Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's hilarious that people here are telling the OP she doesn't deserve financial aid. I think most of the NESCAC schools will disagree. Clearly few people here understand how financial aid works.

No matter what form the school uses, financial aid is based predominantly on family income and savings/investments that are in the **student's** name. Parent savings, investments, and real estate count much, much less.

OP, have you run the net price calculator on the websites of the schools your DD is interested in? I pulled up Middlebury's and plugged in some dummy numbers based on the info you provided: a HHI of $104k, a home value of $950k, mortgage of $0, and 4 children, with $10k in savings. Middlebury's net price calculator spit out the following:

Total cost in first year: $61,360

Expected family contribution: $11,358

Total financial need: $50,002

Estimated financial aid package: $50,002
-Middlebury scholarship: $45,202
-Student loan: $3,000
-Campus job: $1,800

OP, please run the net price calculators yourself. Likely your DD will qualify for significant financial aid at schools that pledge to meet full need. No college really expects you to sell the family home in order to pay for college.

This just blows me away. I did it, and granted we have a good income (250K per year), but I was curious. And they are saying that our expected famiy contribution is $59K per year. How on earth do they figure that?! (FWIW we do have a well funded 529 account, I'm just making this observation -- private college is impossible for many people who have decent incomes.)

Yes. I am 20:39, poster of the quote above. We make about $220k in the DC area and have determined that highly ranked private schools that offer financial aid only are completely off the table for our children. We simply cannot afford our expected family contribution. So my advice to OP's kid is very different from my advice to my own kids (or to yours). My kids will apply to and attend in-state publics, lower-priced OOS publics (i.e., not Michigan or Berkeley), or lower-ranked privates that offer my kids merit aid. We don't plan to visit any NESCAC schools, e.g. I would not even agree to pay the application fee for these schools if my DC wanted to apply to one of them. A complete waste of time and money.

I suspect the number of students from our income range is declining at a pretty rapid clip at many of the top schools, although I have seen no data to support this notion. I just don't see how families in our situation (upper middle class income, extremely high cost area) can foot the bill without taking on a large amount of debt.

This is just nauseating as it encourages people not to save. As pp said above, if the inheritance was given in stock and had increased to $1m it would be expected to pay for college.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's hilarious that people here are telling the OP she doesn't deserve financial aid. I think most of the NESCAC schools will disagree. Clearly few people here understand how financial aid works.

No matter what form the school uses, financial aid is based predominantly on family income and savings/investments that are in the **student's** name. Parent savings, investments, and real estate count much, much less.

OP, have you run the net price calculator on the websites of the schools your DD is interested in? I pulled up Middlebury's and plugged in some dummy numbers based on the info you provided: a HHI of $104k, a home value of $950k, mortgage of $0, and 4 children, with $10k in savings. Middlebury's net price calculator spit out the following:

Total cost in first year: $61,360

Expected family contribution: $11,358

Total financial need: $50,002

Estimated financial aid package: $50,002
-Middlebury scholarship: $45,202
-Student loan: $3,000
-Campus job: $1,800

OP, please run the net price calculators yourself. Likely your DD will qualify for significant financial aid at schools that pledge to meet full need. No college really expects you to sell the family home in order to pay for college.

This just blows me away. I did it, and granted we have a good income (250K per year), but I was curious. And they are saying that our expected famiy contribution is $59K per year. How on earth do they figure that?! (FWIW we do have a well funded 529 account, I'm just making this observation -- private college is impossible for many people who have decent incomes.)

College is not an unexpected expense. Colleges do not set the parental contribution based on an ability to pay out of ones paycheck. Parents are expected to save ahead of time. It is the same for retirement or saving for a downpayment on a house. There are long term saving issues.

"This just blows me away. I did it, and granted we have a good income (250K per year), but I was curious. And they are saying that our expected famiy contribution is $59K per year. How on earth do they figure that?! (FWIW we do have a well funded 529 account, I'm just making this observation -- private college is impossible for many people who have decent incomes.) "

Well, our HHI is considerably less than yours but more than the OP. When I run the numbers thru these calculators, there seems to be a consistent 30% HHI result. Pretty steep if you ask me.

Anonymous wrote:It's hilarious that people here are telling the OP she doesn't deserve financial aid. I think most of the NESCAC schools will disagree. Clearly few people here understand how financial aid works.

No matter what form the school uses, financial aid is based predominantly on family income and savings/investments that are in the **student's** name. Parent savings, investments, and real estate count much, much less.

OP, have you run the net price calculator on the websites of the schools your DD is interested in? I pulled up Middlebury's and plugged in some dummy numbers based on the info you provided: a HHI of $104k, a home value of $950k, mortgage of $0, and 4 children, with $10k in savings. Middlebury's net price calculator spit out the following:

Total cost in first year: $61,360

Expected family contribution: $11,358

Total financial need: $50,002

Estimated financial aid package: $50,002
-Middlebury scholarship: $45,202
-Student loan: $3,000
-Campus job: $1,800

OP, please run the net price calculators yourself. Likely your DD will qualify for significant financial aid at schools that pledge to meet full need. No college really expects you to sell the family home in order to pay for college.

This just blows me away. I did it, and granted we have a good income (250K per year), but I was curious. And they are saying that our expected famiy contribution is $59K per year. How on earth do they figure that?! (FWIW we do have a well funded 529 account, I'm just making this observation -- private college is impossible for many people who have decent incomes.)

How do you determine home equity when filling out college aid forms anyway? We bought our house in the summer of 2006 and its value is now probably just about back up to what we paid for it, maybe 5% less.

Do we pick a number based on comps? The tax assessment? Pay for an appraisal?

Anonymous wrote:Dear OP,

One other option that you may not care for, and your daughter might resist it -- if you live in a state with a good community college/guaranteed four year state college transfer program, you can go that route. Your DC will get a strong education at a much lower cost. She would need to live at home the first two years (unless she chose a CC with a dorm and lived onsite, which is an option) but she could save money and so could you.

I know this isn't what she'd want to hear, but it is an option.

Good luck.

community college is a great option for many kids. But if OP's DD qualifies for and receives the level of financial aid indicated above, the community college route might save less money than you think.

Dear OP,

One other option that you may not care for, and your daughter might resist it -- if you live in a state with a good community college/guaranteed four year state college transfer program, you can go that route. Your DC will get a strong education at a much lower cost. She would need to live at home the first two years (unless she chose a CC with a dorm and lived onsite, which is an option) but she could save money and so could you.

I know this isn't what she'd want to hear, but it is an option.

Good luck.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's hilarious that people here are telling the OP she doesn't deserve financial aid. I think most of the NESCAC schools will disagree. Clearly few people here understand how financial aid works.

No matter what form the school uses, financial aid is based predominantly on family income and savings/investments that are in the **student's** name. Parent savings, investments, and real estate count much, much less.

OP, have you run the net price calculator on the websites of the schools your DD is interested in? I pulled up Middlebury's and plugged in some dummy numbers based on the info you provided: a HHI of $104k, a home value of $950k, mortgage of $0, and 4 children, with $10k in savings. Middlebury's net price calculator spit out the following:

Total cost in first year: $61,360

Expected family contribution: $11,358

Total financial need: $50,002

Estimated financial aid package: $50,002
-Middlebury scholarship: $45,202
-Student loan: $3,000
-Campus job: $1,800

OP, please run the net price calculators yourself. Likely your DD will qualify for significant financial aid at schools that pledge to meet full need. No college really expects you to sell the family home in order to pay for college.

Thank you! I posted earlier that we're new to this game, so this is super helpful! I'm feeling less depressed about college costs already!

You're welcome. I strongly recommend this website as a resource:

http://thecollegesolution.com

And this post there directly addresses your concern:

http://www.thecollegesolution.com/will-your-home-equity-hurt-financial-aid-chances/

As outlined here, normally CSS calculates that 5% of home value is available for financial aid. So, for a house worth $950k, CSS would assess home equity at $47,500 per year. This would likely make most families with this much home equity completely full-pay, ineligible for need-based financial aid. However, the folks at CSS understand that you can't borrow money, no matter how well secured by your house, if you can't afford the loan payments. CSS thus caps the home equity contribution at two times family income. So if your HHI is $104,000, CSS would assess the home equity contribution at 5% of $208k, or $10,400 (per year). Other assets and income are then assessed and added to the $10,400 to arrive at your estimated family contribution.

Since your DD will need substantial financial aid to attend college, it will be very, very important that she find colleges that meet financial need AND for which she is a strong candidate. Make sure she includes full-need schools that have relatively high acceptance rates, such as women's colleges like Wellesley, Smith, and Barnard, and SLACs that are outside New England/NY, since these tend to accept a greater share of their applicants. Midwest LACs like Oberlin, Kenyon, Macalester are considered very fine but don't receive as many applications as many of the NE schools and so accept a greater share. Others to consider: Wooster, Clark, Dickinson, Gettysburg, Sewanee, Saint Olaf. Be straight up with your DD: She needs significant financial aid to go to college. Make sure she understands that financial aid will be the most important factor in determining where she goes. Discourage the notion of a "dream" school. Be matter of fact about it. It's not a dream school if you can't afford it.

Anonymous wrote:It's hilarious that people here are telling the OP she doesn't deserve financial aid. I think most of the NESCAC schools will disagree. Clearly few people here understand how financial aid works.

No matter what form the school uses, financial aid is based predominantly on family income and savings/investments that are in the **student's** name. Parent savings, investments, and real estate count much, much less.

OP, have you run the net price calculator on the websites of the schools your DD is interested in? I pulled up Middlebury's and plugged in some dummy numbers based on the info you provided: a HHI of $104k, a home value of $950k, mortgage of $0, and 4 children, with $10k in savings. Middlebury's net price calculator spit out the following:

Total cost in first year: $61,360

Expected family contribution: $11,358

Total financial need: $50,002

Estimated financial aid package: $50,002
-Middlebury scholarship: $45,202
-Student loan: $3,000
-Campus job: $1,800

OP, please run the net price calculators yourself. Likely your DD will qualify for significant financial aid at schools that pledge to meet full need. No college really expects you to sell the family home in order to pay for college.

Thank you! I posted earlier that we're new to this game, so this is super helpful! I'm feeling less depressed about college costs already!

Jeff, can we ban 20:39 from DCUM for life?

This kind of helpful, fact-based information is simply NOT what most DCUMers expect.

Plus, I'm pretty sure she gave me ebola.

Here is Middlebury's net price calculator. Every college is required to have one on their website.

http://www.middlebury.edu/offices/support/sfs/npc

It's hilarious that people here are telling the OP she doesn't deserve financial aid. I think most of the NESCAC schools will disagree. Clearly few people here understand how financial aid works.

No matter what form the school uses, financial aid is based predominantly on family income and savings/investments that are in the **student's** name. Parent savings, investments, and real estate count much, much less.

OP, have you run the net price calculator on the websites of the schools your DD is interested in? I pulled up Middlebury's and plugged in some dummy numbers based on the info you provided: a HHI of $104k, a home value of $950k, mortgage of $0, and 4 children, with $10k in savings. Middlebury's net price calculator spit out the following:

Total cost in first year: $61,360

Expected family contribution: $11,358

Total financial need: $50,002

Estimated financial aid package: $50,002
-Middlebury scholarship: $45,202
-Student loan: $3,000
-Campus job: $1,800

OP, please run the net price calculators yourself. Likely your DD will qualify for significant financial aid at schools that pledge to meet full need. No college really expects you to sell the family home in order to pay for college.

So if your parents left you a million dollars and you did not own a home, ld that change how you looked at the inheritance?

Would you have put 100K aside for each child and called it a "college fund"

Anonymous wrote:Yup. Be grateful that you have this immense asset, not angry that you can't have them AND the fancy education too. If you decide you'd rather have the fancy education then you can make that happen. But the only people who really can have it all are the people who can genuinely afford it all. We mere mortals have to make hard choices.

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