Anonymous wrote:We have 160k gross income. 200k savings. About $500k each in retirement. Low mortgage. We got $0.

This is (mostly) us. HHI a bit less, savings a bit more. SAI? North of 70K.

Not happenin'. DC is going to a state school with significant merit they earned.

It will still be a stretch and, realistically, pushes out retirement age a few years. Oh well. Good thing I love my job.

This is good information and shows the income chart. The chart assumes 0 assets so the actual income amounts will be lower if you have equity in a home etc.

https://thecollegeinvestor.com/43805/student-aid-index-sai-chart/

$38,000 at Loyola Maryland- merit aid

Anonymous wrote:What is the difference between merit and financial aid?

In addition to the answer provided above (financial aid is need-based, merit isn't), I'll add:

- At some schools, merit aid is an honor awarded only to a small number of people. At other schools, virtually everyone gets merit aid, becoming essentially a form of tuition discounting. There may be wide variation in the size of merit offers, though.

- Most elite schools don't offer merit aid. But the most elite schools are unusually good with need-based aid (financial aid); their endowments allow them to make financial aid offers to a wider a range of families, including those that are middle class.

- Schools in less popular locations (Grinnell in Iowa, for example) offer merit in ways that similarly ranked schools don't -- as part of a strategy to getting students to commit to these areas.

- Different schools make different choices. Skidmore, for example (ranked 38) apparently gives basically no merit aid, while a number of schools with higher rankings give substantial merit.

- Merit at many private colleges might take 10-35K off the sticker price, but that won't be enough to with public ones. But once you get to a certain point (for LACs, I'd guess it's colleges ranked 70+?), the merit offers can bring the cost of attendance in line with (or even below) public colleges. As one example, a number of people on here have said that College of Wooster (ranked 75) made offers that were near or below cost of their state flagship.

- You can figure out what the average merit aid is by looking at a school's Common Data Set, which most publish on their web site.

- Read Jeff Selingo's Book "The Price You Pay for College." It's really quite helpful.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why? That’s not a small income.

-Only just got to this income recently
-Prior student loans just finally paid off
-Prior car loans (not fancy cars but still)
-All of above meant behind in retirement and trying to catch up
-High cost of living area (did ok for awhile by living cheaply in a high crime area but had to go more expensive when we couldn't take the gunshot sounds anymore)
-Essentially in the "donut hole"

State schools are good.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If so, what was the offer for private vs public colleges and universities?

Yes. A full ride for four years!

🤣😂🤣😂

Anonymous wrote:I helped a couple kids in this bracket this year (with admissions and with applying for and negotiating FA). Both got excellent aid -- one from an Ivy, another from a few top LACs. Both offered about 1/2 coa worth of aid. Need based.

Also got some great merit offers too.

NP: Were these ED or EA candidates? Ran the NPC on a bunch of schools. Most have EFC at $30-$40K, which is doable for us with 529, Grandmas, and our earnings. A few were $50K+. I don't think ED is an option for us. DC's favorite school so far is one of the $50Ks, of course. I would prefer to have the option to compare offers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Zero. from FAFSA. I think the previous posters are lying. From FAFSA at 250K HHI I think the D of Ed will say you should fund at 100 percent, which is what happened to us

CSS will give you a lot more, especially if you have multiple kids

Not our experience. Nothing from FAFSA or CSS, even with multiple kids.

Anyone running an NPC can see that you are lying

2 kids at Ivies. 240k. No aid. We lived frugally and saved. Not lying.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If so, what was the offer for private vs public colleges and universities?

Yes. A full ride for four years!

Financial Aid or Merit Aid?

Troll aid

Anonymous wrote:What is the difference between merit and financial aid?

Financial aid is based on your family income, net worth, money in bank, etc.

Merit is totally and completely based on your kid's academics/EC/resume/merits

Any one can get Merit aid

Only those who are lower income/low income can get financial aid. Nobody making 250K is getting much if anything at all for financial aid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If so, what was the offer for private vs public colleges and universities?

Yes. A full ride for four years!

Financial Aid or Merit Aid?

$240k a year. got about 35k from princeton (total coa is now ~50k)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Zero. from FAFSA. I think the previous posters are lying. From FAFSA at 250K HHI I think the D of Ed will say you should fund at 100 percent, which is what happened to us

CSS will give you a lot more, especially if you have multiple kids

Not our experience. Nothing from FAFSA or CSS, even with multiple kids.

Anyone running an NPC can see that you are lying

dp.. our AGI in 2022 was $160K. We ran the NPC for a $80K school. We got zilch.

We had $140K in the 529 for DC plus some cash savings that was going to go into our 401K and for our retirement reserve (it was like $200K). We are in our mid/late 50s.

I guess the expectation is that we should wipe out our savings for this one kid (we have more than one) to pay for college. Screw the other kids, I guess.

Try other schools. You should qualify for need based aid at some. Does tge one you checked offer merit aid? Those with a merit aid usually have much lower income cutoffs for need based aid.

I helped a couple kids in this bracket this year (with admissions and with applying for and negotiating FA). Both got excellent aid -- one from an Ivy, another from a few top LACs. Both offered about 1/2 coa worth of aid. Need based.

Also got some great merit offers too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Merit aid at 2 private SLACs but chose in state—full pay.

OK but that's not the question. did you get any financial aid clearance (not merit) via FAFSA?

She could take $5500 loan (?) unsubsidized. But no loans we will just pay.