Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like a broken record on this thread. Before you assume you don't qualify for need-based aid, do a net price calculator. A non-school specific non-profit one is available here: https://myintuition.org/quick-college-cost-estimator/.

For most (all?) of the most selective schools, families with HHI of up to and even in some cases OVER $200k ARE receiving need-based financial aid. The families who are not are the families with significant non-retirement assets (savings or investments). If someone tells you they aren't receiving need-based aid with a $180k HHI income at one of these kinds of schools, they have big $$ in accounts somewhere (EXCLUDING retirement...financial aid does not consider retirement $).

There are persistent rumors out there that families making $100-200k are not receiving financial aid when it's not the case at the most-desired schools. I don't know why this misconception is so ubiquitous.

To drive this point home, just did the calculator -- for a family with $250k HHI, $200k in savings, and $200k in non-retirement investment funds, they WOULD STILL RECEIVE FINANCIAL AID AT BROWN. ($13k in financial aid a year, no loans)

At 250K a year there is no excuse they aren't saving more except for rare situations.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Could someone please explain, because it sounds like people with nice resources feeling entitled to more than they can afford.

No. It is a family that won’t qualify for FA but that doesn’t have the resources to reasonably handle tuition at the priciest/most elite colleges. I don’t know about families feeling entitled, but from the colleges’ standpoint it is a real problem that they are concerned about. They don’t want their student populations to come from two stratified socioeconomic groups.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in a neighborhood full of true donut hole families. I would say household incomes are 100k - 150k.
Kids in my neighborhood are driving themselves to GMU.
Very few are going OOS, and those that are are going to schools that are highly undesirable here on DCUM.

Yeah I guess this is us. Except we live in DC so we have no in-state option. Yay.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like a broken record on this thread. Before you assume you don't qualify for need-based aid, do a net price calculator. A non-school specific non-profit one is available here: https://myintuition.org/quick-college-cost-estimator/.

For most (all?) of the most selective schools, families with HHI of up to and even in some cases OVER $200k ARE receiving need-based financial aid. The families who are not are the families with significant non-retirement assets (savings or investments). If someone tells you they aren't receiving need-based aid with a $180k HHI income at one of these kinds of schools, they have big $$ in accounts somewhere (EXCLUDING retirement...financial aid does not consider retirement $).

There are persistent rumors out there that families making $100-200k are not receiving financial aid when it's not the case at the most-desired schools. I don't know why this misconception is so ubiquitous.

To drive this point home, just did the calculator -- for a family with $250k HHI, $200k in savings, and $200k in non-retirement investment funds, they WOULD STILL RECEIVE FINANCIAL AID AT BROWN. ($13k in financial aid a year, no loans)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like a broken record on this thread. Before you assume you don't qualify for need-based aid, do a net price calculator. A non-school specific non-profit one is available here: https://myintuition.org/quick-college-cost-estimator/.

For most (all?) of the most selective schools, families with HHI of up to and even in some cases OVER $200k ARE receiving need-based financial aid. The families who are not are the families with significant non-retirement assets (savings or investments). If someone tells you they aren't receiving need-based aid with a $180k HHI income at one of these kinds of schools, they have big $$ in accounts somewhere (EXCLUDING retirement...financial aid does not consider retirement $).

There are persistent rumors out there that families making $100-200k are not receiving financial aid when it's not the case at the most-desired schools. I don't know why this misconception is so ubiquitous.

I think people underestimate how much aid they'll get at those incomes at private schools because, unlike a single parent teacher who will obviously get aid, a lot of the professional parents with a dad making 180k and a SAHM are not going to admit they got aid because they're trying to act rich. So the dad's coworkers who have similar jobs assume they won't get aid.

Anonymous wrote:I feel like a broken record on this thread. Before you assume you don't qualify for need-based aid, do a net price calculator. A non-school specific non-profit one is available here: https://myintuition.org/quick-college-cost-estimator/.

For most (all?) of the most selective schools, families with HHI of up to and even in some cases OVER $200k ARE receiving need-based financial aid. The families who are not are the families with significant non-retirement assets (savings or investments). If someone tells you they aren't receiving need-based aid with a $180k HHI income at one of these kinds of schools, they have big $$ in accounts somewhere (EXCLUDING retirement...financial aid does not consider retirement $).

There are persistent rumors out there that families making $100-200k are not receiving financial aid when it's not the case at the most-desired schools. I don't know why this misconception is so ubiquitous.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in a neighborhood full of true donut hole families. I would say household incomes are 100k - 150k.
Kids in my neighborhood are driving themselves to GMU.
Very few are going OOS, and those that are are going to schools that are highly undesirable here on DCUM.

These are the families that actually qualify for financial aid at private colleges. There are many places that are seeking out strong students with need, so the elite colleges that are the subject of this thread are actually more affordable to them than to families with incomes of $250K.

You’re assuming that all kids are “strong students”. No one is giving aid to kids with a 3.0.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like a broken record on this thread. Before you assume you don't qualify for need-based aid, do a net price calculator. A non-school specific non-profit one is available here: https://myintuition.org/quick-college-cost-estimator/.

For most (all?) of the most selective schools, families with HHI of up to and even in some cases OVER $200k ARE receiving need-based financial aid. The families who are not are the families with significant non-retirement assets (savings or investments). If someone tells you they aren't receiving need-based aid with a $180k HHI income at one of these kinds of schools, they have big $$ in accounts somewhere (EXCLUDING retirement...financial aid does not consider retirement $).

There are persistent rumors out there that families making $100-200k are not receiving financial aid when it's not the case at the most-desired schools. I don't know why this misconception is so ubiquitous.

To drive this point home, just did the calculator -- for a family with $250k HHI, $200k in savings, and $200k in non-retirement investment funds, they WOULD STILL RECEIVE FINANCIAL AID AT BROWN. ($13k in financial aid a year, no loans)

That's basically us and sure, that's a little bit of aid, but it's not enough to make it a financially responsible option that would have been worth applying to: cost would be around 70k/year. At that level of savings, it would mean spending down nearly everything for college for two kids. We are doing in-state very cheaply and 529 will cover all costs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like a broken record on this thread. Before you assume you don't qualify for need-based aid, do a net price calculator. A non-school specific non-profit one is available here: https://myintuition.org/quick-college-cost-estimator/.

For most (all?) of the most selective schools, families with HHI of up to and even in some cases OVER $200k ARE receiving need-based financial aid. The families who are not are the families with significant non-retirement assets (savings or investments). If someone tells you they aren't receiving need-based aid with a $180k HHI income at one of these kinds of schools, they have big $$ in accounts somewhere (EXCLUDING retirement...financial aid does not consider retirement $).

There are persistent rumors out there that families making $100-200k are not receiving financial aid when it's not the case at the most-desired schools. I don't know why this misconception is so ubiquitous.

To drive this point home, just did the calculator -- for a family with $250k HHI, $200k in savings, and $200k in non-retirement investment funds, they WOULD STILL RECEIVE FINANCIAL AID AT BROWN. ($13k in financial aid a year, no loans)

Anonymous wrote:Most donut hole scenarios is that you marry around 30 and your HHI is about $100-$130K.

Mortgage, loans and daycare... no ability to save.

With a 5% increase in salary over the next few years you get to ~$150K.

Kids are 10 and maybe you can save $1000/month if you are lucky. After 8 years you have $80000 in college funds, divided by 2 kids, divided by 4 years, $10000/year to help pay college.

You now make $200K, no way, no how you are getting aid, college costs $40K-$80K/year.

You kid will only qualify for $5K, you can pay $10K out of earnings, $10K from saving and you are $15K - $55K/year in the hole... donut hole.

A parent plus loan is a 4% fee just to get the loan, the interest rates are 7%.

So you borrow against your retirement since that is cheaper, but not really because you are losing earnings.

At 75 you can finally retire to make up for your kids college.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in a neighborhood full of true donut hole families. I would say household incomes are 100k - 150k.
Kids in my neighborhood are driving themselves to GMU.
Very few are going OOS, and those that are are going to schools that are highly undesirable here on DCUM.

These are the families that actually qualify for financial aid at private colleges. There are many places that are seeking out strong students with need, so the elite colleges that are the subject of this thread are actually more affordable to them than to families with incomes of $250K.

You’re assuming that all kids are “strong students”. No one is giving aid to kids with a 3.0.

Not the PP, but when people complain about being in a "donut hole" and implying that they have it worse off than middle income families, they are only talking about a small set of elite schools that guarantee to meet full need. For kids who have a chance at those schools there are plenty of other schools that will give them merit aid. For kids who don't have a chance at those schools, the "donut hole" kids are definitely better off than the lower income kids, because they can go to a lower status LAC which offers merit aid to everyone, or a state school where the tuition will be affordable to them, but likely still out of reach for the lower income kid, since those schools don't meet full need.

I'm not sure I believe the "donut hole" problem at all (not saying I don't believe that there are UMC families who want schools they can't afford, of course there are, I just don't think that this is a separate problem from there being families in every group but very rich who can't meet their EFC), but if it exists at all, it only applies to high stats kids.

Anonymous wrote:I feel like a broken record on this thread. Before you assume you don't qualify for need-based aid, do a net price calculator. A non-school specific non-profit one is available here: https://myintuition.org/quick-college-cost-estimator/.

For most (all?) of the most selective schools, families with HHI of up to and even in some cases OVER $200k ARE receiving need-based financial aid. The families who are not are the families with significant non-retirement assets (savings or investments). If someone tells you they aren't receiving need-based aid with a $180k HHI income at one of these kinds of schools, they have big $$ in accounts somewhere (EXCLUDING retirement...financial aid does not consider retirement $).

There are persistent rumors out there that families making $100-200k are not receiving financial aid when it's not the case at the most-desired schools. I don't know why this misconception is so ubiquitous.