Not necessarily. Net price is often EFC plus the assumed self-help (student loan plus student work). So (for example), a college may list an EFC of $30,000, then assume a $5,500 student loan and $3,500 of student work earnings for a net price of $39,000. If the AFC is only $20,000, then the remaining $19,000 is likely too much for the student to contribute on his/her own.
Cost for college education is hard to swollen for most people. It would be hard to save “enough” money for that particularly if you have 2 kids or more. I did plan for that when my kids were very little or just born. If without merit aids, the first kid would use up all the saving even just for an in state public college. Because of that, we did invest time on PSAT preparation and other merit aid opportunities early on. Getting college education is a very complicated game and it may be too late if you are totally unprepared before kids going to high school.
Great way of saying and putting it in proper perspective.
This is exactly what happens when a market, which was once unsubsidized, becomes a subsidized one. Liberalized loans (include grants here) made it so that schools have little incentive to contain costs and compete. No need to contain and compete if the money can be gotten without any justification if the loan can be paid back.
Here is an interesting comparison: my new car in college in the early 80s would cost me only a 110% more today for a similar type car, which is much safer too. That is actually below the rate of inflation really due to more efficient manufacturing - exactly how a competitive market naturally works. Yet my same college, which has no incentive to improve processes due to liberalized loans, would cost me 520% more today for the exact same product, which is relatively no better than what I received. That is actually an economic loss on two fronts compared to the car.
" my new car in college in the early 80s would cost me only a 110% more today for a similar type car, which is much safer too" - Interesting comparison idea, but current cost sounds low. Which model? I think my 1984 Honda Civic (automatic, AC) was around $7000. DH had a nicer 1984 VW Sirocco that cost around $10,000.
What is her Math + CR score? Will she test again? Will she also take the ACT? She’s only a junior, so she has time to increase scores and get large merit at some schools. Debt may not be needed AT ALL.
my fulltime tuion in the mid 80s was $350. That same university’s full time tuition today is almost $9000. I wish salaries had increased equivalently. 
College tuition have at least tripled since I attended an Ivy in the 1980s. Cost of textbooks has not even doubled on average. Price of gas right now is just about double as well. Many college instructors are not tenure track and make perhaps double what they would have in the 1980s.
We have saved very little for college, but own most of our house so will be paying from our HELOC and using a 10-month tuition payment plan (small fee, like 50 bucks, and no interest). Our mortgage payment will go from very low to several thousand per month once he is done with college.
It is highly likely my son will have to transfer to a SUNY (our in-state is more costly) if the elderly relatives we are financially responsible for take a bad turn, like needing a nursing home or so on.
Perhaps the most frustrating thing about the cost of college increasing is that so many kids end up dropping out of college, and still owe the student loans they took out. And high enrollment is the goal, not high freshman retention and high graduation rates,
Also - if she is interested in any major at RPI, they have a Rensselaer medal which gives a substantial merit award. It is for juniors to apply to, one per high school. I don’t know how much they consider SAT scores though. I think it would be VERY important for your daughter to meet with her GC as soon as possible and go through a list of colleges that have special awards that juniors should apply for. Also contact your state colleges NOW to find out if there are any special programs she might be eligible for. Some for example might require a summer program between junior and senior year.
^^^ not to be nosy but if your elderly relatives need a nursing home that can be covered by Medicaid if they are lacking funds. - @rhandco
OP, Wells College, along Cayuga Lake in upstate NY, has a really cool book arts program. They also have a leadership scholarship of $10K per year that is offered to one student per h.s. The GC nominates the student in junior year. If a student ends up applying to Wells, any additional merit aid would be stacked on top. We liked our visit to Wells, and they have cross-registration with Cornell, which is a plus. Also looked at Alfred U, which is amazing in the arts. My D applied to both schools and received very generous merit awards. Both also announce acceptance and merit aid decisions very quickly in the fall. I can’t begin to tell you what a relief it was for my daughter to have 2 affordable options before the holidays!
Not wishing to hijack this thread but a relative needs to spend Dow all of their own assets first to be Medicaid eligible. Even with that, some families prefer to be private pay for skilled nursing care. While there isn’t supposed to be a difference…the reality is that some of the nicer skilled care places have limited Medicaid beds.
Carry on.
I’d highly encourage having her try ACTs like others have mentioned - my 3rd did ok-ish on SAT but ACT she really did much better - which put her in line for some pretty great merit scholarships. Take a look at that merit college thread - back from the very beginning (it’s been a bit off topic for the last few months)
@twinmom2014 I think that poster once mentioned that she has a relative or relatives that are here illegally or maybe came too late to have paid into SS. If so, then not likely eligible for medicaid. And in many cases, medicaid isn’t enough to put a family member into a decent place.
That said, I don’t understand the thinking of going from low/no house payment to several thousand a month when there are less expensive options with either merit or, as mentioned, a SUNY. It seems especially risky and questionable to possibly end up with lots of debt from a “name” school, but NO DEGREE from that school if the student has to transfer out midway and go to a “lesser school”.
I’d just like to chime in with some words of encouragement. We were faced with a similar conundrum with our older son a few years back. Although we had saved money for both of our kids, our savings fell far short of the private school price tags. He was accepted into several private universities (including one ivy) where we would be nearly full pay and some state schools with merit based scholarships which made them much more affordable choices. In the end, we decided that graduating debt-free from undergrad would make the college experience much less stressful for all of us and have never regretted the decision.
Our choice to send him to an OOS state university where he got a full-ride merit scholarship freed up money for study abroad and other interesting experiences throughout his college years. I must confess, it was most difficult to pass up the ivy league offer, but ultimately, we believe we are teaching our son important life lessons about living within one’s means and exercising financial responsibility. He has thrived within the school’s honors program, has wonderful friends and seems very content at this point midway through his junior year. I firmly believe that he is an exceptional young man who will achieve whatever he sets out to do regardless of where he went to college.
Our younger son is a HS senior now and we are planning to employ the same strategy with him. He will go to whatever school we can best afford and we did not even bother applying to any privates this time around. He is fine with this as his brother set a good example for him. Rather than feeling guilty, I am proud to have raised such mature, reasonable young men.
I hope my story helps you and that your family comes to a decision you can all be at peace with. Good luck!!!
@colorado_mom - Nice catch. Thank you!
I was thinking so fast I typed the wrong number. I meant 210%, which is still less than the cost of inflation over the 31 years. I can buy a similar car for just over 2X and my college costs went up over 5X. The point stays the same though. Thanks again.
EDIT: A real interesting way to view it is my full four years of a top notch college PLUS the car cost me less than one year for either of my DSs WITHOUT a car. That strikes me as just wrong because college is clearly a bastardized market.
You are right, aw - college costs have far outpaced almost everything. I’ve often thought there could be an interesting index for cost of average car vs salary that year for new teachers.
^^ To be accurate, I am really only riding the coattails of @GMTplus7 on this topic. It had crossed my mind before, but it was not until a thread by said poster a few months back did I really break it down and realized how bad the manipulation of the market really is.
Gees, time is a flying. I just realized I bought that car over 32 years ago, going on 33, not 31.
What is her unweighted GPA? She should definitely toss an application early to Potsdam, which is SAT optional (and can be a financial safety) . If she can raise her scores just a smidgen, she could apply for the Mt. Emmons Scholarship
http://www.potsdam.edu/admissions/financial/types/scholarships/mt_emmons.cfm
I also think you should run your numbers through the net price calculator, go big and Toss an application to Barnard. Also tell your daughter don’t sleep on the Womens colleges; Mt Holyoke, Bryn Mawr and Smith, which give merit $
Let her apply to schools she’s interested in with the caveat that merit $$$ needs to come through (in combination with Stafford loans). If she can bump up her SAT a bit, she’ll be a contender at many schools. Key though is the CR + Math score (Writing matters less). She may even get merit $$ from the SUNYs - my kids both got offered $4K a year from Stony Brook and my D got offered $$$ from Albany. This in combination w/ Honors College invites made them real contenders.
Take a look at some of the LAC colleges in Pennsylvania - Dickinson, Gettysburg, and Muhlenburg all have nice merit scholarships if your SAT reaches a certain threshold. Ditto Hobart & William Smith in upstate NY. I’ve had friends whose kids got sizable grants from Bard, too.
Lastly, once she’s got all of her apps out and is waiting for results, aggressively apply for outside scholarships. This will be senior year. There are tons out there, some with quirky requirements that might just surprise you. Most of these are 1 year only, but they help with that first year when you’re also buying new laptops, dorm stuff, mini fridges, printers, etc. We were quite successful.
Good luck.
I wish the SUNY schools did not have such a stigma. I graduated decades ago and have done pretty well. Nobody cares where I went to school anymore. I had my kids apply to Bing and Brockport even though we were OOS. Bing was a real contender for awhile.
A generation or few ago, college for the non-wealthy was already subsidized – the low cost (to the student) state universities were subsidized by state governments. Many of the privates were largely out-of-reach for those from non-wealthy families to begin with, and they certainly did not have enough capacity to educate all of those who could usefully put college education to enriching the society and economy as a whole afterward.