Reply to DH is not impressed with college admissions from the private schools

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[quote=Anonymous][quote]Sorry, but it sounds like you're saying that MoCo public school families, all those government workers' kids, have the exact same budget for Ivies as private school families, once you take all that super-generous grant aid into account. That can't be what you meant. There's still no way that $200k HHI families are going to find it easy to pay $60k for the first kid (because $200k and one kid won't get FA) and can expect to finance the second kid through 100% grant aid because DC#2 will definitely get into Harvard. There is a whole middle class that attends public schools and is only modestly present in private schools, and your casual references to FA and grant aid if your kid gets into Harvard show how oblivious you are about the very real financial decisions that these very real people face when considering applying to an Ivy. That's the point.[/quote]

First of all 200K is by no means middle class.  Even for the DC area, it is well in the top 10% of earners.  I am not oblivious of the "very real financial decisions" that "very real people face."  I just think that someone with 200K most certainly has more opportunities and support in life than someone with 50K, even if they don't get a free ride to Harvard.  Plus parents are in positions to take on loans, get lower interest rates, and generally navigate the system, and hopefully have at least a bit saved.  While crushing debt is bad, if necessary, I don't see why taking on some debt is absolutely verboten.  For example, I attended a SLAC with a high sticker price.  One of my good friends (who is currently in his late 20s) father was a professor who didn't make a giant salary.  He saved some for college, a small amount of institutional grants, and yes, my friend took out loans.  Since his father was able to guide him through the process (and had a reasonable amount saved from his modest salary) he graduated with 15K in loans.  His parents later paid 5K of his loans as a graduation present, and helped him consolidate his loans to a very low interest rate, so the minimum payment (10K of total loans) was not burdensome has he started his career out of college, which was very low paying.  I think this is the advantage of being in a professional family--there is someone to guide you through the byzantine mess of loans and financial aid which is untenable for an adult, not to mention an 18 year old with limited experience dealing with complex financial issues.

[quote]Further, no middle class parent should tell their child not to apply to an Ivy because of the sticker price. Everyone who makes under the national median income (about $60k) will get all grants, no loans and no family contribution. The average net cost at Harvard is $18K, not the $51k sticker price. The Ivies have big endowments and they can afford to spend a lot more on financial aid than other schools. While a family making $200K will not get much aid, they have had 18 years to build up some savings and they have the resources to consider taking some parental debt.[/quote]

Exactly!  This was what I was getting at.[/quote]

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