Okay so my bros and I are good students, and we want to go to prestigious universities. I want to go to Georgetown/ Princeton, another wants to go to John Hopkins, another to Yale, and the last one to Duke. But, we can’t go to those schools (assuming we get in, I know chances are slim) if the money ain’t right. My parents make around 200k a year (together), but there is no way they can pay that kind of money.
Additional info:
We live in southwest Ohio (cost of living is fairly high)
We are African American
My parents have around 1mill saved up for retirement.
@ucbalumnus I ran the numbers at Georgetown and I would get around $45000 in aid, which would leave like 20,000 to pay. Which is better than nothing I guess, but probably more than we can afford.
@TomSrOfBoston, Holdup. I thought retirement funds aren’t considered in financial aid allotment, and that parents aren’t expected to dip into those funds. Also, clarification, my parents make around 200k together, they don’t each make 200k.
Well, my parents are like “we have to save for retirement so we won’t be a finiacial burden when we are older” (I get that). Also, they don’t want to pay significantly more for one than the others, then want to be fair. In a perfect world, we would get full rides to our top schools, but this isn’t a perfect world. @mom2collegekids
I realize nothing is free, especially an education, but my parents can’t afford to 200k in tuition a year… That’s their joint income so…and yes, I plan to contribute, I’ll get a job (I have one) work study, whatever is necessary.
You will likely get substantial aid but your parents will have to pay a lot too. At some schools you may qualify for merit aid, but not at the ones you listed.
If the retirement funds are in a protected account (IRA, 401k) the corpus of those funds are not considered but the amounts contributed in the last year are. Your parents could be putting $30-40k into those accounts and that would be considered income. When you run the NPC, you need to know that amount. You could try to figure out the ‘family’ EFC for a family of 6 with $200k in income, and then divide that by 4 for each of your federal EFC. That will tell you if you’ll get federal aid (unfortunately, with an income of $200k, probably not).
You all need to work together to figure how much the parents can contribute for each child. If they think that’s $10k per year ($40k total per year), that’s the budget you have to live with.
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.
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:
the parents’ retirement isn’t protected in actual retirement accounts
the parents may have careers where they take business deductions
one or more of the quads may not get into a “full need school”.
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.