Anonymous wrote:Hi, gang, this is the shell-shocked PP. A couple of years ago, I could've written this:

Our family makes $160K, and we have saved for our three children to go to college - it won't be $70K a year, but we can afford $35K per year per kid. We started saving at birth.

So we actually have a lot in common!
Now I'm finding that the raise we were so happy about means that we will have to pay full freight for 3 kids. The savings that we've put aside since before the kids were born only goes so far when paying for 12 years of $70k+/year tuition. To us, that's a huge amount of money. I've been told not to count on getting in-state for College Park, since apparently even some high-stats kids have surprisingly been turned away. Hence my keen interest in merit aid...
Thanks to those who posted merit aid suggestions and sources! If anyone else has any more thoughts on merit aid, I'd love to hear them. I appreciate the guidance from people who've been through this.

Our family makes $160K, and we have saved for our three children to go to college - it won't be $70K a year, but we can afford $35K per year per kid. We started saving at birth.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Wooster and Juniata both gave my child approximately 25K in merit aid (per year, for four years). She had a 3.7 UW GPA, very average SAT scores and just a handful of AP's.

She also go aid offers from other, more highly ranked schools.

This is helpful! I am still in shock as I realize that our HHI of $210k (which only recently got that high) means no financial aid on all the net price calculators I run. I can't imagine actually paying $70k/year (!) so we're scrambling to think about options. PP, could you mention the other, more highly ranked schools that also offered aid?

You will not qualify for financial aid. (I'm kind of surprised you would think that you would.)

Higher-ranked schools that award merit aid include e.g. Dickinson, Denison, Grinnell, Oberlin, U. Rochester. Some elite schools, e.g. Johns Hopkins and Washington U. in St. Louis, as well as e.g. Boston College, give a tiny number of merit scholarships to super high-performers.

If your child is a good but not stellar student, you will need to look at schools ranked 40 and above by USNWR. Or, send your child to an in-state public.

What do you mean? Even at $200+ thousand a year (I'm guessing Gross pay before mortgage, saving for retirement, health insurance, etc.), a family cannot be expected to soundly pay $70K/year times 4 years for college. So, yes, I would expect some financial aid.

Wait - it comes as news to you that at $200K+/year, you will not qualify for need-based financial aid?

Did you fall off the turnip truck this morning?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Wooster and Juniata both gave my child approximately 25K in merit aid (per year, for four years). She had a 3.7 UW GPA, very average SAT scores and just a handful of AP's.

She also go aid offers from other, more highly ranked schools.

This is helpful! I am still in shock as I realize that our HHI of $210k (which only recently got that high) means no financial aid on all the net price calculators I run. I can't imagine actually paying $70k/year (!) so we're scrambling to think about options. PP, could you mention the other, more highly ranked schools that also offered aid?

You will not qualify for financial aid. (I'm kind of surprised you would think that you would.)

Higher-ranked schools that award merit aid include e.g. Dickinson, Denison, Grinnell, Oberlin, U. Rochester. Some elite schools, e.g. Johns Hopkins and Washington U. in St. Louis, as well as e.g. Boston College, give a tiny number of merit scholarships to super high-performers.

If your child is a good but not stellar student, you will need to look at schools ranked 40 and above by USNWR. Or, send your child to an in-state public.

What do you mean? Even at $200+ thousand a year (I'm guessing Gross pay before mortgage, saving for retirement, health insurance, etc.), a family cannot be expected to soundly pay $70K/year times 4 years for college. So, yes, I would expect some financial aid.

I love that line. Nothing wrong with “expecting” I guess...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Wooster and Juniata both gave my child approximately 25K in merit aid (per year, for four years). She had a 3.7 UW GPA, very average SAT scores and just a handful of AP's.

She also go aid offers from other, more highly ranked schools.

This is helpful! I am still in shock as I realize that our HHI of $210k (which only recently got that high) means no financial aid on all the net price calculators I run. I can't imagine actually paying $70k/year (!) so we're scrambling to think about options. PP, could you mention the other, more highly ranked schools that also offered aid?

You will not qualify for financial aid. (I'm kind of surprised you would think that you would.)

Higher-ranked schools that award merit aid include e.g. Dickinson, Denison, Grinnell, Oberlin, U. Rochester. Some elite schools, e.g. Johns Hopkins and Washington U. in St. Louis, as well as e.g. Boston College, give a tiny number of merit scholarships to super high-performers.

If your child is a good but not stellar student, you will need to look at schools ranked 40 and above by USNWR. Or, send your child to an in-state public.

What do you mean? Even at $200+ thousand a year (I'm guessing Gross pay before mortgage, saving for retirement, health insurance, etc.), a family cannot be expected to soundly pay $70K/year times 4 years for college. So, yes, I would expect some financial aid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Wooster and Juniata both gave my child approximately 25K in merit aid (per year, for four years). She had a 3.7 UW GPA, very average SAT scores and just a handful of AP's.

She also go aid offers from other, more highly ranked schools.

This is helpful! I am still in shock as I realize that our HHI of $210k (which only recently got that high) means no financial aid on all the net price calculators I run. I can't imagine actually paying $70k/year (!) so we're scrambling to think about options. PP, could you mention the other, more highly ranked schools that also offered aid?

You will not qualify for financial aid. (I'm kind of surprised you would think that you would.)

Higher-ranked schools that award merit aid include e.g. Dickinson, Denison, Grinnell, Oberlin, U. Rochester. Some elite schools, e.g. Johns Hopkins and Washington U. in St. Louis, as well as e.g. Boston College, give a tiny number of merit scholarships to super high-performers.

If your child is a good but not stellar student, you will need to look at schools ranked 40 and above by USNWR. Or, send your child to an in-state public.

What do you mean? Even at $200+ thousand a year (I'm guessing Gross pay before mortgage, saving for retirement, health insurance, etc.), a family cannot be expected to soundly pay $70K/year times 4 years for college. So, yes, I would expect some financial aid.