Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, is financial aid only given at private universities with a large endowment? Such as Harvard?

Harvard is different. Use their NPC.

Harvard and a small number of schools with very, very large endowments are able to give financial aid to all students who qualify in the form of grants.

Harvard, the Ivies, and extremely selective universities and SLACs do not give merit scholarships, just financial aid.

+1

The NPC makes Harvard unaffordable for us (HHI $225K). Too bad, because our DC is qualified.

Should've saved.

Did save. Saved aggressively. Can pay about $45K max out of pocket each year for each of DC and her brother to get through eight years of undergrad.

Anonymous wrote:Why isn't there a COLA applied to these national formulas? T

Anonymous wrote:"225K is more than 5x the average HH income in the United States."

1. People at that income level with kids in high school weren't making $225K 18 years ago. They were making a fraction of it.
2. I don't know anyone at that income level who has a vacation home, takes trips abroad all the time, etc. as described above.
3. The average expenses in the metro DC area are far more than the average expenses of virtually everything in other parts of the country - especially wrt housing, the biggest expense of all. So, "5x the average HHI in the US" is a meaningless statement. So, e.g.:

DC vs. Tulsa:
https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=United+States&city1=Tulsa%2C+OK&country2=United+States&city2=Washington%2C+DC

DC vs. Kansas City MO:
https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=United+States&city1=Washington%2C+DC&country2=United+States&city2=Kansas+City%2C+MO

DC vs. Chicago, IL:
https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=United+States&city1=Washington%2C+DC&country2=United+States&city2=Chicago%2C+IL

DC vs. Manchester, NH:

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=United+States&country2=United+States&city1=Washington%2C+DC&city2=Manchester%2C+NH&tracking=getDispatchComparison

And yet, people with the same HHI in those places will have the same EFC.

Anonymous wrote:Question. Do they only look at income when determining financial aid?

What stops someone 50 years old and HHI $250k with say 3-4 kids and net worth of $2 million (not too much, not too little) from quitting their job so that HHI is $0 and getting lots of ginancial aid for all theor kids? In this hypothetical scenario, it would make sense vs. working and shelling out 100k or more a year on tuition. Thoughts?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My guess is if your Harvard qualified child looked at your budget, they could find the money.

However, it is your money and you should spend it however you see fit and there are lots of reasons to not break the bank on undergraduate costs.

"The NPC makes Harvard unaffordable for us (HHI $225K). Too bad, because our DC is qualified."

+1
225K is more than 5x the average HH income in the United States. I hear upper middle class families complaining about how they can't afford college for their kids, and meanwhile they have a $1 million dollar home where they just spent $100K on renovations, 2 new SUVs and expensive Disney vacations. People need to get better about separating wants vs. needs.

You don't know the specifics of my situation and you don't know what you are talking about. We have a mortgage on one home, drive 10yo cars, and have never taken our kids abroad on vacation. There are a lot of people like us in this area. $225K in DC is not the same as $225K in Tulsa, but the EFC calculator does not take that into account.

I do know what I am talking about as I have a similar HHI to $225K and 2 kids in the close-in DC area. Yes college is a huge expense, but it's one I've been saving aggressively for since my kids were born, and I hope to be able to send both of them to private college. We have also have "just" one home in close-in DC with a mortgage we could afford, and a car. It won't be easy, but I recognize that at my family's level of income, my challenges are far less than 97% of Americans.



Tuition increases make affording school a huge problem for the vast majority of people, even the upper middle class.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-r-cole/misconceptions-about-the_b_779444.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/18/college-tuition-unaffordable-growth-median-income_n_5505653.html

Scroll down this piece to college tuition:

http://www.mybudget360.com/cost-of-living-2014-inflation-1950-vs-2014-data-housing-cars-college/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My guess is if your Harvard qualified child looked at your budget, they could find the money.

However, it is your money and you should spend it however you see fit and there are lots of reasons to not break the bank on undergraduate costs.

"The NPC makes Harvard unaffordable for us (HHI $225K). Too bad, because our DC is qualified."

+1
225K is more than 5x the average HH income in the United States. I hear upper middle class families complaining about how they can't afford college for their kids, and meanwhile they have a $1 million dollar home where they just spent $100K on renovations, 2 new SUVs and expensive Disney vacations. People need to get better about separating wants vs. needs.

You don't know the specifics of my situation and you don't know what you are talking about. We have a mortgage on one home, drive 10yo cars, and have never taken our kids abroad on vacation. There are a lot of people like us in this area. $225K in DC is not the same as $225K in Tulsa, but the EFC calculator does not take that into account.

Tuition increases make affording school a huge problem for the vast majority of people, even the upper middle class.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-r-cole/misconceptions-about-the_b_779444.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/18/college-tuition-unaffordable-growth-median-income_n_5505653.html

Scroll down this piece to college tuition:

http://www.mybudget360.com/cost-of-living-2014-inflation-1950-vs-2014-data-housing-cars-college/