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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Long story short: we will not get any financial aid. We make too much for help but don't make enough to go full pay at a private in a way that leaves any wiggle room.

We are just starting this process, and child is an athlete that is in the midst of recruiting (only D3 at this point b/c of NCAA limits- and FTR I don't care if DC plays a sport or not but she does). I'm looking at the finances of the various schools and was shocked to learn that some of the schools she's been talking to give NO MERIT aid. DC has excellent grades, community service, ECs, and athletics.

I get she's one of many like man others . . . and I know at DC there are no athletic scholarships. [b]But, how are people affording places like Wellesley[/b]? Their website and what I'm finding says they give ZERO aid on the basis that, essentially, "everyone there is special."

Yes, she can look elsewhere. And she is. But it is so sad to have to shut down a possibility that would, honestly, be such a perfect fit for her in every way. With room and board, etc. the cost per year is nearly $80K!!!! Two years would eat up more than our 529 has in it. Super bummed to have to limit her.
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They are either poor enough to get a lot of aid, rich enough to not need it, or had parents putting away a lot of money from conception. [/quote]

Well it is no shock that top schools would cost ~$80K/year when my kid would enter college.  So we did plan for that and sock away as much as we could from an early age, as we knew we wouldn't qualify for any FA.  Had we not been able to do that, our kid would have had to search out more affordable schools. [/quote]

Congratulations on making enough money to save 320k per kid? [/quote]

No, it's congratulation on planning.  [b]Anyone smart enough to save $160K should be smart enough to know that college will be up to $80K/year in 2022.[/b]  SO if attending those "Top schools" is important you plan accordingly. 
Had we not been able to save enough, I would have set the mindset with my kids that while you can apply to T40 schools, we might not be able to afford them.  So, you need to have a balanced list of college choices.  To me, the most important part is finding great schools that are affordable to YOU.  And there are many, many, many choices available for everyone.  The OP has ~$40K/year saved for DD.  There are literally hundreds of amazing options that will allow DD to graduate debt free.  If only the OP would change their mindset and focus on what's available instead of complaining.

Similarly, [b]I don't buy a house/car/vacation that I can't afford.  I live within my means, or deal with the consequences.  I don't expect others to compensate me for my lack of planning.[/b]  OP could likely now cash flow another $10K+/year if they wanted to, based on their statements.  So if the Top college is that important, they can do that and take parent loans and pay them off now that they have a higher income.  (not saying I'd recommend that, as I actually think that's a bad idea----no school is worth going into debt for). But there are options.  Smartest option (IMO) is to find a great school list that is affordable....and many many exist, just not T20 schools.  [/quote]

This is such an uber-American, "personal responsibility" thought pattern.  So when college costs $200K/year in the future, anyone who didn't "plan" should just be shut out?  How about when it gets to a million dollars a year?  Are we all good with it only being for the children of Elon Musk and the like and if we can't do it, well then the fault is somehow our own?

It has not always been like this.  Private schools have always been more expensive than public, but not to the degree they are now.

[img]https://www.visualcapitalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Rise-of-College-Tuition_Datastream-1.jpg[/img]

Instead of pointing fingers at people for "lack of planning" by saving $300K+ / child, why aren't we demanding to know why the costs are so outrageously impossible for even wealthy people to handle?

[/quote]

You are NOT SHUT OUT. You are simply shut out of the “luxury” product version of college. You feel entitled to a Louis Vuitton degree for your kid on your Coach budget. I’m sorry that you’ve bought into the idea that admissions are the ultimate arbiter of your kids’ merit but there are plenty of affordable options including community college. [/quote]

That is your reaction to these graphics?[/quote]

[b]My reaction to the graphics is that they’re stupid because they compare low income kids to sticker tuition.[/b] We all know that’s not the beef on DCUM. The complaint is that high income people are supposed to fork over their wealth. We all know low income people are getting majorly subsidized by the DCUM set so their incomes are irrelevant.

[b]These graphs are also just another way of showing growing income inequality and how schools have fully seized the opportunity to take from the wealthy. [/b]Due to the inequality, they know there’s more money to take, and they are taking it. [/quote]

That's not what they depict.  It's not about low-income kids and sticker tuition.  It's about tuition relative to HHI (in all classes).  High income people have always forked over their wealth; it just wasn't as much in the past (yes, including for private schools).

The point of this thread is that college tuition raises have so greatly outstripped inflation and salary growth that it's priced out many people who otherwise could have afforded full tuition in the past. Colleges are not BMWs or Maseratis or Hondas. They are institutions of higher education.  It's become a real burden for most working families, whether upper middle or lower middle class, to pay for higher education. Not being able to afford a luxury car is not a burden, but for many people, [b]not being able to afford a college that our grandparents (who made less money, adjusted for inflation) could have paid for easily is a burden.  [/b]

In my generation (I'm 61yo), the cost of attendance could be covered from savings, current income, the student's summer earnings, work study, and some modest loans. E.g. the expensive private SLAC I attended cost about $8,000 when I started in 1979, and I contributed about 25% of that from my summer work. Proportionally, a student today would have to contribute $20,000 to make the same dent in the same school's costs.

Adjusted for inflation, $8,000.00 in 1979 is equal to $32,838 today in 2023. But that school now costs over $80,000/year.

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