<p>BCEagle, I also put myself through public school in CA back in the day via working part time during the year and full time during the summer, financial aid, some scholarship money, and loans, so I know that it was tough but possible at that time. Nowadays, the effort required is so much greater that it doesn’t seem reasonable to say “well, I did this, you should be able to do it as well.” I hear from UC professor friends about upper division students working two or three part-time jobs during the school year to cover their expenses. This is insanity.</p>
<p>I want more people getting good educations so they can go to work and start paying more taxes then they’d be paying at minimum wage jobs. Taxpayers, both federal and state, had faith in me all those years ago, and their investment in me has mos’ def paid off. I’d like to offer the same deal to the current generation.</p>
<p>I think this came up because earlier in the thread someone suggested that it was not “right” for full pay kids to accept any merit money because it takes money from needier students.</p>
<p>Some on this thread are projecting the mentality that low income, intelligent kids should not be denied admission to a top 10 school because a full pay kid took their spot…and that full pay kids should find a “mediocre” school to attend. Gee, I thought this was America where EVERYONE should be offered an equal opportunity.</p>
<p>Thanks for the historic context for the quote, Kajon. When the threads run this long and I come in late, I confess to being guilty of speed reading. ;)</p>
<p>I’m not sure I see a difference between people disgruntled that their lower-income kids can’t afford to go to an expensive private because there isn’t enough need-based aid on one hand, and other people disgruntled because their more affluent kids can’t go to expensive private schools because there is too much need-based aid.</p>
<p>It’s still people disgruntled with the policies of the particular school.</p>
<p>I have a high-need kid at an expensive private school which we can afford because of their generous need-based aid, and another kid at an in-state public that we can’t afford because of the paucity of need-based aid. How ironic is that? ;)</p>
<p>^I would like a bigger house and better automobile…but I have what I can afford. If someone can’t afford their “dream school” doesn’t mean they can’t get a college education.</p>
<p>I will be paying full pay for my kids (God willing, of course!) and I am happy to know that the cost of that tuition will help fund kids who can’t otherwise afford to go.</p>
<p>^ pizzagirl…would you be happy if you are helping a family with the same income as yours who chose to live beyond their means and didn’t save for their kids education?</p>
<p>The gaming of the system is possible because of a paucity of data points. But it would be unrealistic to gather more data and problematic to process it. Hence, a good chunk of the disconnect between need and merit.</p>
<p>I’m sorry…but some of this conversation sickens me. I feel like quite a few posters(not all) believe that kids of family’s with high need should give up their dream school and settle for a “lesser university” How fair is that?</p>
<p>I’ve worked hard for 12 years of school(as did your kids)
My parents lived well within their means(as you did) but could not save much as my mom didn’t get her degree until I was like 12.
Any savings we did have has been wiped out by my father’s job loss due to cancer and his staggering medical bills. </p>
<p>But I should give up my dream school because “I can still get a college education”…hmm…doesn’t sound fair</p>
<p>I see what you mean, but I’ll have to disagree. It might just be me, but as a low-income student, any school I could afford was my dream school. I think that may be true of many low-income students. However, that causes a problem in and of itself - there is only one school affordable to low-income students, and that’s the top 20 or so (or “lesser” schools with merit aid). Even attending community college and transferring to a flagship or even satellite campus can cost the student upwards of $30,000 in loans (for the satellite campus portion of the education). That’s the part that bothers me.</p>
<p>Actually, this isn’t what’s happening. The top schools will still take care of the low income, it’s the middle and upper middle who are going to get squeezed out for awhile. And not in huge numbers when we’re talking top schools. My best guess is that the top schools each want another 100 or so full pays this year.</p>
<p>A middle class kid who doesn’t make it into any ivy because they need more full pays is not going to end up at a CC unless he totally mismanages his strategy. There are plenty of schools willing to ‘buy’ that kid’s stats. They are not ivy caliber, but they are far from CCs. </p>
<p>The kids who will end up at the CCs are likely to be poor and middle class kids who’ve been squeezed out of state schools by the higher stat kids who didn’t get adequate aid from private colleges.</p>
<p>So glad everything worked out for you BCEagle and geeps. I’m sure it was all due to yourself, your hard work, and you had no help from anyone. </p>
<p>R6L, I’m with you. Some of this thread sickens me.</p>
<p>hmom5, I think you’re right. In most cases, those with large need will have it met. Those who are truly wealthy can pay. But the large number of those in the middle are left out in the cold.</p>
<p>You know something, geeps20? I really don’t care. I don’t particularly wish to spend time being so petty as to obsess over what other people make and don’t make, spend and don’t spend. </p>
<p>Also upper-middle class kids without the best of stats. I know of a CC in a wealthy
community. It used to be a private college. The campus and grounds are spectacular.
And it appears to me that the students there are fairly well off. The science labs are
very nice too.</p>
<p>Rocketlouise, it doesn’t really matter what anybody here says. What matters is practical reality. It may be possible to get into a college with outstanding need-based aid – my son did. (Although I didn’t sling around the words “dream school” – I agree with BCEagle on that.) It’s also possible that you’ll have to find your way through your education in a more scrappy step-by-step sort of way. This might mean an in-state public.</p>
<p>My second kid, who does go to an in-state public, had/has higher grades and test scores than my first kid going to his tip-top super selective LAC. She never framed her choices in terms of “dream schools.” She’s in a great honors program, her university has excellent opportunities in her areas of interest, and she is getting as good an education (in some ways better) as my private college kid.</p>
<p>It’s difficult to pay for that state school. We (parents) pay, she works and she pays, she gets some partial merit aid, she gets a small amount of gov’t aid… it’s cobbled together and we limp along.</p>
<p>It’s not about where you go. It’s about what you do there. She’s an outstanding student, she’s intellectually challenged and stimulated, and she’s a sophomore and has already gotten a job as a research assistant to a professor. Not too shabby.</p>