The issue is not their current income. obviously they can't spend their gross income on tuition each year. however, even with 4 in school at once, they will be expected to pay a lot. this means using savings (past income) or borrowing (future income). They may need to stop retirement savings for the 4 years.
have they no savings just for this? or did they save everything in their 401(k)s?
$20 a year is not bad. you each take the $5500 loan, your parents the rest and pay it off quickly? Remember, once you all are done, they have no more tuitions to pay! so they can make up the retirement savings then.
mom2collegekidsForum Champion Financial Aid, Forum Champion AlabamaPosts: 83,634Forum Champion
Please ask them how much they will spend per child per year. $10K per child per year? more? less? You need a number to work with.
Ask your parents if their retirement savings is in something like a 401k (a retirement acct), or if the money is just in personal savings/investments. That will make a HUGE difference.
What types of jobs do your parents have? Do they own a business or take business deductions?
The potential problems are:
1) the parents' retirement isn't protected in actual retirement accounts
2) the parents may have careers where they take business deductions
3) they may have properties with equity
4) CSS Profile "full need" schools don't split 25/25/25/25...they'll split something like 30/30/30/30.
5) one or more of the quads may not get into a "full need school".
6) one of more of the quads may get into a school that claims to "meet need," but is far less generous than the other brothers' schools. (the parents don't want to spend more on one child than the others, but some "full need" schools have reputations of not being very generous. G'twn and JHU are sort of known for not being especially generous, while Princeton is known for being VERY generous.
Their money is in a retirement account, neither own a business.
Tbh, whatever I don't get in aid, I'm probably just gonna take out as loans. That way, my parents don't have to pay.
katliamomRegistered UserPosts: 12,167Senior Member
YOU can only borrow about $5000 per year. Your parents will have to cosign any loans above that... x 4 kids... that would add up to enormous loans they would have to assume responsibility for (in case you/your siblings can't pay.)
menloparkmomRegistered UserPosts: 12,519Senior Member
edited May 2016
you as a student CANT take out more than approx 5000/ year. CANT!
The ONLY way to get more loans is for your parents to sign for the loans, which means they will be on the hook for them, even if you dont graduate or even die.
The BEST course of action is for you and your siblings to CAST A WIDE NET for merit scholarships, and that means applying to colleges far down the list from "elite" or Ivy" colleges. I'd recommend that you ALL retake the ACT to see if you can get the scores up as far as possible.
There are LOTS of Universities that will PAY you and/ or your bros to go to college.
U of Alabama offers FULL TUITION scholarships to OOS students with ACT's of 30 and above and full tuition and room and board for ACT scores of 34+
menloparkmomRegistered UserPosts: 12,519Senior Member
you need to run the NPC's at each "elite" college with 4 going to equally expensive colleges at the same time.
You "might" be able to land Merit scholarships at U of Chicago, now that they no longer use the Profile FA application[ as I understand it] unlike the other top colleges, which use the profile and take a harder look at your parents assets.
One cant get a better education or go to a more prestigious U than the U of Chicago, imho. .
Pick a couple and apply and see. At some of the more generous schools, with FOUR students in college at the same time...you could garner significant enough need based aid to make it work...even with $200,000 a year in income.
I went to college in southeastern Ohio...and I'm trying to figure out where you could live where the cost of living is HIGH. I can't come up with one town where that would be the case.
Replies to: Is it possible for quadruplets to get large amounts of aid from top 20 schools?
have they no savings just for this? or did they save everything in their 401(k)s?
$20 a year is not bad. you each take the $5500 loan, your parents the rest and pay it off quickly? Remember, once you all are done, they have no more tuitions to pay! so they can make up the retirement savings then.
Ask your parents if their retirement savings is in something like a 401k (a retirement acct), or if the money is just in personal savings/investments. That will make a HUGE difference.
What types of jobs do your parents have? Do they own a business or take business deductions?
The potential problems are:
1) the parents' retirement isn't protected in actual retirement accounts
2) the parents may have careers where they take business deductions
3) they may have properties with equity
4) CSS Profile "full need" schools don't split 25/25/25/25...they'll split something like 30/30/30/30.
5) one or more of the quads may not get into a "full need school".
6) one of more of the quads may get into a school that claims to "meet need," but is far less generous than the other brothers' schools. (the parents don't want to spend more on one child than the others, but some "full need" schools have reputations of not being very generous. G'twn and JHU are sort of known for not being especially generous, while Princeton is known for being VERY generous.
Tbh, whatever I don't get in aid, I'm probably just gonna take out as loans. That way, my parents don't have to pay.
The ONLY way to get more loans is for your parents to sign for the loans, which means they will be on the hook for them, even if you dont graduate or even die.
The BEST course of action is for you and your siblings to CAST A WIDE NET for merit scholarships, and that means applying to colleges far down the list from "elite" or Ivy" colleges. I'd recommend that you ALL retake the ACT to see if you can get the scores up as far as possible.
Start your search here;
http://competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com/
and here
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
There are LOTS of Universities that will PAY you and/ or your bros to go to college.
U of Alabama offers FULL TUITION scholarships to OOS students with ACT's of 30 and above and full tuition and room and board for ACT scores of 34+
But you will need to apply by DEC 1.
You "might" be able to land Merit scholarships at U of Chicago, now that they no longer use the Profile FA application[ as I understand it] unlike the other top colleges, which use the profile and take a harder look at your parents assets.
One cant get a better education or go to a more prestigious U than the U of Chicago, imho. .
I went to college in southeastern Ohio...and I'm trying to figure out where you could live where the cost of living is HIGH. I can't come up with one town where that would be the case.
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/