Reply to Michelle singleterry article yesterday

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My complaint with the column was that she focused exclusively on the sticker price for the schools and did not explain the importance of merit and financial aid in determining the actual net price. Many times, schools with the higher sticker price will end up being less expensive than other schools because they out together a better package.

This is especially true if your DC is a really strong student. The Ivies are all rich enough to offer very generous financial aid packages for nearly everyone from a family earning less than $125K.  If you're a National Merit semifinalist, you can get a full-tuition merit scholarship to most land grant colleges and SLACs.

[b]I don't know how much Michelle Singletary makes, but if she and her husband earn over $200k, I find it interesting that she isn't a little more generous on her child's college options[/b]. It's not like college should have been a surprise expense and that she couldn't have predicted a long time ago that she might need to save up some serious assets. For those parents lucky enough to make substantial incomes, what is more important to spend money on than your kids' education? Parents shouldn't go into debt, but when you make a lot of money, it is relatively easy to save up $200-300k over 18 years.[/quote]

DH and I make about $200K and we have saved $250K for our two kids' college funds (they are 16 and 13).  To us, that is a lot of money and we could not have saved more given our other expenses and priorities (retirement, emergency fund).  We have done everything possible to save aggressively, and it is still not enough to pay sticker prices at top-tier schools.

When the time comes, the money we have will be what it will be, and we will take a similar approach to that described in the WaPo piece, because we are unwilling to incur (or allow our kids to incur) debt for undergrad education.  Our kids may not get merit aid.  If they are Harvard material, we will be expected to foot more of the bill than what we have available.

There are many of us in this situation.  We work with what we have.[/quote]

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