<p>We paid 100% for son at private.
We are currently paying 100% for daughter at private.</p>
<p>100% at private</p>
<p>I’m still trying to figure out the point of this thread. Is somebody going to tabulate it? And if so, what does it mean?</p>
<p>I just wouldn’t want new parents/lurkers going away thinking “everyone” (note the quote marks) pays 100% so they must figure out a way to. :(</p>
<p>weenie: That’s why I post about it.</p>
<p>Good point weenie. It might be more useful if people said how they were manging to pay these huge amounts–savings, loans, belt-tightening, money from grandparents, etc. In our case, the profits from the sale of a business allowed us to set up an education trust fund, so we would have had enough for the full undergrad cost. Since dear son chose a less expensive option, he’ll have money for grad school. I would think most people couldn’t pay full fare for even one kid without substantial saving or borrowing.</p>
<p>We’re paying about 50% of our Son’s coa at a small private. He has merit aid for the other 50%. We did the same with our daughter. Both colleges noted that approximately 90% of the students were offered aid and made it clear that this was not all need based.</p>
<p>We pay 20% COA, S got 50% merit aid (renewable ea. year), and then he’s got 15% loan and 15% w/s. </p>
<p>We’ll have four kids in college, w/ eldest in graduate school, at the same time for four years so things will change a lot in the next couple years. We will not pay, or help (unless they beg, on their knees, with promises of de-fleaing the dogs) with graduate school costs though. They’re on their own, entirely, for that.</p>
<p>I don’t think this thread is pointless – I find it interesting. There is just so much that goes into the decision on where the kiddies will attend that it’s not possible to convey the machinations in a sentence or two. We all come from such different socio-economic backgrounds & such different value systems. Within families we often will offer different opportunities to each child because we see a pattern of rising to the occasion or slacking or something in between. Then we throw in our OWN prejudices & biases & preferences. Even Curmudgeon was tempted by the allure of Yale before his D found the perfect fit both in terms of program & cost. (Wasn’t he surgically prepped & ready to have a kidney removed to finance that tuition?)</p>
<p>As my 16 year old D gets closer to the decision, I’m trying to wrap my mind around the idea of $50K COA for the ideal school that has emerged from the pack. She wants to study something that’s not available everywhere, & the admissions rates are tiny. The chase for merit money is tougher in this area, so H & I are handling it like that colonoscopy you know you should get, but keep ignoring.</p>
<p>I like the thread and I’m reassured! I thought we were the only ones paying 100% with all the great talk of scholarships etc.<br>
Our kids were fortunate to have educational trusts set up by grandparents. However, a lot of my son’s had to be used pre-college, for various reasons, and we are running out of funds. We may take a stab at applying for financial aid for next year, although it is a long shot. There will need to be loans and I will be working until I am 95. D got through Rice on her educational trust (plus two years of Interlochen).</p>
<p>What I’m gathering from this thread is that ;</p>
<ol>
<li>The CC community in general is very educated and education savvy.</li>
<li>The CC kids in general are very bright and ambitious about their choices.</li>
<li>The CC community is very affluent in general.</li>
<li>Nothing short of Divine providence is going to make options outside of State U reasonably attainable for my S. Not because he isn’t bright enough, but we fall in that middle class conundrum of making (not having) too much for Fed Aid, but probably not enough to meet our probable EFC regardless of merit and institutional aid.</li>
</ol>
<p>Not being pessimistic, but trying to temper our expectations for the probability of S attending one of the several selective schools he is interested in. Not that we are stuck on “Bumper Sticker U” per se, S just wanted to look into selective schools options that were highly regarded in his interested courses of study. Very informative and humbling to say the least the information shared here.</p>
<p>Duke. 100%, except $2500 NM. Ouch.</p>
<p>Paying approx. 70% of D’s private
– much of my monthly take-home salary goes directly to the university’s coffers… the rest comes out of a home equity loan.</p>
<p>madville, unless you are convinced that only Ivy and a few others are sufficiently highly regarded for your son’s interests, you have come away from this thread unduly pessimistic, I think. If your son has a record that makes him competitive for admission to non-merit schools, then he might be a candidate for a large merit award at high-ranking schools that do offer merit scholarships.</p>
<p>My son (not his parents) chose not to apply to most of the usual suspects for a kid with a hs record like his, and concentrated on schools that might offer him a great deal. He was successful, and attends a top-20 private on a scholarship of nearly $40K/yr. The school has been extremely flexible with regard to his curriculum and has made it clear his happiness matters to them.</p>
<p>If we were sitting on a trust fund, other inherited money, had many years of high income behind us, and no more children to send to college, he may have made a different choice. As it is, he will graduate from a well-known school at which he has already become well known to several full profs, will have multiple undergrad degrees and probably a master’s in his primary field (in four years), no debt whatever, all of his own college savings intact and he will get a portion of the savings we had ready for him. Complete freedom to do whatever he wants, wherever he wants. And the satisfaction that he paid for it himself.</p>
<p>Consider all of your options.</p>
<p>We pay 66% of COA for an OOS public. The 34% is merit aid and a small need based grant. We pay for the 66% with a combination of loans and by using our College Illinois (pre-paid tuition) fund.</p>
<p>Midmo, thanks for the reply. It is just that in reading most of the posts, I make an assumption that these others are just as talented, if not more so than my S. I don’t know their economic particulars but they are paying a lot of jack. Not being pessimistic, just trying to be real. Having not been through this process before from an academic perspective, (older D is a student athlete and got a full ride) it is hard to gauge how our particular situation will translate into affordability. Here in Ohio, public U sticker prices are close to $18k-$20+k.
Trust me, we have spent so much time in trying to find a school that fits most of his preferences across the board. I have WAY, WAY more time than money, lol! State U isn’t a bad option at all, but for what S wants to study, and where he would prefer to study, the other instate schools aren’t matching up as well. I have cross referenced many sources of information with regards to the programs which are highly regarded in my S area of interest. Only a couple are here instate and he’s applying to one of those. Many of the others are selective LAC’s and the rest are OOS schools, which jack the sticker price up. Your post gives me a little more hope, but I’m not much more than guardedly optimistic.</p>
<p>For DS: About 50% of tuition for first 2 years at State U (merit $ is great), probably 100% for last 2 years.</p>
<p>For DD1 (senior in HS): Will pay about 33% for tuition for first 2 years at State U, she already has a merit award.</p>
<p>For S1: 0% at State U (50% outside scholarship, 50% merit scholarships from the school)</p>
<p>For S2: (h.s. senior) anticipating 100% at State U. (turning down the chance to play football w/money from small private u’s.)</p>
<p>Isn’t this thread looking for data on Private schools only??</p>
<p>MOWC–like you, this thread makes me feel a little better. I was also starting to feel like we were in a very small minority that pays 100%. Have wondered if we really missed the boat, lol.</p>
<p>My son is a freshman at NYU. He received a 30K scholarship to go there. I think it is a combination of merit and need. In other words, he has the need and merits the award by his grades, etc. His perkins and stafford loans are 5900 for this year. I’m paying whatever the rest is. I’d peg my contribution at around 13000, so that would be around 25% of the COA for this year. My EFC was 12000</p>
<p>I am paying my portion out of savings.</p>