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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Not a news flash, but tuition costs are staggering. Do most people apply for and get financial aid, unless they are truly rich?

Spouse and I make about $320,000 per year with about $400,000 equity on a nice four-bedroom suburban home which we bought 10 years ago.
Kids are 12 and 7. We have $30,000 in the 12-year-old's college savings account and $15,000 in the younger one's account.

We've been prioritizing, on our planner's advice, saving for retirement, and we have about $800,000 combined there. We're 43. Thankfully done paying for daycare and do not pay for school now - both kids are in public.

FIL will likely contribute some money toward college but certainly isn't funding their educations. We consider ourselves comfortable enough but certainly need to work and certainly don't have a slush fund to draw from for college.

How do more-or-less regular people do it? I worry that we make too much for aid, but we don't have enough money to have oodles of money for college! I would appreciate any "how to do it" posts.

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You're what's called a "doughnut hole" family.

With a much lower HHI ($200K), and living in a small affordable 4-BR suburban house in Prince George's County, we paid for all 4 of our kids to finish their undergraduate degrees.

For us, the "how to do it" secret was always merit aid. All our kids could have gone to elite universities with high COIs, but they opted for slightly lower-tier schools instead that offered substantive merit aid. We were able to pay out of pocket for remaining costs.

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That is how it should be done.  You save what you can, tell your kids what you can afford/are willing to contribute, then help them find a great school that is affordable.  Plenty of schools outside the T30 offer merit.  Just search for one where your kid is at/above 75% and you will likely get some merit.  If you need more, then find a place they are at/above 90%.  My "average kid" with a 26 ACT and 3.5UW GPA got 35% merit at a T80 and 70% merit at a ~T120. decent Volunteering and EC that demonstrate character (which is valued at Jesuit universities). First was never more than $40-45K all in (books, travel, etc) per year.  2nd would have been about $30K/year all in---kid picked the first.  
Had we needed financial assistance, we could have found places that would have only been $15-20K (private schools)---or state schools that would end up being similar.

Point is, merit is out there if you ditch the "T30 or die" mentality. Much better to come out of college debt free or with minimal debt than to come out with a huge financial burden.  [/quote]

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