My parents have been saving for my college since I was born in an instate plan. My grades are looking really good and I have begun to think about harder, more expensive private universities such as Stanford, where it would cost a grand total around $270,000 for all four years based on the sticker price. My parents both work and make good money, so we don’t envision qualifying for much, if any, financial aid. However, we can’t just drop potentially 500k on both my sister and my education, who will be starting college two years after me, without batting an eye.
We would obviously love to avoid loans, but haven’t ruled them out. We’ve looked at scholarships, but how much can that bring the cost down to a level that would compete with an instate school that costs closer to 100k? Additionally, I’ve heard that you never pay the sticker price for private schools, but is thus true? and how much would be discounted?
For Stanford, run the online NPC. This will tell you how much Stanford will cost your family. Run it with just you in college and then run it for two in college to see what happens once your sister is in college.
The other option is to target schools that offer merit scholarships for a student with your stats. Read the links in the financial aid forum for some suggestions. The best scholarship money comes from the colleges. You can check the Common Data Set for colleges that interest you to see how many merit scholarships are awarded and the average size of these scholarships.
This process requires research. People on CC can be very helpful, but you need to decide on your preferences (location, major,size, etc.) and know your budget.
Stanford doesn’t really give merit aid. If you don’t qualify for need based aid, you won’t get any aid at all. No “discount” there…unless maybe you are a number one quarterback.
You need to research VERY carefully. Schools like the Ivy League, Stanford, MIT, etc…many only offer need based aid.
I have to ask…what is the matter with graduating debt free from one of the public universities in your state?
ETA…
Who told you this? It’s simply not uniformly true.
I've heard that you never pay the sticker price for private schools, but is thus true?
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NO, that’s not true. My sister paid sticker price at top privates for both her sons…and for 3 years they were in school at the same time…so she was paying over $100k each of those years.
There are a good number of students who do NOT qualify for ANY aid.
Many top schools give no merit…or they give “targetted merit” to students who add diversity to their student body.
Thank you everyone! There is nothing wrong with going to some of the good in state schools I have access to, just exploring my options. I will try all of your suggestions
In case you haven’t found them yet, each college has a Net Price Calculator (NPC) on each of their websites. Usually it is on the “Affording” page or financial aid page. You will want to run those for each school you are interested in. Your parents will need to help, as it asks for info on income and assets. But it gives you an idea of the cost of attendance.
I don’t know what the arrangement is with the in-state plan if you don’t attend that school, and you need to understand that – what happens to the money your parents have paid in if you don’t attend? Pretty sure they wouldn’t want to lose whatever that is. If they do get it back somehow, we could certainly help with suggestions that might be within your budget (if you tell us what that is), but are not your in-state publics. There are a LOT of other options besides in-state publics and the very elite options. You would have to provide info on your stats, home state, major, size & geography preference, etc.
I’ve found that the financial aid offered by the most wealthy and “generous” schools in the country (Ivy, Williams, Amherst, etc.) is really a bit of a myth.
There’s lots of solidly middle class families that won’t get a dime of financial aid from these schools. They have no problem expecting you to spend 60-70% of your net, after tax yearly income on tuition.
For families that don’t qualify for need-based FA at schools like Stanford, you either cough up the entire list price or your shop elsewhere, period. There are no magic founts of big scholarship money.
Honestly, I don’t believe any elite school’s financial aid asks for 60-70% of a family’s income if they are middle class or not (Unless of course they have extravagant savings). My family is middle class (less than 100K income, ok savings) and no school, even the most expensive, wanted more than 25%.
I mostly agree that elite universities have no financial aid for middle class families; it’s only for the poor and lower-middle class. A middle class family (say, household income $175k) simply can’t afford to have two kids in private colleges, unless maybe if they have been saving diligently for years.
If you want to go to Stanford (and it’s a beautiful place, that’s for sure), focus on becoming an outstanding, unique individual with top stats. But make sure to apply to a variety of schools, because getting in to Stanford is like playing the lottery.
I would really like to take a master’s degree in creative writing abroad while working at the same time cause I do not have enough money. What are your advice?