<p>i completely acknowledge that my financial situation is very fortunate. but to think that my parents could afford to pay for a good college education (while sending three other children to school- paying full tuition) is just insane.</p>
<p>My parents make a little over 100k a year, but I go to a public school that does not have very much money. we have some ib classes but it is the only place in several school districts that offers advanced classes, so our school has about 600-700 kids beyond intended capacity. all my classes but 1 has over 40 people, some a great deal more.
I know my school is more fortunate than many others, but I’m not a high school “snob.”
for the record-I haven’t bought new clothes for 3 years and both our family cars are from the 80s, etc, etc. And I’ve still applied to over 40 scholarships because if I don’t win enough, I won’t be able to attend a private college.</p>
<p>well Im not going to tell anyone how to spend their money, but how someone can make $40,000 more than the average income in seattle but can’t buy clothing and has 20 year old cars is beyond me.
Of course if you are talking a classic mercedes, you don’t need a new car, and they* are* expensive to upkeep- we buy cheaper cars, but they only last 12 years max. c’est la vie.</p>
<p>I’m going to have to side with garland. Like everything else on this forum, people tend to have an inflated view on “average.” While the financial aid system isn’t perfect, it’s silly to believe that families earning over $100,000+ should receive a good amount of aid, barring any extenuating circumstances. Yeah, you may not be able to afford your ideal private school, and you may be forced into debt no matter where you go. Join the club. While everyone here tends to rave on about how the poor have this incredible advantage in life because they’ll be attending college for “cheap,” no one in the real world wants to hear about the plight of the children who’s parents make over six figures a year. No one wants to hear the sob stories of the rich parents who HAD to put their children through private school in order for them to get a proper education. While some of you who have parents making in the $100,000+ range may have real problems with paying for your school due to your cost of living, the majority of people who I’ve dealt with have this odd sense of jealousy for the families barely getting by simply because their children will be able to go to school for “cheap.”</p>
<p>um…mercedes, no. my mom and I share an 87 honda accord.</p>
<p>And the reason I don’t buy new clothes is because I need money for college, I work 20 hrs/week so I can at least attend a public one. My parents choose to spend their money on other things (no, not a hummer) like helping my uncle out who’s really sick, which costs a hella lot of money.</p>
<p>Anyway, I never said I should be receiving grants. I just didn’t agree with how some posters seemed to be portraying families who earn 100k as rich snobs who spend all their money on new cars and fancy high schools.</p>
<p>I also have to agree with garland. I count myself very lucky everyday that my parents made choices with their money to enable them to pay for my college and my private school.</p>
<p>A stupid question:–is the EFC meant for one year of college or 4 years?</p>
<p>Ours was 63,000–but don’t know how to interpret that.</p>
<p>EFC is meant per year. </p>
<p>If it came out to 63k that means they expect the family to be able to contribute 63k a year for college, which essentially means full tuition.</p>
<p>Yeah, I thought so. But our situation (like yours, scarletleavy?) is complicated by filing two different tax returns–US and foreign and difficulty reporting information accurately in the FAFSA categories–at least CSS gave you a box to explain more fully. Will the college go by FAFSA or CSS? Or are they free to use both creatively?</p>
<p>Oh our situation is beyond complicated, two incomes in two countries. They just make it so complicated. We never filed the FAFSA or CSS, but I can imagine how difficult it would be. Some colleges use exclusively one or the other, I think some use them both. You would have to check with the school in question to see which one they use.</p>
<p>Hey Pye,</p>
<p>At the school your child your was accepted to they use both (FAFSA and Profile). If your EFC puts you in the full paying category, lets hope that your child can get some merit aid. While merit aid is need sensitive at the school, you never know they may throw a few $$ your way.</p>
<p>My EFC was just a tad bit higher than what I was expecting</p>
<p>Estrella–I think my post was clear, that I was talking about people with high incomes (much higher than yours), whining that they needed their big houses for tax evasion purposes, their private schools because they deserve them, etc, and should still get aid.</p>
<p>That isn’t you–you are not whining for aid, and you are making choices in order to fund what is most important to you–college. That is true of my kids, too. We didn’t qualify for aid, we don 't think we should have, and we have made the lifestyle choices to pay for what is most important to us. </p>
<p>YOu have mature priorities, and you should be proud of yourself.</p>
<p>I dont think anyone feels their EFC is fair- we all are in that boat- blame congress.
But it is really sad- when I hear someone with a boatload of opportunities, feel like they are getting washed overboard.
Compared to many places you could be living in the world, being a citizen of the US is like winning the lottery.
Having a family that has the resources of more than double the average family wage in the US? like winning the lottery twice.</p>
<p>People without education and without financial resources have fewer opportunities, may not be able to find someplace that is more affordable, if that even exists. My brother for example, has a BA from a 4th tier college, but found a great job living in the back of beyond.( Granger Indiana- no offense but it is practically the back of beyond to somone who is a left coastie) He could have lived many places, but he loved the opportunity to have a huge house in a gated community next to a golf course ( oh yes we are all so impressed)- now however- he is looking at other areas of the country- many more expensive and he is having to take a sharp reality check as to what many of us pay for housing.</p>
<p>But my point is that he has a lot of choices- we all have a lot of choices- but we don’t want to admit that our choices have consequences.
We choose to have a lot of children? Children- surprise are expensive!
Everybody having their own bedroom is expensive-the accoutrement that goes with the children ( and the spouse) is expensive.
Living where you need more than one car is expensive and so it goes-tradeoffs are part of life- it is a shame that some famiies feel that they have to have their cake and eat it too- but you can’t- and to insist on it really sucks the joy right out of what you do have.</p>
<p>I understand the frustration of people who are self employed and the schools that expect them to borrow against their businesses to pay for college-when people own real estate for their retirement cushion, and it is seen as practically liquid assets. I really empathize with that.</p>
<p>BUt I align myself on the board with those who are flabbergasted with those have so much more than most, and see things as half full.
A school with 5% free and reduced lunch is not a school that “doesn’t have much money” that is a school in a relatively affluent area.</p>
<p>My daughter attended a school that for the same period as the Kenmore school, had 27% free and reduced lunch still relatively low compared to many other schools in the Seattle area, but enough that the resources of the school were stretched thin. ( She now attends an inner city Seattle school, wonderful mix of kids, many drawn to the school by its great programs, but most don’t have any more money than we do and many have less- many students are also immigrants/refugees coming from places that make this area seem like Beverly Hills 90210- think about being from the Sudan)</p>
<p>I do want to mention though, that schools that use the PROFILE, will at least listen to expenses that aren’t taken into account on the FAFSA like paying for a relatives care. ( and if you pay for a relatives expenses, can’t you take them off for tax purposes?)
There are also lots of ways to save money for school that have been mentioned all over the boards-and there are schools that offer merit aid as well as finding outside scholarships.
It has been my experience in fact, that schools offer very different packages, some schools would offer aid to students with 6 figure incomes, especially if they have unusual expenses like paying for a relatives care.
Combine some merit aid with maybe one or two outside scholarships, with the $4,000 you can earn summers and the maybe $2,000 you can earn during the school year- with Stafford loans which are open to all students and with the money you have saved already, and you will be able to attend college, no problem :)</p>
<p>I think that rich, poor or middle-class is a perception that is reinforced by the media and who we associate with.</p>
<p>If everyone you come into contact with has a certain size house, owns certain things, goes on vacations – these are the people you compare yourself to. If you don’t get to go to vail for winter break, but many kids you know do – you feel poorer. If you house isn’t as nice as some of your friends, you also feel like your parents can afford less. It is all comparative. </p>
<p>Our family does fall in the poor category according to our income and we have very, very little. But if you ask my kids (ages 12 and 16) they would not say we are poor, they would say we were middle-class. Poor to them are people who have to beg for food and have no home to sleep in. yes, they would love for us to have more money – but as far as they know, there are many, many people less well off.</p>
<p>They are thrilled that we were able to move into a rental house that is one block from the bus stop (they were tired of the long walks to go anywhere) and we can actually heat the house above 60 degrees (last house was not winterized – best we could do was 55 degrees). They were glad to have a roof over their head and be able to go anywhere. The $30 cash each got for Christmas – that is alot of money to them, especially since they can spend it on anything they want. They are careful with money – they know the value of it! When they see the homeless men who sleep down the corner, they know it could be worse! they don’t complain when we have to pick up food at the food bank to make it through the month – they eat the cheap macaroni and cheese and canned green beans and are thankful that the next week we can buy our own groceries and get food they like.</p>
<p>It is all a matter of what you expect and what others around you have.</p>
<p>I wish I could afford to take nice vacations, live in a nice house and buy my kids clothes – but we can’t right now. I do know that my kids will always appreciate what they have and one thing we have drilled into their heads – there is always someone worse off and there is always someone who has more. It is what you do with what you have that makes the difference!</p>
<p>“it’s silly to believe that families earning over $100,000+ should receive a good amount of aid”</p>
<p>i don’t think any of us think that we should receive a good amount of aid, just some. As a matter of fact, i would be satisfied with any amount of aid.</p>
<p>“That isn’t you–you are not whining for aid, and you are making choices in order to fund what is most important to you–college”</p>
<p>not only do i maintain stellar grades (4.0 uw) and do extracurriculars, i also hold down a 18hr a week job… so, i too am making “choices in order to fund college.” i had hoped that my school performance could get me merit scholarships, but at elite schools merit-based aid is impossible to get.</p>
<p>Also, a lot of you have alluded to the idea that us “rich snobs” have no idea how fortunate we are. But don’t be mistaken, i know what it’s like to live in rougher conditions than most of you…</p>
<p>For all of my childhood, my family was extremely poor. i mean, poor to the point where we didn’t have a place to live for about 2 years. We were homeless for a stretch and then moved in with some relatives. for the first 11 yrs of my life, all of my clothing (if i was lucky enough to get some) was from Goodwill. My siblings and I were routinely harassed at school because we were poorer than even the poorest kids…</p>
<p>The only reason my parents make so much money know is because of their education. Both of my parents are the only members of their families to have attended college… but they went to 4th tier colleges. And being african-american in the late 80s, they could not get any lucrative-type job. However, after years of trying, my father was finally given a break. He took this opportunity and it paid off, a lot.</p>
<p>Based on their experiences, my parents realize that the name of the college does matter. And they want me to go to the best school i can get into… However, they held that same mentality with my other siblings and know they are stuck with paying full tuition for three elite private schools. So, i know that it will be quite difficult for them to scrounge together money for me to attend a good school, even if they have a combined income of six-figures.</p>
<p>I disagree that the name of the college is the tipping point
The major and the field that you are entering mean more.
That is what I would deduct if I looked at my brothers and his nephew( son- he adopted him so that he could come to this country) experience anyway. My brother has an EE degree from univerity colorado- colorado springs and is making 6 figures, ( he graduated about 10 years ago), his nephew is in his early 20s with a degree in aeronautical engineering and started at a job two months ago making $60,000.
At the same time I know students who attended much more “prestigous” schools, but in fields that aren’t as sought after, like English or psych and are working in areas that are only distally related to their major, making a much smaller amount of money.
So look at the school as towards their awards, their departments and how it is a fit for you without weighting its perceived “name” too heavily</p>
<p>what i mean by name of the college, is that regardless of major or field, a degree from an ivy league school will sound much better than a degree from a community college. If you have an english degree from harvard, you will probably be more readily hired than a person who has an english degree from University of Phoenix online (i realize that this is a drastic example). </p>
<p>and, of course, intended major/field has a lot of bearing on future success. A surgeon makes considerably more than a teacher…</p>
<p>a degree from a community college isn’t a degree it is a certificate.
(They cetainly are extreme examples- university of phoenix isn’t even listed in USNEWS and Harvard is one of the most competitive schools in the world)
Yes I agree that someone with a Harvard degree will be hired probably much faster than somone with an online degree.
However- it isn’t the paper that makes the difference, it is the sort of person and the background/work ethic/smarts that they had to get accepted to Harvard in the first place.
Now the person who started University of Phoenix attended the same school that the person who invented the CD rom- the same school where many successful academics including profs at Yale and Harvard attended, many owners of top computer companies and even well known poets and musicians. But the school while more “prestigous” in some circles than even 10 years ago, is still not as well known as schools from the east coast- the education counts more however IMO.</p>
<p>“the education counts more however IMO.”</p>
<p>it can be argued that the education garnered at, say, Cornell (well-known for its academic rigor) will be more valuable and beneficial than an education at the University of Rio Grande.</p>