We make close to 400K and have 150K set aside for our one child for college. I would be comfortable paying full price to send her to an Ivy League school. Might be different if we had more than one.

Of course based on the grades she's getting it's not likely to be an issue for us.

Anonymous wrote:If my kid got into an Ivy I would make it happen even if we had to borrow $. It opens major doors. (I went to a good but not great university so I didn't experience this personally but I saw it from watching peers in the workplace.

+1

The odds are that your child will not get into any of the Ivy+ schools. So it's not really a problem for 99%.

If your child is on track to go to an elite school and you're earning $250k+, its not that hard. Most folks earning UMC incomes have had a pretty good idea that their children would go to college since before they were born and have steadily put away some money over the past 18 years in preparation. Of all the financial hurdles you face in life, college is probably the most predictable.

At UMC income levels, the choice is yours, just like most financial decisions. How big a house? How nice a car? Not, can I afford a house or a car. Would you rather wait until you die to give your children money or would you rather see them reap the benefits while you're around? Is giving a down payment on your child's first house closer to your values than the best education you can afford?

Anonymous wrote:If you say you're not willing to pay for Ivy, what would you say to your child if he/she were willing to do ROTC at the Ivy? The service requirement can be fulfilled 100% in the reserves.

Both of my kids have medical issues (and by that I mean pretty run of the mill ones - one takes meds for anxiety and one is anemic) that would preclude them from this option. Actually, the majority of people in the US are ineligible for the military.

Anonymous wrote:There is no such thing as an Ivy equivalent

Haha...big surprise to Stanford, MIT, Caltech, UChicago, Berkeley, Michigan and the like...unless you're just referencing the fact that the Ivies are their own sports league.

Anonymous wrote:If you say you're not willing to pay for Ivy, what would you say to your child if he/she were willing to do ROTC at the Ivy? The service requirement can be fulfilled 100% in the reserves.

I would be willing but we don't have the income to support it. I would not support my child doing ROTC. His job is to go to college and work summers to earn money for school or an internship for experience. If he wants to join after he has a degree (preferably master's) great, he has our full support although we have preferences to which branch he goes into. I don't want him committed to reserves.

If you say you're not willing to pay for Ivy, what would you say to your child if he/she were willing to do ROTC at the Ivy? The service requirement can be fulfilled 100% in the reserves.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't imagine not doing whatever was necessary to make it happen for my kid to attend an Ivy/Ivy equivalent. Not a question of income at all. That said, I went to an Ivy and it was a fabulous experience, so I'm admittedly biased.

I can. I will not go into debt for any undergraduate degree, or permit our DS to go into more than e.g. about $10K of debt. I will not jeopardize our retirement. I will not remortgage our house.

So yes, very much a question of income.

At our HHI of $220K, we neither qualify for need-based aid nor can pay $65K+/year/kid for our two kids to attend college. Given that, Ivies are out of the question.

+1. Same here. I told my magnet kid, "Do not expect Ivies or private"

There is no such thing as an Ivy equivalent

Anonymous wrote:I can't imagine not doing whatever was necessary to make it happen for my kid to attend an Ivy/Ivy equivalent. Not a question of income at all. That said, I went to an Ivy and it was a fabulous experience, so I'm admittedly biased.

What if your kid can't get into an Ivy/Ivy equivalent?

Probably $400K? I dunno. I don't get the Ivy obsession. For grad school, sure, but there are plenty of Ivy grads working for state school grads in my line of work.

@$400K we could pay without having to think twice about it. Below that, we would postpone car purchases and eat out less. We are fully funded for retirement so I would sell stocks from the brockerage account before downsizing the house or cutting back on vacations. We are too careful to ever go through all our assets, so as a PP said it's really just the inheritance you are using.

Anonymous wrote:Assuming you are middle or upper middle class and won't get any financial aid, at what HHI are you willing to send your DC to a pricey ivy? We make $250k and have a govt pension and close to 2 million in retirement savings...So we could afford it. My dh and I both went to state schools for undergrad and grad....So the idea of spending so much for undergrad seems daunting....

Depends on age as well. How old are you and your spouse, OP?

We made $200k and sent ours to Princeton OP. DH and I both state grad and undergrad like you. Brand value is impossible to quantify. The value of an Ivy is no one ever questions how smart you are. It is nearly impossible to get into them these days. I know...people who went 20+ years ago have a different story.

Totally worth it OP. Ours makes over $100k and is 22 years old.

I went to a well-regarded, big public. Some of my older colleagues went to Ivies. I don't know...I know my experience is only one among countless data points, but it seems that I got the better deal if I'm sitting in an office across the hall at the same salary.

And that makes me terribly biased, but I probably wouldn't send my child to an Ivy just for the sake of going to an Ivy at any income level. There's a million more factors to consider.