How 100k can leave you with little ability to pay for college

[ucbalumnus]

@Ohiodad51

In particular, I really feel that people who are sitting on vastly inflated real estate, like my old roomie in San Jose whose house is now worth several times what he paid for it, can get killed because their paper assets are well beyond what they can reasonably afford without taking on debt.

If your buddy’s kids go to a college that uses only FAFSA (like state universities in California), the home equity will not affect their FA.

[gearmom]

There is NEVER any winning with these threads. Plenty of people in a donut hole and unable to afford a range of colleges for whatever reason.

[austinmshauri]

Empireapple: emilybee…good for you. Glad you are happy funding free college for those who make up to 125K a year. Many New Yorkers are not. It’s a tough pill to swallow to work incredibly hard to pay for your own children to go to college. We didn’t sign on to pay for other’s as well.

SUNY colleges aren’t free, @Empireapple. I don’t know why you keep insisting that they are. It’s not helpful for you to continue to post inaccurate information on CC. You’re going to mislead people.

SUNY’s tuition is ~$20k. The maximum Excelsior Grant is ~$6k. $20,000 - $6000 does NOT equal $0.

[ucbalumnus]

http://www.stonybrook.edu/undergraduate-admissions/cost-and-financial-aid/ says that SUNY Stony Brook in-state tuition is $6,870 plus fees of $2,718 ($9,588 added together). But add in room, board, books, transportation and it becomes $26,054 cost of attendance for in-state. Looks like Excelsior is up to $5,500.