Anonymous
05/17/2026 17:10
Subject: UChicago will offer free tuition for families with incomes below $250,000
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Serously, is this rage bait? So half the class will come from feeder private schools, and the rest from families making under $250K. Where does that leave middle class and upper middle class families in DMV?
Well those that chose to save will be fine.
Those that didn't will find schools they can afford. Nobody is entitled to a free education at an elite school
The median household income in the US is about $85,000. If universities want talented students, they have to be good with financial aid when their annual cost is close to $100,000 per year. No school is getting the best and brightest at this price point unless they give decent aid. Otherwise, they become barbell schools - rich kids and poor kids and no one else. And those schools tend to suck for student experience. Excluding the MC and UMC doesn't work for any college if they want to keep their reputations as decent schools.
Anonymous
05/17/2026 16:56
Subject: UChicago will offer free tuition for families with incomes below $250,000
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:This is great for people who don't live in places where the property values are really though. I went there years ago with an income that's (adjusting for inflation) under that mark and it would have been huge for it to be free. I could just barely afford it with the aid I did have.
Are you saying they counted your residential home value toward assets that could be used for tuition? I'm assuming you only have the one house...
Schools that count home equity don’t expect you to sell the house, but they do expect you to borrow against whatever equity you have in it.
529 plans also count against you for these purposes, including 529s designated for other children.
Basically if you’d rented and spent the money on travel instead of college savings, your kids would now be going to college for free. But if you saved, you pay.
OK, this worried me so I looked stuff up. Of course a 529 plan for the kid in college should be counted toward assets available for tuition. That's the point, not a penalty for saving. But it doesn't look like 529s for other kids are counted toward available assets for the first, at least for FAFSA: https://www.savingforcollege.com/article/does-a-siblings-529-plan-assets-hurt-financial-aid-eligibility.
Borrowing against home equity is scary (I say as someone who lives in a small, far out townhome and makes well under $250k). But it looks like this is not a FAFSA thing either and schools that use it may base expectations on comparison to income.
If I have 2+ kids, yeah the 529s for other kids shouldn't count against my kid. Or rather take the total of all 529 and divide by number of kids. That should be the amount that counts for each kid.
Anonymous
05/17/2026 16:55
Subject: UChicago will offer free tuition for families with incomes below $250,000
Anonymous wrote:Serously, is this rage bait? So half the class will come from feeder private schools, and the rest from families making under $250K. Where does that leave middle class and upper middle class families in DMV?
Well those that chose to save will be fine.
Those that didn't will find schools they can afford. Nobody is entitled to a free education at an elite school
Anonymous
05/17/2026 16:53
Subject: UChicago will offer free tuition for families with incomes below $250,000
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:All of these claims assume "reasonable assets". We earn far below dc elite school school guarantee of free tuition but we were denied aid. Didn't expect full ride but assumed we would get some aid (yes we did npc). We are not an affluent family and both parents work in non-profit. Every school calculates differently. Home value in high cost of living area and savings made us ineligible.
High home value should be included. Big difference from a 600k house and a million plus is this area. If you want a nicer house, great but that’s less savings for college. Life choices.
Exactly! Don't expect others to pay for your kid if you could have saved.