<p>Far be it for me to tell anyone what they should do but I would suggest you speak to your financial adviser before deciding what to do. Personally, I think it’s utter nonsense that full pay is a hook - especially at the top schools. I know too many people (most in fact) whose kids were full pay who were rejected at not one but several top schools. My friend’s youngest DD was rejected at Williams and she is an alumni who gives money, her older went there, she was full pay and the DD2 had better stats than DD1. </p>
<p>If being full pay was such a hook the schools could fill their classes many times over with just those students, but they don’t.</p>
<p>I think the article explained it just fine. Are you sitting on your yacht reading this? </p>
<p>Some schools require you file Fafsa for merit. </p>
<p>I’ve heard that if you don’t file Fafsa for your freshman year the likelihood you will receive any if you need it later is practically nil, especially if the school gives grants and not just loans. </p>
<p>People choose to send their kids to private school for many different reasons. We never intended to as we live in the top district in our area and pay $8K/yr in school taxes on our very modest and not outrageously priced home in upstate NY. My son would have never gotten into the schools he did with the money he got if we had kept him there. Our ROI from putting him in his private school is out of this world. However, that was not our intention - we simply wanted him to have the opportunity to get into any school he wanted to go to and we saw from the first few weeks at his HS that he wasn’t going to succeed at his public HS so we pulled him out after 5 weeks. </p>
<p>Yes, we were willing to spend the money at several schools he was accepted to. What we weren’t willing to do is spend $50K (give or take) on a school like Hartwick (his safety-ist school.)</p>
<p>Here is another CC thread on this topic if you are interested. </p>
<p>“Yes, we were willing to spend the money at several schools he was accepted to. What we weren’t willing to do is spend $50K (give or take) on a school like Hartwick (his safety-ist school.)”</p>
<p>This is usually the case with several parents who seem willing to spend the money for the right school but not something they feel has an excessive price tag for a similar value as one that can be gotten at a much lower price. I am refusing to let my kid consider CA state schools as an OOS since they cost no different than than the three private schools in top 25 in CA and Texas flagships are not that far off in quality for 40% price tag. Do Columbia and NYU offer the same value for the same price tag?</p>
<p>Texas, since my DS was accepted at SUNY Binghamton (COA $19K) we were definitely not spending $50K on Hartwick or even $30K on U of New Hampshire. If he wasn’t eligible for highest merit at Hartwick we wouldn’t have had him apply. But since we knew he would get lots of merit and because admission is rolling we talked him into applying just in case he bombed out everywhere else. </p>
<p>emilybee - imo, NYU does not deserve the same price tag and so it comes down to perceived value which allows the parent to part with that pot of gold in some cases but not others. Interestingly, it is same principle that drives people to give up full rides and be fullpay at another school!</p>
<p>Btw, anyone can apply for the unsubsidized Stafford loan, and the application deadline is much later than those applying for institutional aid. The last time I checked, in was Sept. of the enrollment year.</p>
<p>"B students who don’t need aid and apply to lots of colleges will likely have more fat acceptance envelopes than ever before. “Full-pay students are getting a break in terms of admission,” says Judy Zodda, a private admissions counselor in Framingham, Mass. “If they are borderline admits and full pay, they are getting in this year. That was not true three years ago.”</p>
<p>Top students, no matter how meager their college savings, will still be heavily recruited, counselors said."</p>
<p>^ From the article. </p>
<p>I didn’t realize we were discussing B students getting in a lesser schools. I thought we were talking about top students not getting into top schools because they apply for FA as the convo was started by a poster who said private schools don’t want their kids to apply for FA as they are only interested in getting their students into the top schools. </p>
<p>i will readily agree that if your kid isn’t the greatest student they can get into all sorts of colleges and universities if the pay full price. U of Hartford comes to mind. Lots of rich, not so bright kids go there. Quinippiac, Syracuse (lib arts only) UMiami, Lynn, etc., UColorado (any OOS who can breathe,) etc., etc.</p>
<p>Texas, NYU is an excellent school, imo. I don’t have any problem with paying $50K+ for any school of that caliber. I don’t believe the Ivies or little Ivies are the only schools worth paying that much money for.</p>
<p>Bay, OK, though I haven’t seen any evidence that this in fact is true. As I said before, I wouldn’t dream of telling someone they have to apply for FA but it is my opinion that there are many people who believe they won’t get any aid (whether in fed. loan money or institutional money) who is fact would likely be eligible. </p>
<p>I’m sure there are plenty of people like DH & me who wouldn’t think to apply because they make too much money. My DH makes over $100K but less than $150K, I don’t work and our DS is an only child and as you can see we got a huge chuck of money from the school he is attending. Maybe we got so much because others in a similar position financially to us didn’t think they’d get anything so there was a lot of money to give to us.</p>
<p>I just hate to think there are others in a similar position (not super rich but well off) choosing not to fill out FAFSA and/or CSS because it might hurt their chances of getting accepted at a “better” school. But it’s not my money or my kid, so.</p>
<p>So my question is still hanging out there. </p>
<p>On the application, Syracuse’s for example, it asks if you will be applying for FA. Since I don’t think we would qualify, I don’t really want to say yes even if we filled out the forms which are due way after the application is due. They wouldn’t be asking if they didn’t want to know and I imagine it might affect merit money which I do want.</p>
<p>emilybee,
It doesn’t bother me at all that people who can afford to pay for college do pay for it. Obviously, if you can’t afford to send your kid to a college without FA, there is no point in applying at all without also applying for FA.</p>
<p>emilybee - not a problem that you believe NYU is an excellent school. I am only pointing out it is what people perceive that influences their decision. In this case you would pay and I would n’t. There is probably another school out there I am certain I would pay but you would definitely not.</p>
<p>For every school with those outrageous price tags, somebody out there is willing pay the sticker or else they would n’t be in business I suppose.</p>
<p>I am actually banking on some decent merit aid from them. So I guess yes, I would have to pay $200K to send him. You still pay $200K with a loan only you now have interest to pay too. I would not take out a loan so I could pay even more. We are talking about FA not scholarships. You have to pay those loans back.</p>
<p>Lakemom,
If my math is correct (always questionable), then according to collegeboard’s reporting, 59% of Syracuse students receive FA, and thus 41% do not. You can interpret that any way you want, but I interpret it to mean that a significant percentage of Syracuse families must and are willing to pay full price for it.</p>
<p>Texas, I know lots of ridiculously wealthy people (people who not only have big boats but private planes) with not so bright kids who think nothing of paying $50k+ a year to schools like Lynn, UHartford etc., but I have never heard my ridiculously wealthy friends or family members thinking paying full fare will get them into an Ivy or top school. Those that have kids applying to those schools believe their kids will get in because they are brilliant. Some get in because they are brilliant and some get rejected. </p>
<p>My girlfriend’s son, who is brilliant, and is full pay got rejected from Penn, MIT(EA) and Princeton. He did get into Cornell and Northwestern and chose Cornell. Cornell takes lots of New York kids so I doubt full pay helped him get in there.</p>
<p>Lakemom, no, financial aid is not always a loan. Some school give only grants and some give a combination of grants and loans. Look at 5boys post in this thread. Her kid was offered $20K in merit and $20K in grants from Allegheny. They could have offered him loans instead of the grants because my son’s package at the same school offered him the 20K merit but only loans like Stafford after that. Also work study was offered which your kid would not be eligible for if you don’t file FAFSA. </p>
<p>If we hadn’t filed FAFSA and CSS my son would not have been offered $41K in grant money.</p>