Reply to “ED is to locked down full payers”

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Very few schools are completely need blind.  [/quote]

Also, ED is not an option for those who need merit aid to attend, i.e. those who neither qualify for need-based aid nor can pay full freight.[/quote]

Merit aid families often have the money to pay, at least for a state school but the parents choose to spend their money in other ways expecting help for college.  It's pretty shocking ot see families making $250+ having such high expectations for aid.  Schools should base it on need.[/quote]

Agreed.  If you have been making 250K for a few years, you likely had the means to save.  The fact you chose to spend elsewhere is not someone else's issue.  We started saving as soon as kids were born, as we knew we would never get any need based aid (2 engineers).  We saved rather than taking fancy vacations, we made coffee at home rather than getting Starbucks....saving an extra $100-200/month easily with just the coffee and eating out.  Put it to work for 15-18 years along with additional targeted savings and we are well positioned.

[/quote]

We're a donut hole family (about 200k hhi) and saved about 150 per kid until HHI jumped when the kids were in late ES/MS and we upped it to 1,000 per month per kid. That will fund less than 1 year of a SLAC and about 2 years of an instate school depending on the school. Unless we get merit, the kids will take out stafford loans because there is no way we can pay the difference in ECF and savings during the years when they are both in school [/quote]

Since you did not save enough, then your kid/you will need loans and/or to find a school that offers more merit.  However we were a family only making $150K when our first was born and living in SF (expensive!!!), and we managed to start saving ~$1000/month immediately. Any raises we got went at least 50% into the 529. We made sacrifices at that point to save as much as we could.  If we hadn't we would be chasing the merit at this point.  
Also, your kid can work part=time while in school and over summer and all breaks.  They can bring in $7-8K each year.  Yes, you might have some loans, but if you search for schools with merit you might not need much. [/quote]

What wage are you estimating for the $7-8K/year and what kind of jobs?[/quote]

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