<p>We chose not to complete the FAFSA after we completed the calculator and confirmed that we would not qualify for any FAid. S applied to Us that awarded merit without requiring ANY FAid info. He didn’t apply to any Ys which required fafsa for Merit awards. </p>
<p>I prefer to only provide as little financial info as possible–none wherever possible my kids were fine with this. We only had to cross very few Us off the list that required financial info, even from students NOT applying to any FAid (competing for merit awards).</p>
<p>SlithyTove: Your clarifications to my prior comments are spot on. I was really focusing on the small number of schools that are both need-blind as to admissions AND guarantee to meet need.</p>
<p>Reminds me of the client who asked for a break on her bill because she was “living on a fixed income.” Yes, I said, but your fixed income is the rent from 10 rental properties in which you have $3 million in equity.</p>
<p>Sorry, but the bulk of your post is absolute nonsense. The poor routinely pay more for most things. It’s called the poverty premium. Look it up.</p>
<p>For example, thanks to your good credit rating you probably pay less interest on a loan or credit card than a poor person does. Not saying that’s right or wrong (it makes sense for the bank), but you are paying less.</p>
<p>Similarly for groceries: if you don’t have much money you can’t buy in bulk.</p>
<p>In my d’s apps this year there was no box anywhere like there was just two years ago on if you were applying for FA. It was still on the CA - but the only way I could show that we weren’t applying for aid was to not give her SS#</p>
<p>Like Oldfort I’m not one to let people in on my financial situation when I don’t see much gain in it for us personally. And there is no way imo that the admissions departments aren’t thinking okay - we need x% full pays to balance our budget.</p>
<p>So you’re the champion of the poor? And I’m somehow against them? What a crock! We were talking about the wealthy “gaming” the system. It was a divisive anti-affluent comment that warranted a response.</p>
<p>Are you blind or something? You can only see injustice in one sector? Earn a little more, you’ll learn to see more injustice.</p>
<p>Then maybe, just maybe, you’ll hold on to enough of that “holier than thou garbage” and you can be like me… actually trying to help break the cycle of poverty with your resources. But no… I don’t see that in you… you seem content reinforcing hatred of people who worked their butts off to be where they are.</p>
<p>A response complaining about how expensive your second home and car maintenance is does not seem like a very effective way to respond. If anything, it may have reinforced the attitude you are trying to argue against.</p>
<p>I have no love for either the poor or the rich (I’m solidly middle-class, thank you - as I suspect you are, too; few really rich people post on these forums fromt heir private jets, I’d expect).</p>
<p>But it is simply a fact of economic life that the poor pay more for many things. Though the rich pay more for some things, they are vastly outweighed by all the subtle costs in which it it is more expensive to be poor. This is called the poverty premium. It’s an established fact of economics, and all your ranting in the world won’t change it.</p>
<p>Earn a little more, you’ll learn to see more injustice.</p>
<p>maikai, I have to think that you don’t read what you write after typing and before hitting the “post” button. To think that it’s somehow easier for the wealthy to see injustice is just an amazing thought. I have to wonder how much injustice you’re seeing when you travel to your second home in the Hamptons in your expensive car.</p>
<p>If you’re paying more for stuff it’s very likely because you choose to. Have a luxury car that’s expensive to maintain? That’s your choice. Have a summer place in the Hamptons that needs upkeep and therefore lines the pockets of the local tradesmen? That’s your choice. Duh.</p>
<p>Listening to you as you attempt to compare any kind of economic injustice that you supposedly suffer to that suffered by those at the lower end of the economic scale is, quite simply, startling. As someone else already posted, “cry me a river.”</p>
<p>MiddKid: I would have called ■■■■■ except my friend was equally startling in her lack of understanding about why her position sounded so … ? unthinking? to most of us. She also said “but my parents have to WORK! And we had to SAVE to buy our boat! How can you think we’re not middle class?” There was shock on her face when I (gently) pointed out most people didn’t consider owning a sailboat an especially middle class purchase, or even one that was within reach, but that she thought so because in her circle that’s what qualified as “poor”, which she’d translated as her being “lower middle/middle class” - because no one in her circle didn’t have a sailboat so people were separated between those with more than one, those who could buy one outright, and those who saved to make the purchase. And that was her worldview& understanding of the world. “Not being able to buy a boat, ever, even when if you saved” hadn’t entered her thinking at all. </p>
<p>97% Americans make less than $250,000/year, that doesn’t make them “poor”.</p>
<p>And for paying college costs, while it does make them “rich” in a certain sense, it doesn’t make them “wealthy” as in trust funds and don’t need to work for a living and living in a specific circle with a specific habitus and worldview that never meets any other background, experience, and worldview.</p>
Maybe not private jet rich, but I know there are quite a few 1% or even .01% on CC. Even if not that rich, there are a lot of full pay parents here.</p>
<p>You likely will not qualify for need based aid. Most schools are need blind for admissions. But for schools that are need aware, it will be apparent that they will not need to award you need based aid. At some schools THAT could be a plus. Full pay students are an asset at every college.</p>
<p>It is your choice whether or not to apply for aid. By completing a FAFSA, your child will be able to take a Direct Loan. Some people like having that option, and others really don’t plan to use it anyway.</p>
<p>Re: an earlier post about “taking money from those who really need it”…you probably won’t receive need based aid. So that is a very moot point.</p>
<p>As noted, some schools do require financial aid forms for awarding of merit aid.,check your colleges to see if that is the case.</p>
<p>And lastly…and important…some schools will NOT permit you to apply for institutional need based aid in subsequent years if you do not apply as in incoming freshman (note…apply for…not receive or take aid). We all want to believe that our finances will stay solvent…but stuff happens. What if in some future year you had a financial crisis and needed to apply for aid? If your kiddo’s school is one that requires this application freshman year to be able to apply on subsequent years, you will be stuck. So…again…check the policy for each college to which your child applies.</p>
<p>Congratulations on being in a great situation to finance your student’s college education!</p>
<p>Gratefuldad…you are wrong. Most colleges do NOT meet full need. Most colleges are need blind for admissions. Colleges that do NOT meet full need do NOT use your ability to pay in the mix unless they are need aware. The vast majority of colleges are NOT need aware.</p>
<p>Colleges that are need aware DO consider your finances when considering admission.</p>
<p>In the VAST majority of colleges, the admissions departments have NOTHING to do with finances.</p>
<p>A lot of people have that notion that if you make 250K, you can easily afford a 60K per annum college. I guess that’s true if you’ve been making that kind of money for a long period of time and been saving for your kid’s college education. In our case, we didn’t cross 200K until last year. In fact, about 5 years ago we were making half of what we are making right now. ( Wife was not even working and she was in school.) Fast forward (and just in time for first kid to attend college next year), and we will be full pay and/or near-full-pay yet we don’t have that much college savings to fully afford it. I’m not complaining, just saying.</p>
<p>Trivial examples of need-blind admissions colleges would be open admission community colleges. Many state universities that admit only by GPA/rank/test-score formula are need-blind for admissions as well.</p>
<p>Of course, many of these schools do not meet financial need; many of them give no need-based financial aid grants at all (though students may get grants from other sources like Pell grants).</p>
<p>You guys have completely missed the point. Your hatred/jealousy of anyone with a sliver more wealth than you blinds you all. You see what you want to see.</p>
<p>I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I worked for what I have. I paid my own way through college. Served my country in the Army to earn matching funds for school. Worked as an armed guard at JFK cargo from 11PM to 7AM, then went to school during the day. While establishing myself I worked two jobs and broke my butt and ate mac & cheese saving for my first two family house, so I could live in the basement and rent out the two apartments.</p>
<p>I worked as hard on my career and was also rewarded.</p>
<p>Etc, etc, etc…</p>
<p>Now I have something to show for those sacrifices and I’m supposed to be an out of touch, unfeeling demon?! Most of you guys don’t have a friggin’ clue what it is to be poor. I could teach you a thing or two, if you all weren’t so holier than thou.</p>
<p>I’ve been through all of it… from poor to middle class to affluent. No, I’m not stinkin’ rich, but I’m very comfortable and I’m very proud of what I’ve accomplished in my lifetime. And I tell young people all the time they can do it to, if they are willing to pay the price.</p>
<p>And yeah, when you have more money you tend to pay more… for everything. Everyone’s got their hand in your pocket big time. From the government to the local service people. You haven’t a clue because it’s not happening to you. </p>
<p>And lastly, I’d bet good money I am more philanthropic than any of you. You people are ridiculous.</p>