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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]Wooster and Juniata both gave my child approximately 25K in merit aid (per year, for four years). She had a 3.7 UW GPA, very average SAT scores and just a handful of AP's.

She also go aid offers from other, more highly ranked schools.[/quote]
This is helpful! [b]I am still in shock as I realize that our HHI of $210k (which only recently got that high) means no financial aid on all the net price calculators I run.[/b] I can't imagine actually paying $70k/year (!) so we're scrambling to think about options. [b]PP, could you mention the other, more highly ranked schools that also offered aid?[/b] [/quote]

You will not qualify for financial aid.  (I'm kind of surprised you would think that you would.)

Higher-ranked schools that award merit aid include e.g. Dickinson, Denison, Grinnell, Oberlin, U. Rochester.  Some elite schools, e.g. Johns Hopkins and Washington U. in St. Louis, as well as e.g. Boston College, give a tiny number of merit scholarships to super high-performers.

If your child is a good but not stellar student, you will need to look at schools ranked 40 and above by USNWR.  Or, send your child to an in-state public.[/quote]

I think the pp meant merit "aid" not that she thought her child could get financial aid.  [/quote]

No, she wrote, "I am still in shock as I realize that our HHI of $210k (which only recently got that high) means no [u]financial aid[/u] on all the net price calculators I run."

She meant financial aid.[/quote]

And why shouldn't she? Should she be expected to go to the poor house over college? While some other child goes to the SAME institution for less? Sorry, no.

Unless you're damn near a millionaire, a $70K tab/year is still a LOT of money once you figure other debts (mortgage, car), paying for health care (and that's just for healthy people), saving for retirement, etc. We make nearly $300K and could in no way swing that. And we don't live extravagantly by any means (drive cars till they collapse, modest home, etc.)[/quote]

I don't disagree that it is a crazy sum of money.  That's why so many students in the DMV go to in-state publics and not private colleges and universities.

We make $240K and cannot swing it, yet do not qualify for need-based aid.  Our kids go to private LACs with large merit scholarships.  Our older DC's costs this coming year will be $42K and DC#2's will be $44K.  Both chose their schools over UMD-CP for reasons we agree with.

Colleges expect you to be saving for two decades before enrolling.  Tuition, room, and board should come, in schools' view, from past earnings, current earnings, and future earnings (loans).  If you are short in one category, you'll need to make up for it from another.

We have saved aggressively since our kids were born, so don't need to make use of "future earnings," and hence they will graduate without loans.  [/quote]

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