income is level. If that same year your income increases by $6500, it's a wash.

Interesting. What is the source of your knowledge if I may ask? The NPC seem to be web applications that provide output to an input. They could probably be easily reverse-engineered, and I'd be surprised if no one has done that, but are the formulas published anywhere?

Second, are you saying that there's a cumulative/compounding effect from spending down savings over the 4 years, i.e., in year 1 you enter $65K in saving, then you spend that in year 1, and then you're considered to have saved $0 for year 2? That would create perverse incentives, wouldn't it?

DP. That rule of thumb is based on the FAFSA formula that is published. Each individual college is making their own adjustments as they see fit. You can play with the numbers on the individual colleges websites. One major source of differences is home equity - some count it, some don’t, and some count it only up to % of HHI.

Yes, I'm the PP, that's correct, but CSS schools are interested in maximizing Federal/state sources so they are somewhat bound by FAFSA rules. The big difference is the extent to which they ferret out assets. How the assets and income are assessed are largely the same. It's simple to confirm this using the calculators or just emailing FA offices. They won't disclose a complete formula but they're quick to say things like yes, home equity is consider but assets are only assessed at 5%. I had schools tell me this explicitly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's another insight here with respect to EFC that I just realized. It is dumb to contribute to a 529 unless your 401k is maxed out.

It’s not dumb to plan for your child’s future. At $200k you can easily do both.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Somewhere on the college website they have “average cost of attendance “ most people pay $35k year for private college.

I have not found any private colleges that cost so little. Most of the families on this forum are primarily interested in top 100 colleges and those typically cost closer to twice that amount which is why it can be hard for a family earning as much as $200k to afford without financial aid

Very few people pay the private college sticker price.

People say that all the time but by DCs college 40% of students were full pay. It’s not the majority but it’s not “very few”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Donut hole families: “I don’t have any money left, after I spend it all.”

Please google and learn before posting. https://www.washingtonpost.com/