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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I”m seeing a lot of threads and responses within threads. Lots of people seeking information about private schools with tons of merit aid, “full ride” schools, people frustrated about the unfair advantage of ED because you want know the full amount of merit aid that might be available (and kudos to the patient people on that thread that keep trying to explain how the Net Price Calculator works).

The conclusion I’m getting from this is... there’s a whole bunch of UMC people here who didn’t save for kids’ college.
What the @#$%!

To be 100% clear, I’m not talking about lower income families, though these posters starting the posts above almost seem to resent all the aid, Pell grants, etc. these folks will be getting.

When my kids were 5 (as soon as we didn’t have to pay for preschool anymore, just public school before and aftercare) we started investing in 529s. We’ve been putting away money every month since then. 
Back then, after doing my research, my assumptions were
1. We will not qualify for financial aid (unless we are going to some really expensive private, but then we are still paying $$$)
2. While my kids are smart, I should not count on merit aid of any kind

As we get close to college age, we will have enough for them to attend an in-state school, and we are on track to take out very little—if any—in loans. Kids know they are welcome to apply to private schools, and if after all is said and done, it’s a comparable price tag, we can do that, but neither we nor our kids are going to rack up big undergraduate debt.

Yes, college costs are out of control, and there’s lots of frustrating aspects to the system, but this stuff didn’t crop up yesterday. Why didn’t you plan? Why didn’t you save?[/quote]
I sense some anger in OP's statement. She considers herself UMC (upper middle class?), but despite her best efforts, was unable to provide for her children to the degree she might have wanted to.  Instead, her children are left with one or two options (that's what "in-state school" translates to). If she lives in VA, her children may be [url=https://www.roanoke.com/news/education/some-incoming-virginia-tech-freshmen-offered-money-to-delay-start/article_6ed2a7b2-3b31-500a-a810-e3f968866c3b.html]offered money to not come.[/url]  She projects her anger onto other people who point out that despite what they considered higher incomes they're unable to provide for their children the way they wanted to. She imputes that others who point this out harbor social envy at those who have even less and receive financial aid (which often is loans).

With attitudes like these, it's difficult to see how we as a society can address the problem of spiraling college costs and how to distribute these costs across socioeconomic strata in a rational manner.
[/quote]

Hee! I’m OP and it’s funny you think I’m angry. I’m more mystified and all of the other posters in this forum that seem to be scrambling for magical buckets of merit aid or free ride schools. I think you are conflating two different things. The larger societal challenge of college costs vs. individual families doing what they can.
Like many other posters on this thread, I’m totally happy with my kid going to in-state schools. I’m glad I could save enough to make work. While I’m UMC my rest-of-the-country standards, I’m not pulling in the kind of numbers being thrown around DCUM sometimes. Again, I’m not angry about that. It’s just a fact.
You say
“She projects her anger onto other people who point out that despite what they considered higher incomes they're unable to provide for their children the way they wanted.”
Again, not angry, just mystified. I sat down when my kids were small, projected out college costs (as many other PPs have pointed out, the trend of escalating costs didn’t just happen last year) and I projected my income and expenses. And then I figured out a plan for saving for college. Many other decisions after that: home purchase, vacations, other expenses, were done with the college savings part of the budget baked in and non-negotiable.

For those that experience truly unexpected, catastrophic setbacks, I’m not talking about you. (Though again I point out the PP who described a period of job loss/insecurity that nevertheless worked way back to college savings.)

Do I think we should find a way to reign in college costs? Absolutely. I think we as a society should absolutely be looking at ways to increase access and reduce debt to post-secondary education (I include non-college options in that as well, as there are a number of professions where kids could make good $ and are more inclined to those pursuits, but it needs to be high quality skilled technical industrial trades training).
I will vote for candidates who have good ideas on how to achieve this, and support any efforts to make this happen.

HOWEVER, that is not the case right now. It wasn’t the case 12+ years ago when I started college savings, and it’s not looking like it’s going to be fixed by the time my kid hits college. That means It. Is. On. Me. As the parent. To do what I can to save.

Not to have my kid hit junior year of high school and suddenly be shocked. SHOCKED. At the cost of college, small amount of merit aid, etc.

While I want the large societal fix, I have to do what I can for my immediate family right now base on the current realities. I just don’t understand why there are so many people on DCUM, who were in comparable or possibly better financial position than me, who did not do likewise. Based on the number of responses in this thread, it would seem I am not alone in this sentiment.[/quote]

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