Reply to Are privates that don’t offer merit aid still enrolling the best students?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Why does this thread feel like sour grapes for those who can not afford to attend the Ivy they are qualified to attend?
Ivy level schools will not ever hurt for students of the highest caliber. There is way more qualified applicants than seats at those schools. If your child can not attend such a highly rated school that is fine and your child will do well wherever they attend but the T30 schools will still have an overabundance of the top qualified students to choose from. Parents have always looked at their children with bias thinking they are more unique than they really are.[/quote]

+1000

There will also be "donut hole" families who have managed to save/make saving for education a priority.  Schools like Harvard make it affordable for families making up to 150-200K.  So while your family making 150-200K may not choose to save, there will still be plenty who do, so it will not be all "low income" and wealthy students.

Then again, it's the wealthy students who largely have the means to do the pointy ECs and win national awards, and have tutors to take 13+APs and still get all As.  So the wealthy have an easier path to "having the resume for HYPSM[/quote]

Oh please. Not all donut hold families can save $80/year per kid. Esp in high COLA areas where their jobs are. Between medical, taxes, child care early on, expenses associated with school, car payments (on very basic cars, no suburbans or Teslas here), mortgage (still in our starter home). . . . it's just not possible for two stable paid, but not wealthy, civil servants (non-SES).

So it is sour grapes. That doesn't mean that those families, like us, are wrong. [/quote]

This. In Fairfax county, teacher and police officers are donut hole. [/quote]

[b]Can someone put a $$$ amount of income that they define as donut hole?[/b]

Go to any Ivy League expected cost calculator.  Input a $300k income with $100,000 in a 529, $100,000 in house equity, etc....and every school says they will give you like $25k-$30k (Princeton was highest at like $40k) per year.  That is if you only have 1 kid attending...I assume they will give you more with multiple.  Again, if you are getting a free ride vs. even a net cost of $50k you will probably take it.

How much do two Fairfax county teachers make?  More than $300k?

Are the expected cost calculators lying, or are people defining a donut-hole income as something very high...where no one else would ever define it that high.[/quote]

No, because personal circumstances vary among families.  A donut hole family is one that neither qualifies for need-based aid nor can afford to pay full price for college.[/quote]

This is the nonsense that gets everyone mad.  The definition of donut hole can't change based on personal circumstances...that implies that someone making $1MM a year who decided to own three homes, fancy cars, etc. is donut-hole because of personal "circumstances" and doesn't qualify for need-based aid.  Now, if there are no savings because someone had to pay for expensive cancer treatments...we get that, but do schools really not factor something like that into their calculations?  If not, then I am absolutely right with you on this whole Donut Hole concept.

Donut hole has to have a specific income definition adjusted for cost-of-living or no one will have any empathy for your situation.

So, I ask again...what income level is "Donut Hole" for the DMV such that a reasonable person would argue that the cost differential between say UMD and an Ivy League (again, OP specifically used Ivy League as a reference point for the theme of this entire thread) is truly unaffordable and unfair.[/quote]

We have nowhere near to $1 million/year and one starter home. We are most def a donut hole family. And frankly, I don't give a sh-- about your empathy. I give a sh-- about what is reasonable for all families. And shutting out the middle class or upper middle class while allowing rich families and poor families to have a better track for success available to them, is not reasonable.[/quote]

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