<p>One thing I am not clear on - with the older sisters having gone to college and having college loans, how did they not know what the efc would be? Maybe they were working off an old number from when the mom was in grad school?</p>
<p>" But I know I wouldn’t want to live the life of the person with the 0 EFC. They might “win” in one sense, but that’s a win I’m glad I can’t claim".</p>
<p>Good way of looking at it. I still feel that the EFC formulas are not fair or utterly outdated. As it has been discussed, 100K in Boston is not 100K in Texas or Utah. The mortgage families have in these locations are probably drastically different. And yet FA does not take in consideration the mortgage a family pays, right? So, while you can buy a 4 br home for 200K in Texas, for the same money in Boston you could probably qualify for a mobile home. So in order for the family in Boston to meet their EFC they need to live in a shack or rent because owning a 2-3 br home would be considered extravagance. Something is not quite right here! Do the FA formulas consider the standard of living by location?</p>
<p>^^ no they don’t</p>
<p>[Don’t assume credit card debt is for luxury items. In our case we use the CC to meet basic monthly expenses–food, utilities, medical. Then we pay it off each year when my H gets his bonus. Two old cars with over 100,000 miles. Bonus was unusually high this year–figures, with a senior applying!!–HCOL area, extremely high rated public schools. No gardener, no housekeeper. I go over the bills every month to see if there is any other place to trim.
Our plans for college, we have about 20K per year set aside. We were going to sell the house. No longer in the cards given the market. Given the fact that we were going to sell, and that it is an extremely old house we used home equity to make needed repairs. Needs a new roof too but we were just going to sell it as is; take the hit on the selling price. Had significant unexpected medical expenses too–we have insurance but thousands not paid for because the procedure required travelling to a teaching hospital. Repairs done the year before college. Medical expenses came after and were not part of the plan. Trying to take on work, but that may not be possible in this economy.
That being said, because of the high bonus, we expect aid to be 0. Last year’s EFC would have possibly? led to 30K aid. Who knows really?
So the best laid plans don’t always pan out.
That being said our senior with good stats applied to some Ivies, some highly selective need only schools and schools 2-3 tiers down with merit aid.Also flagship state which he’s in with merit money $12k and honors. Also applied to Tufts and similarly selective schools. After this post, and our EFC we don’t expect aid. Hoping for merit though from schools.
It does seem that other countries–England. EC. Canada have an approach that nationalizes merit awards.<br>
Don’t know if some schools insitutional methodology factors in HLOC. But that is a source of frustration.
Also we moved to this district for the schools, thus high taxes. Don’t regret it. Certainly part of the reason for kid’s(at he moment certainly not a darling btw) high scores.
And don’t get me wrong–in these economic times I’m grateful for the unusual bonus–believe me it’s sacry to see the medical bills–and because of the bonus we won’t go under because of them. But everything has gone up the past two years, utilities, gas, food, cable, newspapers. We scrimp but you can’t get blood from a stone. We’d be ok if we could sell the house. And we’ll be ok because we’ve already got options. But we have friends who are reeling from this. And they are the fortunate ones. They have their jobs, health etc. But their kids did not apply to financial safeties and may not be able to go. And may not get into the state schools because the numbers are way up.</p>
<p>fastfactfollies, Is the rate on your credit card debt low enough that it doesn’t make sense to take out a (tax deductible) HELOC, or use the college savings to pay it down then take out PLUS loans? (I’m guessing you have a good rate; you sound like you are paying attention to the details.)</p>
<p>[Don’t assume credit card debt is for luxury items. In our case we use the CC to meet basic monthly expenses–food, utilities, medical. Then we pay it off each year when my H gets his bonus. Two old cars with over 100,000 miles. Bonus was unusually high this year–figures, with a senior applying!!–HCOL area, extremely high rated public schools. No gardener, no housekeeper. I go over the bills every month to see if there is any other place to trim.
Our plans for college, we have about 20K per year set aside. We were going to sell the house. No longer in the cards given the market. Given the fact that we were going to sell, and that it is an extremely old house we used home equity to make needed repairs. Needs a new roof too but we were just going to sell it as is; take the hit on the selling price. Had significant unexpected medical expenses too–we have insurance but 6k not paid for because the procedure required travelling to a teaching hospital. Repairs done the year before college. Medical expenses came after and were not part of the plan. Trying to take on work, but that may not be possible in this economy.
That being said, because of the high bonus, we expect aid to be 0. Last year’s EFC would have possibly? led to 30K aid. Who knows really?
So the best laid plans don’t always pan out.
That being said our senior with good stats applied to some Ivies, some highly selective need only schools and schools 2-3 tiers down with merit aid.Also flagship state which he’s in with merit money $12k and honors. Also applied to Tufts and similarly selective schools. After this post, and our EFC we don’t expect aid. Hoping for merit though from schools.
It does seem that other countries–England. EC. Canada have an approach that nationalizes merit awards.<br>
Don’t know if some schools insitutional methodology factors in HLOC. But that is a source of frustration.
Also we moved to this district for the schools, thus high taxes. Don’t regret it. Certainly part of the reason for kid’s(at he moment certainly not a darling btw) high scores.
And don’t get me wrong–in these economic times I’m grateful for the unusual bonus–believe me it’s sacry to see the medical bills–and because of the bonus we won’t go under because of them. But everything has gone up the past two years, utilities, gas, food, cable, newspapers. We scrimp but you can’t get blood from a stone. We’d be ok if we could sell the house. And we’ll be ok because we’ve already got options. But we have friends who are reeling from this. And they are the fortunate ones. They have their jobs, health etc. But their kids did not apply to financial safeties and may not be able to go. And may not get into the state schools because the numbers are way up.</p>
<p>Can you still get a HELOC? We are about to look into refinancing–consolidating our home equity and mortgage–our mortgage payments are high because we took out a 15 year (down to 10 years) since H is near 60…</p>
<p>I suppose that depends on where you are and your current circumstances. Perhaps you could roll the credit card debt into the refi (which we are also looking into). I hope you get some good results from the applications.</p>
<p>It was our understanding that if you applied ED, you were saying that you would attend that school, regardless of the financial aid package received.</p>
<p>We did not let our kid apply ED anywhere because we knew cost WAS an issue for us. We could not say our kid would attend a $50,000-a-year cost-of-attendance school, if accepted, without knowing what kind of financial aid he would receive.</p>
<p>Unless we misunderstood what an ED application meant, this situation is not Tufts’ fault. You were wrong to have applied ED.</p>
<p>I’m hoping the OP comes back and posts an update. I’m curious about how receptive colleges are to special circumstances.</p>
<p>Just an aside and a minor clarification…Whatever4 - I believe some schools allow for ED conditional on FIN AID package but require early submission of estimates to create same.</p>
<p>And, having followed this thread, I wish with all my heart that there was a way in THIS country to have university education “FREE” and performance-based…Or at least free for every student that meets some predetermined benchmark of excellence…Without compromising the outstanding quality that exists among our world-class institutions…Yes, I realize that the middle (and upper) class would in truth be paying for it with taxes…and that this idea flies in the face of the privates…and that even countries that used to TRY to do this end up cutting somewhere…But it just seems that it would be a better world if irrespective of class we could give every excellent student in this country the freedom to study wherever they wish…in whatever state…in whatever style suited them. I can’t help but wonder if this wouldn’t fuel the kind of research and innovation that could restore and invigorate the global economy.</p>
<p>There, I’ll get off the soapbox now : )
Thanks for listening.
K</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Admission can be declined if the college’s offer “makes attendance not possible.”</p>
<p>Will update later this week- we have a conference call with the Tufts director of Financial Services (valuable lesson- a student contacting the college always gets more attention than a parent)</p>
<p>Good luck, Romeboards. I hope they can come through with enough aid to make it manageable for you and your family.</p>
<p>good luck romeboards - credit to you for hanging in there with this thread - I’d say you took a little bit of a beating, some went a little over the top. Let us know how it turns out.</p>
<p>Wow, just read this thread, alot of assumptions about the OP was unfair. Boy the old sure know how to eat their young.
150,000 in the suburbs of NY is very modest, and by no means rich. Property taxes are high and many hardworking people, firemen, nurses, teachers and police officers are in that range in a 2 income family. Alot of it may also include overtime, especially if you are in the healthcare/human service industry. Most families in that range do send their kids to public schools, take modest vacations if at all. So Most of you are dead wrong in your assumptions. Also many of us have taken care of an elderly parent or 2. These salaries come up over time not conistenly year in and year out.
I started goung to these financial college planning workshops when my D was 2 years old. They ALL said, don’t let finances dictate where you apply. That was always the MANTRA. I guess they were all wrong and we were all stupid for listening.</p>
<p>I am glad rome’s mom reponded and gave some perspective on the situation.
You are very lucky to have such a thoughtful, caring son. Best of luck and keep us posted.</p>
<p>
No, they weren’t wrong and we weren’t stupid. The problem is that they said don’t let finances dictate where you apply. Many of us heard, “Don’t let finances dictate where you apply because if you get in they’ll make it affordable.” Two very different statements. </p>
<p>You don’t let finances dictate where you apply, as long as you realize that you may or may not get sufficient financial aid to let you go there. If you go into any of these processes with a realistic view, you are much less likely to be disappointed.</p>
<p>BTW, the mantra at all these workshops (at least for the past 5 years or so) and on CC has also been, “Do NOT apply ED if financial aid may be an issue.”</p>
<p>“'d hazard a guess that most families making 150K do have a housekeeper, and that most who live in a suburban home have a gardener.”</p>
<p>you are wrong</p>
<p>Most ED commitments do have an escape clause if the student and family will not or cannot pay. It’s just that if a school like Tufts that does meet 100% of need is not going to come up with a dime, it is unlikely a student is going to get need elsewhere. Hopefully, the OP has some schools on tap with much lower sticker prices and/or merit awards that he gets that can make it affordable.</p>
<p>For people who are interested- Financial Services was able to reconsider and in light of new data (pension only show up as “earned” taxable income, among other “special conditions” which they were not immediately made aware of), Tufts was able to make a revised offer that met our expectations and financial abilities. Lessons learned:</p>
<p>-ALWAYS be proactive even if it doesnt seem possible
-Applying ED showed the college that we were interested and willing to make the commitment, and that actually helped a lot.
-If you think something was not right, it is always possible to clarify
-The raw numbers are indicative for very little, and often they don’t show financial realities that need to be taken into account. </p>
<p>Thank you very much for all the help and support. I can vaguely answer any questions on the process we took as advice for college-goers present and future.</p>
<p>Congratulations, romeboards! It is wonderful that you will be able to afford to attend your top choice school. Best wishes for your time at Tufts.</p>