My son is accepted by a college. The tuition is $50,000/year. Our family income is about $90,000/year, we have 2 adult, 2 children.We are US citizen. I don’t know why we didn’t get any financial aid from the college.
If we pay the $50,000/year tuition, that mean we only have $40,000/year left for our family, is it reasonable?
Colleges vary in how generous they are with aid. Some offer financial need-based aid and some offer merit-based aid. Some do both. It might not be reasonable but it’s their prerogative. Did your son apply to any financial safeties (colleges he could afford to get into or that guaranteed aid)?
Yes, my son has accepted by financial safeties college.
What college?
Some colleges do not guarantee to meet full financial need for all.
Did you run the net price calculators on the college sites BEFORE your son applied?
Do you own a business? Is the income you quoted before or after taxes?
Most colleges expect you to have saved some of the cost, aren’t looking for you to pay $50k out of this year’s $90k, but perhaps $15k from savings, $15k from current income, $15k from borrowing and perhaps $5k that the student earns. That is not a comfortable arrangement for most people, so they pick a cheaper school or one that gives merit.
We don’t have any savings. My husband and I live in the different states, we need to pay two houses, two utilities
university of illinois at urbana-champaign.
The income is before taxes. I don’t have business.
Cross-posted…
You don’t pay taxes in Illinois, so you’re expected to pay the costs to go there. Why would UIUC charge higher OOS rates, and then give their very limited FA to cover those costs. That would make little sense. They might as well not charge OOS rates…right?
Ask yourself…why does UIUC charge higher OOS tuition? Why? There’s your answer.
Think of going OOS like you’re “going out of network” with your health insurance. If you go out of network, you have to pay. If you can’t afford to pay out of network, then you don’t go out of network.
UIUC doesn’t really care what your financial situation is. They’re a state school whose mission is to educate IL residents. Outsiders who want to go there need to pay. If they can’t pay, then they don’t go.
What schools are your son’s financial safeties?
Does anyone go OOS paying full tuition?
Yes, wealthy people. Most kids I know who go to oos publics either are wealthy enough for full pay or receive some kind of merit scholarship
Are you asking…are there families paying full OOS tuition?
YES…many people pay full OOS tuition…but those are usually people who have incomes that can afford to do so. People who can’t afford it, don’t do it.
You’re instate for GA. There are OOS people who pay full OOS tuition to send their kids to GT. Same difference.
We didn’t pay the IL state tax, but we paid the Federal tax.
It sounds like you didn’t run the Net Price Calculator on UIUC’s website before your child applied. If you had, you would have seen that you’d be expected to pay.
The residents of IL do not want to give their tax dollars to pay for other states’ students. Can you understand that?
We didn't pay the IL state tax, but we paid the Federal tax.
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that doesn’t matter. The federal gov’t doesn’t own UIUC. The state of IL does…and you dont pay taxes there.
Do you want to pay more Georgia taxes just so that UGa and GT can give lots of aid to OOS students who want to go to UGA or GT???
That means if student goes to OOS, they pay full tuition?
We paid the Federal tax, I believe that UIUC get fundings from the Federal not only from the IL state.
<<< That means if student goes to OOS, they pay full tuition? >>>
If a student goes to an OOS public (like Penn State, UIUC, UCLA, Berkeley and many others), then they will likely have to pay full tuition.
However, if a high stats student applies to an OOS public that is known to give large OOS merit scholarships for high stats, then that student wouldn’t pay full tuition. But, these are generally schools ranked below UIUC, UCLA, Berkeley and GT…and others.
Sorry what stats means?
Test scores and GPA = stats
There are some schools ranked below UIUC and GT that regularly give merit scholarships to OOS students with high stats.
And you’ll get the same federal aid at UIUC as you would at any other school in the country. With a $90k income, that probably means just federal loans and no Pell grants or SEOG funds.
You aren’t asking for federal financial aid, you are asking a state school to provide state aid, or a reduced tuition or some other way to subsidize your non-resident child to attend an Illinois school. It is no different than if you live in Town A in Georgia but want your 9th grader to go to public school in Town B. You’ve paid federal tax and Georgia tax, but you haven’t paid Town B tax so they might charge you tuition if your son attends a Town B school.
If it makes you feel better, Illinois doesn’t give much financial aid to its own residents either. The residents have a lower instate tuition, but that’s usually it.
Having to have two primary residences is really an outlier, and none of the formulas are going to give you extra aid because of it. Same thing happened to my sister as her husband works in a different city. They just accepted that as part of their financial picture and that FAFSA wouldn’t adjust for it. If they were divorced and used only my sister’s income on FAFSA, her son would get a Pell grant and other need based aid. They aren’t divorced, so he gets nothing and they are dinged for the second home.
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With a $90k income, that probably means just federal loans and no Pell grants or SEOG funds.
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$90k income…AND two homes.