https://www.forbes.com/2011/06/10/college-price-tuition-discrimination.html
As I recall you are a high income family upset that the top schools won’t give you (merit) aid. This article seems to be primarily about merit aid. (I stopped reading after “Now college financial aid budgets are used mainly for “merit-based” aid, which necessarily reduces the available pool of need-based aid.”) Both my kids went to schools that didn’t give merit aid, so we (as a moderately high income family but not 1%-ers) paid full price. Our choice.
You need to accept the situation, that a high stats kid from a well-off family has choices. Those choices do not include getting merit aid from a tippy top school. After all, why would a tippy top school need to give merit aid, when they’ve got far more outstanding students applying than they can accept?
^agreed
High income families with high stats kids have plenty of options.
@ParentofA_student
We get it. You don’t like the costs of some colleges despite having a $260,000 a year income.
And IIRC…your kiddo just got NMF status.
You have lots more options than most people have…you just don’t LIKE the less costly options presented to you.
No one is REQUIRED to attend a $60,000 plus a year college. If cost is such a huge factor…drop all of those schools from your list.
Has your kiddo submitted an application to University of Alabama yet? How about Ole Miss? Alabama would,give her quite the nice guaranteed merit award, and you could pay the balance…which should be affordable on your $260,000 a year earnings.
This article is from 2006. There is nothing new in it.
If you don’t like expensive…and unaffordable to YOU colleges…then tell your daughter she can’t apply, because you won’t pay that amount.
There are THOUSANDS of less expensive options out there…starting with your instate publics.
And YES…your daughter can get an excellent education at a school that isn’t in the top 50 even…especially since you seem very adverse to paying college costs.
ETA…I am sure you enjoy the lifestyle that goes with that $260,000 a year income. Your other option would be for your daughter to take two gap years…and not start college until 2020. Quit your job NOW. Give away all your savings. Sell your house and move into a small apartment…or duplex…or intoma much less costly neighborhood. Do this so that you will have NO income…and NO assets. Apply for food stamps. Your EFC will be an auto $0 if you have no income, and get SNAP. Then have your daughter apply to college for admission in fall 2020. With $0 income in 2018…she will qualfy for need based aid.
But wait…you won’t be able to get a job until her junior year of college…because if you do…subsequent financial aid forms will show that income.
you need to start counting your blessings, and be grateful for what you have. Then look at colleges you CAN and WILL pay for.
I think too many times people assume those getting no financial aid make 260K a year. Yet in reality families making 150K a year get no financial aid as well. There are factors that make that 150K not go so far that can never be reported on FASFA…cost of geographic area where you live, how much you now have to spend for healthcare since the ACA, if you are completely responsible for your retirement (no pension) and other medical costs such as dental that can be extreme. So, before people judge and assume harshly, there are many factors at play. We are also approaching families sending kids to college who are called “recession survivors.” Many of these people are professionals who make good salaries but were only able to cling to remaining employed during the long recession and weren’t able to save for college the way they had if the economy had remained strong. Some were unemployed for a time during those years. Some people had to cash in stocks and savings just to survive. Just because someone is making 150K and up right now doesn’t mean they were making that 5-10+ years ago when they would have liked to have saved for college. There’s really no history of earnings considered - just what you are making right now. In reality, it takes a decade or more of being able to save for college.
I’ve learned so much from reading CC, and have received great advise that has really helped me make better decisions in this steep learning curve for college. When I read responses such as the ones here, it really makes me cautious to post and/or ask questions. The article may be old, but it reminds me of retail business models, some retailers are low price every day, and other have a high markup and then have sales - they cater to different types of shoppers. Learning there are schools with a “low every day” approach was new to me, so I appreciate knowing they’re out there. I know there are plenty of people reading posts and just trying to get a handle on this whole thing.
At $150,000, it depends on the school. There are a handful of tippy tops including HPY that give substantial aid at $150k. There are many privates that don’t. $150k can apply to HPY and afford it. Not necessarily other Ivies that aren’t as generous but would still give aid at $150k.
It’s a family choice. $150k can pay for the state school, especially if some merit aid is mixed in. That family may even be able to cash flow $15,000 or so for room and board, books, and incidentals. I understand the Bay Area, NYC, etc. are high cost and distort expenses but sometime you have to move. It’s a hard choice but it’s an option.
@Empireapple I agree with your post completely.
MODERATOR’S NOTE: This article IS old, so I’m closing the thread.