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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Our expected financial contribution, per FAFSA, will be about $43k, leaving us about $20k per year short for HYP.

Actually, even $43k is too rich for my blood. We will have enough saved to pay about $33k per year for DC1, currently a junior. That would mean we would have to borrow $120k to make HYP a reality for one child.

Since there is no way on god's green earth we are borrowing that kind of money to send one child to college, we have pretty much eliminated HYP and any private or public OOS college that offers only financial aid. Regardless of their grades/scores/record, our children will go in-state public or second-tier private with merit aid.[/quote]

I'm missing something here.  HYP are committed to meeting full need which means that your child would pay $43K a year there.  You'd cover $33K, your kid could presumably earn some money in the summer or part time, let's say $5K, that leaves $20K in loans max.  Where are you getting the other $100K from?[/quote]

You're right, I misspoke. We would need to borrow less per kid at a school that meets full need, but most schools that meet full need do so with a combo of grants, work study, and student loans. So if one of my DCs gets $20k in financial aid, it is likely to be, say, $5k in student loan, $2k in work study, and $13k in grant. We would still need to borrow $10k, for a combined $15k per year, $60k for 4 years, $120k for my two kids. Too rich for my blood.

List of schools that meet 100% need and whether they include loans in the financial aid package:

http://www.collegegreenlight.com/blog/colleges-that-meet-100-of-student-financial-need/[/quote]

But again the specific schools you listed are all meets needs/no loans.  [/quote]

I was using the HYP term loosely to include all the colleges of this ilk. I personally don't draw distinction between Harvard and, say, Penn or Brown when considering the "value" of an undergraduate education. YMMV, of course. As shown by the link above, the number of colleges that meet full need without loans is small indeed. But even so, my point simply was that even at Harvard, we would need to borrow $40k for one kid to go to college, on top of having worked pretty hard to save more than $130k for that kid to go to college. We have much younger kid for whom we are saving $150k+ (because we are assuming inflation) as well, and if I agree to borrow $40k for the first, I have to be willing to do the same for my second. That is more debt than I comfortable taking on, especially given my and DH's ages. To meet our retirement savings goals, maintain our primary investment (our home), and continue to save for college for our younger child, we can't (IMO) take on education debt.[/quote]

We are in the identical situation and I have the same views that you do.

Our HHI is about $200K and we have $250K (some of which will be taxed when we sell off mutual funds) saved towards college for our two kids, 16 and 13.  We will not be able to pay full freight at the most expensive schools, and given our profile (HHI, home equity is high, good retirement savings) I don't think we will qualify for financial aid.  So second-tier with merit aid, or state school are our realistic options.

I have a colleague who has saved very little and in recent years she remodeled her kitchen and a bathroom, then took her kids to Europe, in order to use some of the savings that would otherwise count against financial aid.  I had to bite my tongue, listening to her talk about this strategy - we have scraped and saved in order to get our kids through.  I guess no good deed goes unpunished.[/quote]

Me again--yes, our HHI is similar to yours. We have 5 years between kids, so won't have 2 in college at the same time and have some more time to save for DC2. For DC1, we are focused on in-state publics and privates where DC would be in the top 25% of applicants in hope that merit aid will be offered. If not, we are okay with our in-state options, even the non-flagship ones. (Well, I should say, DH and I are pleased with the options; DC1 less so because he would like to be in an urban area, but c'est la vie.)

Don't fret too much about your colleague. THE biggest impact on financial aid is HHI, not savings or other assets. When I run the estimated expected financial contribution calculator, there is a surprisingly small difference between the number it spits out with zero savings and the number it spits out with our actual college savings. If you make $200k, it is going to be assumed you can devote at least 20% of your income to college. I would rather have an EFC of, say, $45k per year and have saved $130k than have an EFC of $40k and have saved $0. Run Harvard's very simple net price calculator and see:

https://college.harvard.edu/financial-aid/net-price-calculator

Additional links of interest here:

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/370818.page
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