https://college.harvard.edu/financial-aid/how-aid-works/fact-sheet

Since you mention Harvard specifically, at an HHI of $150K you will contribute 10% of your income. Harvard is a steal for those who can get in.

Anonymous wrote:I'm just going to be a grumpy old lady for a minute here, but I'd like to point out that "back in my day" ( before student loans were widely available), if you couldn't afford to pay for it, you didn't go. I graduated with a ton of smart people who went to SUNY schools, because even though they were accepted at Ivy's and such, if the money wasn't there, it wasn't there. I guess the loan availability has changed the expectations, but I find that unfortunate.

Of course, back in the day, college didn't cost 130% of the average household salary either.

Anonymous wrote:How much is Harvard per year?

With room and board 60K

I did this for a similar caliber school.

Parents made 160K and we received about $10K in financial aid.

The rest of the $130K was in loans funded by MEFA (a non-profit loan organization that went belly up on 2008).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is HHI pre or post tax? In other words is it AGI?

OP here--when I wrote out the scenario I assumed a gross salary, not a net of taxes salary.

Does anyone know whether you give the total HHI or the AGI for financial aid? We are right on the edge of not qualifying for anything unless they ask for our Adjusted Gross Income (which is not really income after paying taxes but rather the income that is subject to taxes). TIA

Anonymous wrote:Is HHI pre or post tax? In other words is it AGI?

OP here--when I wrote out the scenario I assumed a gross salary, not a net of taxes salary.

Anonymous wrote:I'm just going to be a grumpy old lady for a minute here, but I'd like to point out that "back in my day" ( before student loans were widely available), if you couldn't afford to pay for it, you didn't go. I graduated with a ton of smart people who went to SUNY schools, because even though they were accepted at Ivy's and such, if the money wasn't there, it wasn't there. I guess the loan availability has changed the expectations, but I find that unfortunate.

How old are you? I am 53 and had student loans in college. I put myself through an Ivy grad school with loans and scholarships. Of course my undergrad tuition, room and board was under $10k for a top SLAC.

Frankly the fact that an elite college education is more widely available, and not just to the wealthy, seems like a good development. Are you really suggesting that reserving the "ivy's and such" for the wealthy is the right approach for today?

How much is Harvard per year?

Is HHI pre or post tax? In other words is it AGI?

Anonymous wrote:Is that the total cost of college or cost per year?

Yearly cost.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm just going to be a grumpy old lady for a minute here, but I'd like to point out that "back in my day" ( before student loans were widely available), if you couldn't afford to pay for it, you didn't go. I graduated with a ton of smart people who went to SUNY schools, because even though they were accepted at Ivy's and such, if the money wasn't there, it wasn't there. I guess the loan availability has changed the expectations, but I find that unfortunate.

That's interesting because I graduated in the mid eighties from a private school that's a step below Harvard (think Georgetown, Northwestern, Duke, that level), and had plenty of classmates who attended in part because the financial aid package from the private school beat the one at their state's flagship.

I assume you know that experience was not universal? A friend of mine got into Harvard, but was not offered any aid at all, so he went to UT Austin. My high school valedictorian got into Brown, but went to SUNY Binghamton. Your friends were fortunate to get good aid packages, but a lot of people didn't.

Anonymous wrote:Is that the total cost of college or cost per year?

The family described by OP would get $43K per year in financial aid. It essentially means that the hypothetical family would NOT pay tuition at Harvard. But, they would have to cover living expenses - room, board, books, transportation home, etc. It is possible for students to be really frugally and spend much less than estimated by the college.

The simple fact is that most of the Ivies, Stanford, MIT, Caltech are so wealthy that their financial aid programs are much more generous than other colleges. Despite many people's perceptions of these schools as only for the rich, 70% of Harvard students receive financial aid and they aren't required to take loans. In contrast, just 35% of the students at UVa get financial aid and loans are the first piece of the aid package. In almost all cases, a truly middle income family earning <$100K with <$200k assets (not including home equity) will find the elite schools less expensive than other colleges.

Anonymous wrote:I'm just going to be a grumpy old lady for a minute here, but I'd like to point out that "back in my day" ( before student loans were widely available), if you couldn't afford to pay for it, you didn't go. I graduated with a ton of smart people who went to SUNY schools, because even though they were accepted at Ivy's and such, if the money wasn't there, it wasn't there. I guess the loan availability has changed the expectations, but I find that unfortunate.

That's interesting because I graduated in the mid eighties from a private school that's a step below Harvard (think Georgetown, Northwestern, Duke, that level), and had plenty of classmates who attended in part because the financial aid package from the private school beat the one at their state's flagship.

Anonymous wrote:Is that the total cost of college or cost per year?

Is what the total cost of college or cost per year?

Is that the total cost of college or cost per year?