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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][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]

VA min wage is now $11/hr (MD is $12.50 so kids would earn more)  Any grocery store/target/fastfood/waitering/etc job will pay that or higher.  Work 10 weeks at 40 hours is $4400 for the summer. Get a 2nd job if needed and/or work 8-10 hours during the school year for the rest.  Work winter and spring break.

That's how I did it when I went to college, I rarely had time off.  I earned $6-7K 30+ years ago.  I worked 50-60 hour weeks during the summer (multiple jobs).  I had no choice if I wanted to pay for school.  We know how hard it is (my spouse worked just as hard and had more loans than me as they had no parental support at all for college) so we worked hard to save for our kids once they arrived.

So if you and your kid really want to attend a certain college they can contribute $7-8K.   In my state a kid could easily earn $10K.

[/quote]

I'm the PP. FWIW, I was a full aid/loan kid and worked similarly to you in summers and during the school year. Many states do not have minimum wage in excess of the current federal wage of $7.25/hour. So yes, your suggestion works in states where students are able to pull down $11 and up, but less tenable in a lot of states. [/quote]

Yes, I was poor and received significant aid. But for MD/DC/MD (the main audience for this forum), it is tenable.  And in some states min wage much higher.  But I'd argue everyone should aim to attend school without taking out major loans.  And it's possible if you search out universities that give merit or attend state schools that you can afford.  With kids working and parents helping a bit you can come out of a good 4 year university with less than $25K in loans.  But people somehow feel they are entitled to the elite experience, rather than focusing on what is affordable.  MY own average kid found schools that only cost $20K/year and we were not even searching for merit. [b]They also found a T40 school that only cost $40K/year due to merit and a T120 that only cost ~$28K. [/b] Had we been searching we could have lower the costs even more, while still attending good schools. What you do at college is much more important than where you go.  Graduating with minimal debt is much more important to your kid than where they went (no school is worth $80K if you don't already have the money saved, earmarked for that purpose). [/quote]

Do you mind sharing which schools these are? [/quote]

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