Anonymous wrote:So let me get this straight , the kids at top privates are there primarily because mom and dad can pony up, not because they are particularly more intelligent than anyone else?

this is not new. not ever.

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Anonymous wrote:It’s pretty clear OP - go to a cheaper college you can afford. Why should someone else subsidize your 70k per year college???

This is OP. Why are you being rude already? We don't have a college age kid yet. I am observing the kids of my friends going to private schools that cost about this amount per year.

The weird thing about these posts is that people always direct their hostility toward the questioner, rather than the fact that college today can cost $70k or more per year, which is absurd.

OP, google about the donut hole, and also look at some of the calculators (expected family contribution and student aid). They will give you an idea. There isn’t just one number where you suddenly don’t get aid.

IDK, maybe I'm a bad person, but when I was on near full FA in college, the UMC/MC kids could've given two shits about costs. They never showed up at the tuition protests, they laughed at kids wearing their food service uniforms when working in the cafeteria, and they had enough time to put in 2-3 hours of studying before the start of dinner.

So if you show up here in 2024 and have no idea on how much college costs, then were you one of those people? Because sky high tuition has been in the news for the last 50 years, so it is, effectively, not news, but an ongoing story starting with Reagan cutting federal aid to higher ed followed by states some years/decades later.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s pretty clear OP - go to a cheaper college you can afford. Why should someone else subsidize your 70k per year college???

This is OP. Why are you being rude already? We don't have a college age kid yet. I am observing the kids of my friends going to private schools that cost about this amount per year.

If you have friends with an estimated HHI of 250K with kids at top top private colleges, then their parents - the grandparents - are paying for it. If they are next tier down, then perhaps they landed major merit scholarships, bringing the cost in line with their in-state flagship.

It is what it is.

We make $300,000 and my kid was offered merit at two schools that were out of state to make it equal to in state. DC did not go there and chose an in state school at about $39,000 a year. We have had 529s for 18 years, so does Grandma. To the previous poster’s point we have a 2007 and a 2009 car and don’t travel much and get pizza once a week as a big splurge. We are frugal and contribute a lot to our kids’ 529s.

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Anonymous wrote:Our HHI is $400k. We have one child heading to college this fall. They will be using the GI Bill. Contributed to 529 since birth. We also have a rental property that generates $4k a month (15 year mortgage that was paid off 7 years ago). The mortgage on the house we live in is $2500 a month. We are pretty frugal - no car payments because we don't need fancy new cars every 36 months.

Want to make it clear that we only have one child.

And $400k and GI Bill. It’s not about your cars. Lord the tone deafness of this thread. We make $300,000. This is recent. We had enough in the 529 for oldest DS’s freshman year. Sophomore year we paid cash, though I will say paying monthly rent and a lower meal plan made it easier. Well do the same Junior and senior year. Younger kid will start college after older graduates, so we’re dragging it out and that doesn’t help with financial aid.

It is about cars and spending habits. There will be quite a bit to factor into the question OP asked. If we didn't have the GI Bill (which I am extremely grateful for) we would still be able to pay for our child's college costs. Because of our choice to have one child and to manage finances the way we did and do.

Anonymous wrote:Normal middle class assets with a mortgaged house and three not so expensive cars and 401Ks close to 1mil.

LOL no, "middle class" Americans don't have seven-figure 401(k)s.
https://www.kiplinger.com/retirement/401ks/the-average-401k-balance-by-age

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Anonymous wrote:Our HHI is $400k. We have one child heading to college this fall. They will be using the GI Bill. Contributed to 529 since birth. We also have a rental property that generates $4k a month (15 year mortgage that was paid off 7 years ago). The mortgage on the house we live in is $2500 a month. We are pretty frugal - no car payments because we don't need fancy new cars every 36 months.

Want to make it clear that we only have one child.

And $400k and GI Bill. It’s not about your cars. Lord the tone deafness of this thread. We make $300,000. This is recent. We had enough in the 529 for oldest DS’s freshman year. Sophomore year we paid cash, though I will say paying monthly rent and a lower meal plan made it easier. Well do the same Junior and senior year. Younger kid will start college after older graduates, so we’re dragging it out and that doesn’t help with financial aid.

Anonymous wrote:Our HHI is $400k. We have one child heading to college this fall. They will be using the GI Bill. Contributed to 529 since birth. We also have a rental property that generates $4k a month (15 year mortgage that was paid off 7 years ago). The mortgage on the house we live in is $2500 a month. We are pretty frugal - no car payments because we don't need fancy new cars every 36 months.

Want to make it clear that we only have one child.

Our HHI is $400k. We have one child heading to college this fall. They will be using the GI Bill. Contributed to 529 since birth. We also have a rental property that generates $4k a month (15 year mortgage that was paid off 7 years ago). The mortgage on the house we live in is $2500 a month. We are pretty frugal - no car payments because we don't need fancy new cars every 36 months.

Anonymous wrote:DS just graduated from Duke. HHI about $200 and we got no aid-paid full freight. We scrimped, contributed to 529, drove cars to the ground rarely ate out and did not spend on lavish vacations. I believe we were subsidizing the scholarships of others by paying full which annoyed me because we are not wealthy.

Bull. You had to have put a decent amount in the 529. Don’t act like you paid with the coins in your couch cushions. Rarely eating out is not paying $90k total cost of enrollment.

DS just graduated from Duke. HHI about $200 and we got no aid-paid full freight. We scrimped, contributed to 529, drove cars to the ground rarely ate out and did not spend on lavish vacations. I believe we were subsidizing the scholarships of others by paying full which annoyed me because we are not wealthy.

DS18 - service academy
DD 13 - DH's GI Bill
DS 11 - trust from grandparents

No way we could have afforded it otherwise.

No.

529 plans that both spouses started at birth for the kids.

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Anonymous wrote:OP. Sorry people have been rude. You ask a good question. With what feels like a lot of schools costing $70k+, it feels crippling. I know I have saved a little but our income didn't grow enough to save more until the kids were teens. And earlier I was trying to squirrel away money for my retirement.

With kids that are 14 and 16, it feels like this mountain in my future.

It's not a good question. It was quite possibly one of the stupidest questions ever posted on DCUM.

It actually was a fair question. But you are quite possibly one of the most trash people on DCUM.

It was an idiotic question and you know this, too, since all you can come up with is an empty platitude and an ad hominem. Maybe DCUM isn't a place for you.

You call someone’s question one of the stupidest on DCUM and then complain when you get clapped back. Maybe DCUM isn’t for you, either (or anywhere with human interaction).

"Clapped back?" Bish, you no Nancy Pelosi.

You take loans and then get loan forgiveness.