We have saved since birth and will pay for a state college and graduate school. How hard is that to get you need to save early on.

Williams for us - pay $23k with $210k income. Pretty low assets (one govt employee and one assoc prof who rented forever).

Thank you!

Anonymous wrote:what does donut whole mean?? poor?

Too rich to qualify for financial aid; too poor to pay out of pocket

Anonymous wrote:what does donut whole mean?? poor?

Too rich for financial aide, but too poor to pay out of pocket.

what does donut whole mean?? poor?

State universities with honors programs get Ivy caliber students. They are the few to get full or generous scholarships.

A place like UMD has room for the 1000-1500 Harvard/Yale level of kid plus room for 8,000 high-achieving students.

Once I learned this, I understood that a place like UMD has all that Harvard has as far as high caliber students and more. Just doesn’t have as strong a brand or false exclusivity.

Anonymous wrote:In-state or SLACs with good merit aid.

This. If you have two or more kids in college at the same time, the best SLACs and private universities will probably give you grant aid. Use their financial calculators to determine how much.

Anonymous wrote:The worst are expensive OOS publics. They generally reserve grant aid for in-state students and cost close to a private.

Why is that the worst?

Donut hole students should consider schools that offer automatic merit scholarships. Alabama is a common example.

Some do what highly academic poor and working class students did in prior generations? Attend the schools most affordable for their families. The one difference is that these students never had the option "to suck it up and pay the high prices because it's worth it even though is frustrating to pay" because they didn't and still don't have the option to pay. What is frustrating for them is trying to pay their bills to keep the car on the road, the lights on, and them in their homes.

The worst are expensive OOS publics. They generally reserve grant aid for in-state students and cost close to a private.

In-state or SLACs with good merit aid.

My Blair magnet student (1600 SAT, 4.8 weighted GPA, nationally-recognized niche extracurricular) went to the UMD-CP Honors Program. There were a lot of students like DC there.

where do highly academic $ donut hole students go?

Do they already put across the country for merit scholarships at less selective unis?

Does each "generation" have schools (like NEU?) that invest in merit discounts, climb the rankings, and then stop the discounts?

Do they go in-state?

Do they/families suck it up and pay the high prices because it's worth it even though is frustrating to pay?


It seems to me that you could fill a few Harvards worth of brilliant students who have some money but don't want to throw it all at a college?