Anonymous wrote:If you make $350K a year then even a $60K COA is like making $290K and not having a kid in college. Ain't gonna starve on that salary.

Not really. Ever hear of taxes? That math don’t work for anything.

OP talks like we all work for her or something.

Look, OP, here’s the bottom line: if you can only afford 40k a year, fine, then yea you’re not getting merit aid from a top 25 school. Virtually none of them offer it. So you’re looking lower.

If you make $350K a year then even a $60K COA is like making $290K and not having a kid in college. Ain't gonna starve on that salary.

Top 25 is an artificial cap, and I would certainly apply to a top 25 instate school.
But your thoughts about limiting costs are entirely legitimate. It is also very good for you talk to your kid about costs limits now before submitting applications and acceptances come back. I have many friends who told their kids to only apply to state schools, and others who told their kids that any school is fine, but the parents were only paying up to costs for the state flagships.

As to merit aid, I found that my high stats kids would get enough from out-of-state public or some private schools to significantly shrink the difference (like $50K a year total with tuition/room and board), but in-state schools were always less (even though there was no merit aid for in-state). Some out of state public schools would offer in-state tuition. To get really significant merit aid for a private school (so that costs were less than your state schools), your kid would need to apply to significantly lower ranked schools.

My DC attends Minnesota for about $30K a year after merit.

How is paying $40k/year "cutting corners" on education? If you can get a solid in-state education for that amount isn't anything above unnecessary?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:we really can only afford $40k COA
HHI around $350k

Huh? Looks to me like you can afford a lot more than that. You could pay $80k and not even notice it unless there are other huge expenses not mentioned.

That is not your concern. They stated they can only afford $40K. So while you might think they "could save more or cash flow more" they are not planning to do so. It is entirely reasonable to find a school for $40K/year. Many in the 40-100 Range will give enough merit to make it below $40K or close to it.

If you post it in this forum, you made it everyone’s concern, nimrod.

Hard to imagine being so bad at financial planning that you make $350k but have to cut corners on your kids education, but apparently such people exist.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. There ARE other huge expenses not mentioned and not luxury items but that is not what this thread is about. Please stay on topic.

I getcha but also know that I was never happy filing papers when I worked in school's bursar's office to see kids receiving merit w/10X+ HHI than my family. So I can see why someone here might get salty.

Ummm...merit has to do with just that, MERIT, nothing to do with financial need.

Anonymous wrote:we really can only afford $40k COA
HHI around $350k

Huh? Looks to me like you can afford a lot more than that. You could pay $80k and not even notice it unless there are other huge expenses not mentioned.

That is not your concern. They stated they can only afford $40K. So while you might think they "could save more or cash flow more" they are not planning to do so. It is entirely reasonable to find a school for $40K/year. Many in the 40-100 Range will give enough merit to make it below $40K or close to it.

Anonymous wrote:If you cannot afford 80-90K per year, then yes, you need to aim lower. Even the highly ranked public schools will cost more than 40k per year OOS.
Probably need to aim for schools in the 60-100 rankings to get you the Merit that you are seeking.

+1

The T25 will not give your kid merit. So find schools in the 30-100 range that will.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My junior kid (white male) has strong stats and rigorous schedule. We are crafting our college list and are avoiding the top 25 national schools due to the following assumptions: 1) we really can only afford $40k COA 2) HHI around $350k so assuming no financial aid 3) feel the odds of acceptance for even strong stats are so low and then most likely couldn't afford. We are trying to be very upfront with him about what we can afford but I also want to make sure these assumptions are valid?

40K COA is really only in-state or some OOS schools that give merit aid. T25 does not give much in terms of aid. University of Florida is one school that's T30 and may actually be reasonable in terms of cost.

Use this list to identify schools that give aid to non-need based students - https://www.collegetransitions.com/dataverse/merit-aid

Awesome- thanks.

Anonymous wrote:UVA is T24. IN-state it is $37K all in for the college of Arts & Sciences. Engineering is higher.

OP is not in VA

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. There ARE other huge expenses not mentioned and not luxury items but that is not what this thread is about. Please stay on topic.

You asked if your assumptions were valid, and therefore questioning the assumption that you can only afford $40k with $350k HHI is on topic.

OK let me clarify : I was NOT asking if my assumptions about not being able to afford a schools over $40k COA were valid. I personally know what my family can afford. I was asking if my assumptions around financial/merit aid make sense.

Anonymous wrote:My junior kid (white male) has strong stats and rigorous schedule. We are crafting our college list and are avoiding the top 25 national schools due to the following assumptions: 1) we really can only afford $40k COA 2) HHI around $350k so assuming no financial aid 3) feel the odds of acceptance for even strong stats are so low and then most likely couldn't afford. We are trying to be very upfront with him about what we can afford but I also want to make sure these assumptions are valid?

40K COA is really only in-state or some OOS schools that give merit aid. T25 does not give much in terms of aid. University of Florida is one school that's T30 and may actually be reasonable in terms of cost.

Use this list to identify schools that give aid to non-need based students - https://www.collegetransitions.com/dataverse/merit-aid

UVA is T24. IN-state it is $37K all in for the college of Arts & Sciences. Engineering is higher.