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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Most people can't afford to save anything. I'm a single parent and a teacher and I took on 2 second jobs just to save anything at all. I might have around $20k saved by the time she starts college next year.[/quote]

If you pick the right school, with your income, she will get a ton of financial aid.  So [b]pick a school that fully meets need, [/b]ideally one that uses grants after the basic ~$5k in student loans, so you don't need to do parent loans.  Find a school where she is at 75% and the [b]acceptance rate is over 50%.[/b]  She will likely get grants/merit so that you only need to pay a minimal amount each year (ie. probably less than $10K).

[b]You can also target more elite schools[/b] with an income level like that, unless the other parent has to be considered on Financial Aid (which may be the case).

Either way, pick a school that meets need/good merit aid and where you DD is at 90% (and acceptance rates over 50%) and your kid could get significant merit aid.  So affordable college is possible, it just may not be a "T20" school.

There are affordable options for everyone, you just have to search and not be obsessed with rankings.  Find the place that will pay for your DD to attend.  [/quote]

The schools that meet full need are largely elite, low acceptance rate, schools. If you are going to be very constrained in your budget you should make it clear to your kids early on that if they want more options than CC/transfer or live at home to go to a local college they need to do all they can to be a great applicant. [/quote]

Agreed that they need to strive to be the best applicant.  But there are plenty of choices beyond elite schools.

Seriously, pick a school with more than 50% acceptance rate where your DC is at/above 90% for gpa and sat.  Have kid show demonstrated interest, apply for extra scholarships at the school.  Your kid can get 60-100% merit for tuition this way.  Heck my own kid got 65% merit award with a 25 ACT at a T140 university.  If your kid has 30+ ACT (or corresponding SAT) and high gpa with rigorous courses, you can get nearly full merit awards at some schools.  Similarly, if lower scores, then pick a "lower ranked school" where you are at the 90% for scores.  
They may not be elite schools, but there are choices; there are great choices.

My own state has 2 instate schools that are less than $25K per year for instate schools, both ranked in T140. Between the 2, basically every choice of a major are offered. (on has 15K students one has 30K---so different options).  It is not hard to get $4-6K of merit at either school with decent grades.  With minimum wage in our state at $14.50/hr, it is definately feasible for many students to get thru college without much loans.  They can earn $10K in the summer and breaks.  Earn another $4-5K working part-time during the school year.   That leaves $10K or less before any merit/financial aid (one school is $22K "all in" for fall 2022, so that includes books and travel).  Take $5K in loans and hope parents/family can assist with the other $5K or take parent loans for that. 
  
DC also has option to do Running start and get an AA degree while in HS (this does require student have transportation to the CC and can pay for books, but otherwise it's free).  Plan it well and you only need 2-2.5 years at college (unless engineering, that might be 3 years).  So you just cut out ~$50K of expenses.  Now you only need to pay $50K for school.  So there are plenty of affordable options.  You just have to realize there will also be options that are not affordable and have to give up that dream possibly or take major loans (and that's your choice---just plan to pay them back).  [/quote]

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