Columbia financial aid

garland
Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:03:13 +0000

Gotta agree with Roger:



Our society is aspirational, though, and I think many people would prefer to work at the limits of their income in order to maintain an upwardly mobile, if not luxurious, lifestyle. In fact, I’d say all but the most frugal (or destitute) among us have had periods when we spent just about all of our income to have a better house or drive nicer cars. Financial Planning 101 tells you never to do that - rather, you should save first, and then figure out what you can spend on housing, transportation, etc. Most of us don’t do that with sufficient dedication. If one employs that strategy for many years, though, the combination of healthy income and lack of college savings is a killer if the student wants to attend a high-priced college.



My son’s first two years in Columbia, we had an income quite a bit lower than 200K, and somehow managed to survive while paying full price (we live in Northeast Jersey, by the way.) Second two years, income dropped dramatically and we did get aid, but our income minus what we still paid was a fraction of what a 200K income would have left over after paying for school. We chose to live below our means, so that college was within our means. Someone else may choose differently.

Even in NJ/NY, a 200K lifestyle is a choice–and a perfectly reasonable life can be had on much less–most of us live it.