Reply to any surprises in terms of financial aid for upper middle class kids?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

The only problem is you need to spend those 80k on a many times overpriced tuition.[/quote]

No, the real problem is that you need to spend not only that $80k that is being handed to you but an additional $200k on tuition.[/quote]

[b]No one is making you go, so you don't "need" to spend some amount on a school if you think it's "overpriced."[/b]

Your kids can attend a less-expensive school or a less-prestigious school that offers more merit aid. You just don't get to decide that any particular college has to accept what you're willing to pay in tuition.[/quote]

Here's the thing that is frustrating for me as a "donut hole" family:  A generation ago, if a student was admitted to a school, including an Ivy League or similar school, then the money would work out.  Either the student's family could pay (because tuition was not insanely priced relative to household income), or they could pay with some help from the student (earnings of $2K over a summer actually made a dent in the bill), or they and/or the student could take out a modest loan equal to e.g. some fraction of what the student could expect to earn after graduation.  A $500 or $1000 outside scholarship made another sizable dent in the bill.  And so on.

Today, none of that applies.  The cost of prestigious schools has skyrocketed such that a student's earnings in the fact of that cost are meaningless.  A grandparent's graduation check for $1,000 doesn't make the tiniest of dents.  Parents save for almost 20 years and still can't pay for the school of choice.  Taking out loans to cover the difference between savings and the sticker price means being shackled to debt for decades.

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/a-dose-of-financial-reality/

So yes, kids can attend less-expensive schools or less-prestigious schools, and it's not the end of the world.  But it is disappointing, because for a very long time those tradeoffs didn't have to be made by people who worked and planned and behaved responsibly with respect to financing college.  And the effect is that the only students at prestigious schools are those whose parents can pay $70K X 4 years X # of children, and those who qualify for need-based aid.

Is this really what we all want?[/quote]

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