Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Our HHI is $320K. We have two kids, and we are about to retire soon. We cannot afford close to $400K for college for each child. And we get 0 financial aid.“

Roll Tide!

um. no..never. DC#1 going to UMD honors with merit. DC#2 don't know yet but it won't be Alabama.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you can get significant merit scholarship at Vanderbilt or USC, why ... pay twice as much at Amherst or Columbia or even Harvard or MIT.

Tuition is around $60K at these schools. Harvard and MIT have amazing connections. They also have some truly excellent departments. If you want your kid to go to school in NYC, Columbia is pretty great. Personally, I would prefer my child to attend an elite liberal arts college like Amherst or Williams.

USC is fine, but in a bad part of L.A. I suspect that funding cuts have hurt programs at UCLA. If your kid does not attend a nerd school like Caltech or Harvey Mudd, Pomona would be nice. I might balk at paying full price for USC, unless my spoiled kid really wants warm California weather.

Vanderbilt is great, like Washington University in St. Louis, Notre Dame, or Emory. I'm not sure I want my kid to develop friends and career contacts in the south or midwest. So yes, I would definitely consider paying an extra $120K to give my child friends, a spouse, and elite career connections in the northeast.

DH attended one of the elite schools referred to here and none of his school contacts ever parlayed into a job/connections. Perhaps the diploma helped land him the very first job out of school (in a field he never worked in again), but his very successful career did not come out of his college network (though lots of fun gatherings and school reunions).

Isn't that the entire point the first job. Also do they utilize alumni events.

Anonymous wrote:“Our HHI is $320K. We have two kids, and we are about to retire soon. We cannot afford close to $400K for college for each child. And we get 0 financial aid.“

Roll Tide!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:How does it justify costing a full $10K more than peer institutions like Williams, Bowdoin, Swarthmore?

That’s not the cost differential.

Yes, it is. All three are ~82K.

Sigh. Once again: tuition and room and board costs vs. tuition and room and board costs and personal expenses and travel etc. Apples and oranges.

Difference is maybe 2 grand at most. Maybe Amherst should not put these other expenses on their website — Williams does not, though they are obviously budgeted for financial aid — to avoid this confusion. But at a certain point, if this thread wants to willfully stay confused, have at it.

Personal expenses and travel are not budgeted for mainstream financial aid. Maybe they are for special "dirt poor" programs.

Amherst has always budgeted travel for financial aid as well as all food and board. It’s one reason why their financial aid packages are better than some others. I’m also a little confused by the stat that 50% are in the top 10% of income. If that’s right that means Amherst is giving financial aid to many students in the top 10% of income which would suggest the whole middle class is getting financial aid (since 65% of class gets financial aid).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Amherst is extraordinarily generous with financial aid and also recruits heavily from a lot of different income levels with things like all expenses paid visits for lower income kids to visit campus (or at least they used to do that—I doubt they e cut that program). I was middle class (real middle class not DCUM middle class) and they covered the vast majority of my tuition. I got into 9 schools and even though they all supposedly were using the same Fafsa need info, Amherst came out more generous than any of the other schools (other than my instate public). It was cheaper than going to UVA out of state.

Amherst caps "typical assets" at 200k.

So if you make 150k in nyc and have a Vanguard fund outside retirement that's over 200k, you're paying full freight.

np.. Our HHI is $320K. We have two kids, and we are about to retire soon. We cannot afford close to $400K for college for each child. And we get 0 financial aid.

My daughter graduated Amherst in 2020 the year cut short by covid. At the time our family income averaged just north of $200k with a $600k mortgage and 1 other kid in college for 3 of her 4 years. Our total cost of attendance averaged about $40k per year with $35k+ per yr in financial aid. We scratched and clawed our way through those years financially and spent some of our savings but were able to get 2 kids through college without taking on more debt (and the kids graduated debt free). The cost was a little more than instate at UVA but it was well worth it to us. She had a fabulous 4 years at Amherst and, after working and living at home for 2 years to save money, is now in med school at NYU (free tuition!). It's possible she may have ended up doing about as well had she gone to UVA, but her father and I are extremely thankful for Amherst's financial support and the education Amherst provided our daughter.