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Anonymous wrote:what does donut whole mean?? poor?

Too rich for financial aide, but too poor to pay out of pocket.

The term "poor" is relative. It's middle to UMC who want the brand name college but don't want to pay $80k / year, but can squeeze out close to $45k / year if it came to it.

Real middle class will get financial aid. The people complaining make $125/150-400/500K who don't want to save or pay or understand they need to go to a state college that is more affordable.

It is very unfair system to charge people much more who worked hard to earn what they deserve to earn.

Please unpack that.

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Anonymous wrote:My Blair magnet student (1600 SAT, 4.8 weighted GPA, nationally-recognized niche extracurricular) went to the UMD-CP Honors Program. There were a lot of students like DC there.

+1 almost exactly the same stats at another magnet. They also got merit.

Yes, but how much merit? There may be some state flagships that give generous merit, but many of the selective ones -- UMich, UVA, etc. -- give only a handful of very generous scholarships. So if your state flagship is, for example, UVA, you will almost certainly not be getting anything remotely close to a full ride through merit alone.

If you need remotely close to a full ride, then you are probably receiving FA and not truly a donut hole student.

Anonymous wrote:in DC area--$300k-450k is a donut hole family. 2 or more kids. SFHs run you $750k-2 million. COL is very high here.

LOL no. SFHs, investments, retirement savings, and OOS college tuitions are luxuries. You have to prioritize and choose, just like all the families who make less or way less.

Anonymous wrote:Some do what highly academic poor and working class students did in prior generations? Attend the schools most affordable for their families. The one difference is that these students never had the option "to suck it up and pay the high prices because it's worth it even though is frustrating to pay" because they didn't and still don't have the option to pay. What is frustrating for them is trying to pay their bills to keep the car on the road, the lights on, and them in their homes.

I was highly academic and poor and I got 75% tuition paid by my Ivy. Different problem. Granted in state would have been free but I wanted to escape from my rural backwater.

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Anonymous wrote:Williams for us - pay $23k with $210k income. Pretty low assets (one govt employee and one assoc prof who rented forever).

Then you aren’t doughnut hole. It’s similar salary but with assets, including primary residence you can’t really sell, that make you ineligible for grants but unable to afford $85K a year.

+1

in DC area--$300k-450k is a donut hole family. 2 or more kids. SFHs run you $750k-2 million. COL is very high here.

A lot of pricey private schools offer merit or aid for $200k-once you get to $300k forget it.

And agree the assets get you. Home equity, some include investment/retirement, etc. Which is why 2 families making the same $210k--one will get aid and one won't. The big spenders will get the aid and the smart and frugal that saved will get jack-sh*t.

Income is weighted more heavily than assets in determining aid. And colleges only expect you to contribute a certain % of your assets (way less than half). So despite a difference in aid level, it's much better to have those assets than not to have them.

The problem is home equity is counted at most schools through the CSS profile. While there are some that don't count it all (eg, USC), in general the average family has to pay full price once you factor in salary, home equity and non-retirement assets. Not many families with a house will not get ANY need based aid. If you have a house, it pays to play with the NPC and figure out if home equity is counted.

Even at the CSS profile schools, home equity - although a factor - is NOT treated/counted the same as income. Income is more important.

Well a lot of us are sitting on $1m or more equity. Pretty much anyone who purchased 10 years ago or before will be full pay regardless of income.

It depends on the school, as each CSS school may treat home equity differently. You may be full pay at one school, but get a decent amount of aid at another. The article linked to below is informative. Also, if you have $1 million in home equity and the school expects you to contribute 5% (which is fairly typical) of that, why can't you? That still leaves you with $950,000 in equity. Most anyone (not all) who has that much equity in their home almost assuredly has a decent amount of sheltered retirement assets on top of that.

https://money.com/college-financial-aid-home-equity/

Oberlin. Our family fits this description, with a very smart, very academic DS. He loved Oberlin and Oberlin loved him back with merit aid that was generous enough that we could make it work. He's STEM, is getting a great education, and just got a very competitive internship for next summer (made easier by the 5K assistance offered to all juniors to cover summer costs.

We earn in the range mentioned above and live in a neighborhood with these kind of houses (lots of equity). Neighbor told me that "there is money out there for kids like ours" if you look at, say, Midwestern SLACs where being from the actual District of Columbia makes you special. What are these schools?

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Williams for us - pay $23k with $210k income. Pretty low assets (one govt employee and one assoc prof who rented forever).

Then you aren’t doughnut hole. It’s similar salary but with assets, including primary residence you can’t really sell, that make you ineligible for grants but unable to afford $85K a year.

+1

in DC area--$300k-450k is a donut hole family. 2 or more kids. SFHs run you $750k-2 million. COL is very high here.

A lot of pricey private schools offer merit or aid for $200k-once you get to $300k forget it.

And agree the assets get you. Home equity, some include investment/retirement, etc. Which is why 2 families making the same $210k--one will get aid and one won't. The big spenders will get the aid and the smart and frugal that saved will get jack-sh*t.

Income is weighted more heavily than assets in determining aid. And colleges only expect you to contribute a certain % of your assets (way less than half). So despite a difference in aid level, it's much better to have those assets than not to have them.

The problem is home equity is counted at most schools through the CSS profile. While there are some that don't count it all (eg, USC), in general the average family has to pay full price once you factor in salary, home equity and non-retirement assets. Not many families with a house will not get ANY need based aid. If you have a house, it pays to play with the NPC and figure out if home equity is counted.

Even at the CSS profile schools, home equity - although a factor - is NOT treated/counted the same as income. Income is more important.

Well a lot of us are sitting on $1m or more equity. Pretty much anyone who purchased 10 years ago or before will be full pay regardless of income.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Williams for us - pay $23k with $210k income. Pretty low assets (one govt employee and one assoc prof who rented forever).

Then you aren’t doughnut hole. It’s similar salary but with assets, including primary residence you can’t really sell, that make you ineligible for grants but unable to afford $85K a year.

+1

in DC area--$300k-450k is a donut hole family. 2 or more kids. SFHs run you $750k-2 million. COL is very high here.

A lot of pricey private schools offer merit or aid for $200k-once you get to $300k forget it.

And agree the assets get you. Home equity, some include investment/retirement, etc. Which is why 2 families making the same $210k--one will get aid and one won't. The big spenders will get the aid and the smart and frugal that saved will get jack-sh*t.

Income is weighted more heavily than assets in determining aid. And colleges only expect you to contribute a certain % of your assets (way less than half). So despite a difference in aid level, it's much better to have those assets than not to have them.

The problem is home equity is counted at most schools through the CSS profile. While there are some that don't count it all (eg, USC), in general the average family has to pay full price once you factor in salary, home equity and non-retirement assets. Not many families with a house will not get ANY need based aid. If you have a house, it pays to play with the NPC and figure out if home equity is counted.

One CSS school denied us for financial aid on a $137k income for a family of four because we own our home (not outright and it is one of those ubiquitous 1940s brick boxes) and because DH is a fed with a pension.

DC took half tuition at a T20. His best friend took full ride at a regional campus of state school and another friend went to state school's flagship with low instate tuition. All of them had tippy top resume, scholarship offers and similar donut hole finances.

They get the most prestigious scholarships at their in-state flagship university, OP, such as the Banneker-Key for UMD.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Williams for us - pay $23k with $210k income. Pretty low assets (one govt employee and one assoc prof who rented forever).

Then you aren’t doughnut hole. It’s similar salary but with assets, including primary residence you can’t really sell, that make you ineligible for grants but unable to afford $85K a year.

+1

in DC area--$300k-450k is a donut hole family. 2 or more kids. SFHs run you $750k-2 million. COL is very high here.

A lot of pricey private schools offer merit or aid for $200k-once you get to $300k forget it.

And agree the assets get you. Home equity, some include investment/retirement, etc. Which is why 2 families making the same $210k--one will get aid and one won't. The big spenders will get the aid and the smart and frugal that saved will get jack-sh*t.

Income is weighted more heavily than assets in determining aid. And colleges only expect you to contribute a certain % of your assets (way less than half). So despite a difference in aid level, it's much better to have those assets than not to have them.

The problem is home equity is counted at most schools through the CSS profile. While there are some that don't count it all (eg, USC), in general the average family has to pay full price once you factor in salary, home equity and non-retirement assets. Not many families with a house will not get ANY need based aid. If you have a house, it pays to play with the NPC and figure out if home equity is counted.

Even at the CSS profile schools, home equity - although a factor - is NOT treated/counted the same as income. Income is more important.

Sure. We know this. But it’s what usually knocks donut hole families out of the running for FA

Our state flagship. So far so good.

Mine took a full ride to an SEC school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Williams for us - pay $23k with $210k income. Pretty low assets (one govt employee and one assoc prof who rented forever).

Then you aren’t doughnut hole. It’s similar salary but with assets, including primary residence you can’t really sell, that make you ineligible for grants but unable to afford $85K a year.

+1

in DC area--$300k-450k is a donut hole family. 2 or more kids. SFHs run you $750k-2 million. COL is very high here.

A lot of pricey private schools offer merit or aid for $200k-once you get to $300k forget it.

And agree the assets get you. Home equity, some include investment/retirement, etc. Which is why 2 families making the same $210k--one will get aid and one won't. The big spenders will get the aid and the smart and frugal that saved will get jack-sh*t.

Income is weighted more heavily than assets in determining aid. And colleges only expect you to contribute a certain % of your assets (way less than half). So despite a difference in aid level, it's much better to have those assets than not to have them.

The problem is home equity is counted at most schools through the CSS profile. While there are some that don't count it all (eg, USC), in general the average family has to pay full price once you factor in salary, home equity and non-retirement assets. Not many families with a house will not get ANY need based aid. If you have a house, it pays to play with the NPC and figure out if home equity is counted.

Even at the CSS profile schools, home equity - although a factor - is NOT treated/counted the same as income. Income is more important.