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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I get that most people on DCUM have $80k saved per year of college and much of America (HHI under $125k) gets aid but do these two realities really cover these gigantic pools of applicants to all the top 50 schools?  has the rest of America also saved $80k/year/kid?  am I missing something? thinking about this tonight as friends of ours just had their daughter (one of 6 kids, first in college) commit to Carnegie Mellon. I know for a fact that they make more than $150k but I had no idea that $&0k/year was in their budget. [/quote]

You are perhaps asking the wrong question...the reality is that most of the Top 20 private schools (I think at least 15) are all grant / no loan schools.  CMU may be an interesting example, because not sure if they made the same pledge.  So, a parent with 6 kids and $150k is getting much of college covered by grants, with some minimal parental contribution.

It is when you move outside this group that college actually gets more unaffordable.  Think OOS for a top state flagship like Berkeley or a Bennington College in VT (as just random examples).

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This. It's easy for a lower middle class family to send their kid to Harvard because Harvard makes it all but free. Sending that same kid to a state flag ship means loans. Sending them to a less prestigious private school means a lot of loans [/quote]

For high stats kids, the less prestigious privates might offer a lot in merit. My kid is going to get 30k-44k in merit at Muhlenberg and Wheaton. Both of these came in at 39k on NPC, but they are both potentially offering more for other specialty scholarships. If she gets everything they are considering her for, it could be close to cost of UMD. But, she may get a lot of money there (in Honors College and potential for B-K). Looked at Bennington initially, and they weren't far off including merit w/ the NPC.  [b]They will be less than any Ivies probably if she gets in[/b]. But, those should hopefully be affordable because we are under 150K in annual income. Ivies and top LACs cane in around 39k-45k on NPC unless they counted full or high value of equity in primary residence. Our area has exploded, and our house is worth a lot now.
 
We have 2 kids 2 years apart and have been saving since the kids were little and hoping that the cost wouldn't be much more that around $40k a year w/ need at upper tier or merit at mid tier. We'll probably have about 100K per kid in 529 by the time we need it and plan to try to pay the first two years from other savings and as we go. If DC1 goes to an upper tier that gives need, our cost should drop when DD2 is also in school, and if she goes in state or a high merit offer, it should be less initially. Here's hoping! DC2

[b]I think some of the biggest challenges are OOS publics that don't give much merit like UMich and UC Berkley. Did the UMich calculator, and they essentially gave only $100 in aid. What was that?  So, the combo of instate and private LACs that have good need or good merit should yield some options for us. #2 won't get as much merit as #1 and will be less likely to get into top schools, so that will be it's own problem![/b][/quote]

If you earn little enough, the Ivies are literally the cheapest option because they are 100% free and all aid is grant based. OOS publics have a mission to serve instate kids. OOS kids are a revenue stream that helps lower the price for in state students, so why would they give generous aid? [/quote]

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