Reply to Of the top private colleges, which ones do you think are worth $57,000 a year?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have kids at two schools on the Forbes list. They each borrow 3,500/year in subsidized loans. We pay 10K for one and 12K for the other. The rest is covered by the schools in scholarships and need-based aid. It's doable.[/quote]

+1 very few people pay full freight. Ask the admission office what the discount rate is and how much aid you can expect, then go from there. [/quote]

If we make $290,000 should we expect to pay full freight? I'm assuming so. Unfortunately we have a second child in private school and a high mortgage so these schools are probably not doable for our almost college student.[/quote]

Yes, I'm afraid you're not going to get a lot of understanding from the federal financial aid formula about the private school. I forget how mortgages were treated. Some colleges make you fill out another financial aid form run by the College Board people, and many colleges have their own forms or adjustments to the federal formula. And then after DC gets accepted it's always possible to appeal to your college FA office about special circumstances that don't show up on the forms. But at the end of the day, federal aid (Pell grants, subsidized Stafford loans) are basically limited to HHI under $50,000. So at your AGI you would be looking at what the school will provide in the way of merit aid (at non-Ivies), grants and/or subsidized loans, all of which depend on the school's endowment. And frankly, they are going to ask hard questions before giving HHI&gt;$200K a FA package when they could be giving the same money to HHI=$100K, given that the endowment pie is limited.

In any case, many college FA packages are a combination of grants and loans, so you'd be looking at substantial student loans. You could take unsubsidized student loans out from Sallie May, although you have to fill out the FAFSA to do that. You could also take out a federal PLUS loan for parents, although that could jeopardize your retirement. The most complete book I've read on the subject is published by the Princeton folks who do SAT and AP study guides. That book talks about how they have helped millionaire clients get FA, but the circumstances seemed pretty unusual in those cases.[/quote]

PP again after checking that Princeton book. Of course, don't take financial advice from some random stranger like me on the interwebs, and do your own research. But FWIW:

The size of your mortgage does not matter for FA. The FA methodology assumes your family gets a certain amount of living expenses left over after tuition, and that amount is pretty low. For example, the Princeton book cites $25,210 for a family of four in I think that was 2010. That includes ALL living expenses, including rent/mortgage, food and clothing. The book says most people think this figure is "bad joke," but whatever. So whether you have a $1000 or $4,000 monthly mortgage payment is immaterial. With some adjustments, the FA formula will assume that all income over $25K (for a family of four) is available to pay tuition.

While the federal methodology doesn't look at a sibling's K-12 private tuition, some colleges will look at part of the tuition payment and so does another standardized form called PROFILE that some colleges use. If the college doesn't ask for this information explicitly, you could appeal to the FA office, especially if you have a case that the private school is necessary for an LD. The time for appealing would be after DC is accepted to the college. In any case, when the second child starts college, those additional college tuition payments will be factored into the FA calculation.[/quote]

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