Loans and work study.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private colleges give generous merit aid.

Ivies give no merit aid.

Most selective schools give none. However, schools with large endowment?s do give lots of aid. It's just based on financial need.

Anonymous wrote:As others have said, lots of very good private colleges give lots of merit aid. My DD averaged about 25K annual aid at safety schools and wasn't even really asking for aid. She will end up going full pay to her top choice but had the option of saving at least 100K at a bunch of places. People make up the difference generally by saving some and paying some. So if you make 200K and save 10K per year for college for 15 years, you have 150K at the start of college. Count on kid making 5K or so. Pay 20K out of pocket during the year (10k you are already saving plus extra now that kid is in college). So a 65K total cost college - 35K from your 529 plan savings + 20K from current income + 5k from kid leaves you only 5 k short that could be made up by increasing one of these sources a little bit or having kid take out a small loan. If you get merit aid, you need less. If you get any kind of non-school scholarship, you need less. I'm not saying this is easy and it is very difficult if you have not saved, but people do it on these sorts of salaries. FYI, at Harvard, a family with 200K is estimated to have to pay 46K.

Not true for us, with a HHI of $230K. Zero in aid from Harvard.

Anonymous wrote:Do all of them? My friend's daughter got into Columbia and she didn't get any money.

Top-ranked schools, including Ivy league schools, do not give merit aid. They don't have to - they attract plenty of qualified full-pay applicants. For those who qualify for need-based aid, they have huge endowments to cover that.

Families who can neither pay full price nor qualify for need-based aid at such schools are out of luck. They can take out massive loans or remortgage their houses. Or choose another school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They have family help, an inheritance, or take on burdenous loans.

So basically most of them are rich?

They have the money or borrow it. That's who goes to elite schools. People with little money are more likely to get reasonable aid. It's harder on a middle class family.

Define "middle class."

We are definitely not "middle class" with a HHI of $220K. OTOH, we do not qualify for need-based aid.

We send our DC to a private small liberal arts college out of state. DC was admitted to our state university, but it is really too large to meet DC's needs, so we looked at other options. We pay $38,000/year for tuition, room and board after his merit scholarship of $26,000/year is applied.

We have saved for this since DC was a baby and have enough to cover all four years at that price plus increases. Our college savings are in dedicated accounts and we do not need them for any other purpose.

We will do the same for DC#2.

We do not plan to pay for their graduate or professional school, but if anything is left over, we will divide it between them.

As others have said, lots of very good private colleges give lots of merit aid. My DD averaged about 25K annual aid at safety schools and wasn't even really asking for aid. She will end up going full pay to her top choice but had the option of saving at least 100K at a bunch of places. People make up the difference generally by saving some and paying some. So if you make 200K and save 10K per year for college for 15 years, you have 150K at the start of college. Count on kid making 5K or so. Pay 20K out of pocket during the year (10k you are already saving plus extra now that kid is in college). So a 65K total cost college - 35K from your 529 plan savings + 20K from current income + 5k from kid leaves you only 5 k short that could be made up by increasing one of these sources a little bit or having kid take out a small loan. If you get merit aid, you need less. If you get any kind of non-school scholarship, you need less. I'm not saying this is easy and it is very difficult if you have not saved, but people do it on these sorts of salaries. FYI, at Harvard, a family with 200K is estimated to have to pay 46K.

Anonymous wrote:Especially those who make just barely above the amount to qualify for any aid. Most private schools cost $50,000 a year just for tuition. It's completely unrealistic to think that the average family will have saved that kind of money beforehand. Are parents just going into debt for years and years to afford this? I have a friend who's daughter got into a top ivy, but will be going to UVA because they can't afford the tuition. This seems completely reasonable to me, but I can't help but wonder who all these families are that are paying over $50,000 for college (and not even "top" schools, just private colleges)

If you re talking about incomes of $75k-$150k, they generally go to in state state schools or find private schools that give enough aid.

Anonymous wrote:They have family help, an inheritance, or take on burdenous loans.

So basically most of them are rich?

Anonymous wrote:Private colleges give generous merit aid.

Not that much.

Anonymous wrote:Private colleges give generous merit aid.

Ivies give no merit aid.

They have family help, an inheritance, or take on burdenous loans.

Do all of them? My friend's daughter got into Columbia and she didn't get any money.

Private colleges give generous merit aid.

Especially those who make just barely above the amount to qualify for any aid. Most private schools cost $50,000 a year just for tuition. It's completely unrealistic to think that the average family will have saved that kind of money beforehand. Are parents just going into debt for years and years to afford this? I have a friend who's daughter got into a top ivy, but will be going to UVA because they can't afford the tuition. This seems completely reasonable to me, but I can't help but wonder who all these families are that are paying over $50,000 for college (and not even "top" schools, just private colleges)