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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think the costs of college have not caught up with most of us. We've been expecting our little darlings to go to private colleges like the ones we attended, not noticing that those colleges are only accessible to the very rich and very poor. The middle class can't go to private colleges. No one making <200K can send a kid to a college that costs $85K per year, even if you've saved for the kid's entire life. We tried, and saved $100k per kid, yet it wasn't enough to keep pace with the insanely skyrocketing price of private college. Even with merit aid, private colleges were not available, financially, to us. DCs went to public colleges, and believe me, not one of them was happy about it because they'd heard about the private colleges (much revered on this board) that DH and I attended. But we're neither wealthy nor poor, so public was our only option. We tried to tell our kids, but they really didn't listen, somehow believing that merit aid would get them to a private college. Or that they'd get into a HYP that would give them enough FA to attend. Neither of those things happened.

My mistake was paying off our mortgage. If we hadn't done that, we might have been eligible for FA. But the colleges saw our (modest) house as a bank account, and hence, no FA for us!

It's really hard to tell your kids you can't afford something you had and they want, OP. I tried, and pretty much failed.

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Sadly, this scenario is a lot more common than anyone will admit.  Since kids are no longer expected, by colleges, to contribute to the cost of their educations, and nor can young adults emancipate themselves from their parents to be considered for FA based on what they would earn if they were working, the parents are expected to pay and have to pay if the kid goes to college.  A parent cannot 'opt out' of filling out a FAFSA even if the parent refuses to pay for college.  FERPA also enables the disconnect because parents must pay for college but have no legal right to know their kid's grades, classes, enrollment status, etc, are unless their kid gives them permission to have that information.[/quote]

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