Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our expected financial contribution, per FAFSA, will be about $43k, leaving us about $20k per year short for HYP.

Actually, even $43k is too rich for my blood. We will have enough saved to pay about $33k per year for DC1, currently a junior. That would mean we would have to borrow $120k to make HYP a reality for one child.

Since there is no way on god's green earth we are borrowing that kind of money to send one child to college, we have pretty much eliminated HYP and any private or public OOS college that offers only financial aid. Regardless of their grades/scores/record, our children will go in-state public or second-tier private with merit aid.

I'm missing something here. HYP are committed to meeting full need which means that your child would pay $43K a year there. You'd cover $33K, your kid could presumably earn some money in the summer or part time, let's say $5K, that leaves $20K in loans max. Where are you getting the other $100K from?

You're right, I misspoke. We would need to borrow less per kid at a school that meets full need, but most schools that meet full need do so with a combo of grants, work study, and student loans. So if one of my DCs gets $20k in financial aid, it is likely to be, say, $5k in student loan, $2k in work study, and $13k in grant. We would still need to borrow $10k, for a combined $15k per year, $60k for 4 years, $120k for my two kids. Too rich for my blood.

List of schools that meet 100% need and whether they include loans in the financial aid package:

http://www.collegegreenlight.com/blog/colleges-that-meet-100-of-student-financial-need/

But again the specific schools you listed are all meets needs/no loans.

I was using the HYP term loosely to include all the colleges of this ilk. I personally don't draw distinction between Harvard and, say, Penn or Brown when considering the "value" of an undergraduate education. YMMV, of course. As shown by the link above, the number of colleges that meet full need without loans is small indeed. But even so, my point simply was that even at Harvard, we would need to borrow $40k for one kid to go to college, on top of having worked pretty hard to save more than $130k for that kid to go to college. We have much younger kid for whom we are saving $150k+ (because we are assuming inflation) as well, and if I agree to borrow $40k for the first, I have to be willing to do the same for my second. That is more debt than I comfortable taking on, especially given my and DH's ages. To meet our retirement savings goals, maintain our primary investment (our home), and continue to save for college for our younger child, we can't (IMO) take on education debt.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our expected financial contribution, per FAFSA, will be about $43k, leaving us about $20k per year short for HYP.

Actually, even $43k is too rich for my blood. We will have enough saved to pay about $33k per year for DC1, currently a junior. That would mean we would have to borrow $120k to make HYP a reality for one child.

Since there is no way on god's green earth we are borrowing that kind of money to send one child to college, we have pretty much eliminated HYP and any private or public OOS college that offers only financial aid. Regardless of their grades/scores/record, our children will go in-state public or second-tier private with merit aid.

I'm missing something here. HYP are committed to meeting full need which means that your child would pay $43K a year there. You'd cover $33K, your kid could presumably earn some money in the summer or part time, let's say $5K, that leaves $20K in loans max. Where are you getting the other $100K from?

You're right, I misspoke. We would need to borrow less per kid at a school that meets full need, but most schools that meet full need do so with a combo of grants, work study, and student loans. So if one of my DCs gets $20k in financial aid, it is likely to be, say, $5k in student loan, $2k in work study, and $13k in grant. We would still need to borrow $10k, for a combined $15k per year, $60k for 4 years, $120k for my two kids. Too rich for my blood.

List of schools that meet 100% need and whether they include loans in the financial aid package:

http://www.collegegreenlight.com/blog/colleges-that-meet-100-of-student-financial-need/

But again the specific schools you listed are all meets needs/no loans.

Anonymous wrote:Know what you, as parents are willing to pay before your child has fallen in love with a certain school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We can totally afford full tuition for any school. And we can afford the additional room and board and car as well. We have lived way under our means. Kids are in MCPS magnets and admissions to top schools can probably happen(based on GPA and SAT scores only). One wants to do engineering and another medicine.

For both of them - if they get scholarships based on merit - they can go to the Ivies or top schools. Otherwise, they will go for free to state school. The money we save will be invested for them. That will ensure a better standard of living in the future - rather than debt or the cost of education.

I am not seeing the value for money for MOST of these colleges and for most majors.

merit scholarships won't happen at MIT/HYPS..even Williams isn't offering any merit aid, according to their website. Need-based ONLY for these schools, hence my question

I graduated from an ivy ~5 years ago, and last I heard none of the ivies offer merit aid, but most offer pretty awesome financial aid packages. I'm sure many other top schools don't offer merit aid as well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We can totally afford full tuition for any school. And we can afford the additional room and board and car as well. We have lived way under our means. Kids are in MCPS magnets and admissions to top schools can probably happen(based on GPA and SAT scores only). One wants to do engineering and another medicine.

For both of them - if they get scholarships based on merit - they can go to the Ivies or top schools. Otherwise, they will go for free to state school. The money we save will be invested for them. That will ensure a better standard of living in the future - rather than debt or the cost of education.

I am not seeing the value for money for MOST of these colleges and for most majors.

merit scholarships won't happen at MIT/HYPS..even Williams isn't offering any merit aid, according to their website. Need-based ONLY for these schools, hence my question

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our expected financial contribution, per FAFSA, will be about $43k, leaving us about $20k per year short for HYP.

Actually, even $43k is too rich for my blood. We will have enough saved to pay about $33k per year for DC1, currently a junior. That would mean we would have to borrow $120k to make HYP a reality for one child.

Since there is no way on god's green earth we are borrowing that kind of money to send one child to college, we have pretty much eliminated HYP and any private or public OOS college that offers only financial aid. Regardless of their grades/scores/record, our children will go in-state public or second-tier private with merit aid.

I'm missing something here. HYP are committed to meeting full need which means that your child would pay $43K a year there. You'd cover $33K, your kid could presumably earn some money in the summer or part time, let's say $5K, that leaves $20K in loans max. Where are you getting the other $100K from?

You're right, I misspoke. We would need to borrow less per kid at a school that meets full need, but most schools that meet full need do so with a combo of grants, work study, and student loans. So if one of my DCs gets $20k in financial aid, it is likely to be, say, $5k in student loan, $2k in work study, and $13k in grant. We would still need to borrow $10k, for a combined $15k per year, $60k for 4 years, $120k for my two kids. Too rich for my blood.

List of schools that meet 100% need and whether they include loans in the financial aid package:

http://www.collegegreenlight.com/blog/colleges-that-meet-100-of-student-financial-need/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our expected financial contribution, per FAFSA, will be about $43k, leaving us about $20k per year short for HYP.

Actually, even $43k is too rich for my blood. We will have enough saved to pay about $33k per year for DC1, currently a junior. That would mean we would have to borrow $120k to make HYP a reality for one child.

Since there is no way on god's green earth we are borrowing that kind of money to send one child to college, we have pretty much eliminated HYP and any private or public OOS college that offers only financial aid. Regardless of their grades/scores/record, our children will go in-state public or second-tier private with merit aid.

I'm missing something here. HYP are committed to meeting full need which means that your child would pay $43K a year there. You'd cover $33K, your kid could presumably earn some money in the summer or part time, let's say $5K, that leaves $20K in loans max. Where are you getting the other $100K from?

Anonymous wrote:Our expected financial contribution, per FAFSA, will be about $43k, leaving us about $20k per year short for HYP.

Actually, even $43k is too rich for my blood. We will have enough saved to pay about $33k per year for DC1, currently a junior. That would mean we would have to borrow $120k to make HYP a reality for one child.

Since there is no way on god's green earth we are borrowing that kind of money to send one child to college, we have pretty much eliminated HYP and any private or public OOS college that offers only financial aid. Regardless of their grades/scores/record, our children will go in-state public or second-tier private with merit aid.

Anonymous wrote:If a scholarship is involved, awesome. Go to the best you can afford without a loan. If your kid can get into an Ivy, MIT, Stanford or something impressive like that, a loan is a reasonable thing to do. If my kid got into one of those, I'd make it happen. Otherwise, in-state public for us.