Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I scrimped, and saved 250 k, which still won't cover all costs at a private. I pay for food/travel/books from current income. DC gets a small merit scholarship. It just boggles the mind that a quarter million won't put a child through undergrad...DC needs to be done in 4 years, no summer school is budgeted, no 5th year
How did I save? Public school, cheaper activities, taking on side jobs
I'm in a teeny brick home, 35 year old kitchen, 60 yr old bathroom (or looks like it) east of the park
My situation: I'm divorced, and self employed. My ex is remarried, with young kids, and not bound to pay a cent
I ran the calculators, and the CSS formula wanted me to add back my retirement savings to the pot. Basically, my kids won't get aid, and I can't save for retirement without a penalty. If I worked for a company, I'd still get to save for old age. The formula also counts my ex's salary, and the new spouse's salary

This is your problem. Unfortunately, your divorce agreement didn't stipulate that he had to pay for college.

Anonymous wrote:Not whining about it but the middle class is disappearing from campuses. Considering that the middle class has a historical record of driving our economy forward, the fact that they perceive they increasingly can't access elite education under some of the greatest minds in our nation is disturbing. And yes, many institutions do a fine job below that level but the reality is that the branding a top 20 school conveys assists in bringing top minds to attention.

Anonymous wrote:I scrimped, and saved 250 k, which still won't cover all costs at a private. I pay for food/travel/books from current income. DC gets a small merit scholarship. It just boggles the mind that a quarter million won't put a child through undergrad...DC needs to be done in 4 years, no summer school is budgeted, no 5th year
How did I save? Public school, cheaper activities, taking on side jobs
I'm in a teeny brick home, 35 year old kitchen, 60 yr old bathroom (or looks like it) east of the park
My situation: I'm divorced, and self employed. My ex is remarried, with young kids, and not bound to pay a cent
I ran the calculators, and the CSS formula wanted me to add back my retirement savings to the pot. Basically, my kids won't get aid, and I can't save for retirement without a penalty. If I worked for a company, I'd still get to save for old age. The formula also counts my ex's salary, and the new spouse's salary

Anonymous wrote:What in the world is a doughnut hole family?

Anonymous wrote:What in the world is a doughnut hole family?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The whole concept of a donut hole is bullshit. All it means is that you don't want to pay for a private college when you can afford it. People making less can't afford it and get aid. People making more can afford it but don't bitch as loudly. There is no "hole."

There is, actually. There are plenty of data on this. And you are indeed a ‘hole.

I don't really understand the "donut hole" thing either.

I been playing with the Harvard calculator for my family size (2 people, 1 in college) and assets.

The curve is smooth. The idea that people paying 70K on 255K income are somehow suffering because they're in a "hole", but people paying 68.5K on 250K are living large because of aid is absurd. The reality is that the first family still has more left, and they'll still have far more than my family who would pay 8.2K on 90K HHI.

Anonymous wrote:Going back to the original question....

I honestly think there's more of a difference in social life based on family economics at public universities than at many top private colleges. If you go to a school like Yale or Harvard or UChicago, dorm assignments aren't based on income, few people live off campus, Greek life isn't that important and very few people have cars at school. Admission to sporting events is usually free with a college ID. At some colleges, e.g., Swarthmore, there's no charge for any on campus events--concerts, plays, movies, sporting events, etc. on campus are "free."

Go to a school like UVa or UTexas@A and Greek life becomes more important. People live in Greek frats/sororities and for many of these there is an unofficial requirement that you be of a certain economic class to be admitted. Sometimes there's even a wealth hierarchy with some houses being for the ultrawealthy and others for more middle income folks.(This is partly the result of varying costs to belong to different frats/sororities.) There can be great variations in the cost of student housing so kids from richer families having nicer places to live. That process often accelerates after the first year, as students move off campus. Lots of kids have cars on campus, and parking lots are filled with BMWs. If you want to go to a sporting event, you pay for it--a season pass can be very expensive. At some schools, the Greek houses get the best seats because they buy big blocks of tickets.

Some public Us raise money by attracting truly wealthy out of state students at inflated prices. (Read "Paying for the Party," a sociological study of a dorm at a poorly disguised Indiana U.) At some public Us, international students are ineligible for any financial aid, and these kids are often from megawealthy families.

So, don't assume that a kid from a "donut" family--assuming there is such a thing--is automatically going to fit in better at a public U. It really does vary by school, so check out each one.

Anonymous wrote:The whole concept of a donut hole is bullshit. All it means is that you don't want to pay for a private college when you can afford it. People making less can't afford it and get aid. People making more can afford it but don't bitch as loudly. There is no "hole."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The whole concept of a donut hole is bullshit. All it means is that you don't want to pay for a private college when you can afford it. People making less can't afford it and get aid. People making more can afford it but don't bitch as loudly. There is no "hole."

There is, actually. There are plenty of data on this. And you are indeed a ‘hole.

I don't really understand the "donut hole" thing either.

I been playing with the Harvard calculator for my family size (2 people, 1 in college) and assets.

The curve is smooth. The idea that people paying 70K on 255K income are somehow suffering because they're in a "hole", but people paying 68.5K on 250K are living large because of aid is absurd. The reality is that the first family still has more left, and they'll still have far more than my family who would pay 8.2K on 90K HHI.

They will have more because they earn more than two times what your family does. It's not about what a given family has "left." It is about whether the EFC for a given family is realistic. For our family, it is not, and despite having saved almost $400K to put two kids through college, the gap between the EFC and what we can actually pay is just too large to bridge.

How on earth can $400K not be enough to put two kids through college? Even if both of your kids go to the most expensive colleges in America (examples: Vassar and U Chicago), their tuition will be almost covered by what you've saved, and you can clearly cover the excess plus room and board out of your current salaries if you've been able to sock away an astonishing $400K in savings JUST for college.

You are definitely not a donut-hole family. Good for you!

Sorry, typo. Almost $300K.

Cannot bridge the gap without loans. Cannot stomach taking out the gap amount in loans. Do not qualify for FA.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Earn too much for need based aid, but not so much they can pay for college out of their checking account."

Not sure that is a good definition. DS and I are regular paycheck earners making about $250k each. We can't pay for college out of our checking accounts, but that doesn't mean that we can't afford it relatively easily. It's because no one should keep $300k in their checking account. In fact, we will probably just tighten the belt a little so we can pay for college out of current income, just as we've paid for private school for 12 years. But we wouldn't need to scrimp at all if we just dipped into savings or sold some investment assets.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Earn too much for need based aid, but not so much they can pay for college out of their checking account."

Not sure that is a good definition. DS and I are regular paycheck earners making about $250k each. We can't pay for college out of our checking accounts, but that doesn't mean that we can't afford it relatively easily. It's because no one should keep $300k in their checking account. In fact, we will probably just tighten the belt a little so we can pay for college out of current income, just as we've paid for private school for 12 years. But we wouldn't need to scrimp at all if we just dipped into savings or sold some investment assets.

Anonymous wrote:"Earn too much for need based aid, but not so much they can pay for college out of their checking account."