Best strategy for funding college

But the “personal books and supplies” estimate is not something the school bills you for, and can possibly be much less in reality.

Tuition and fees, room and board (direct costs) $61,932
Grant Aid $61,600
remaining direct costs $332

If course it’s not really free, but would cost a family such as this very little out of pocket.

I was just trying to show that someone with that income, but with 3 students in college would apparently qualify for a lot of grant aid there. Even more than cost of tuition.

But it is need based aid, not just scholarship based on merit.

This is true, but books, supplies and personal expenses will still require money.

Yup, paying $332 for something means that it’s not free. It’s a hell of a deal, but not free.

I was trying to be nice and share info and be helpful. I’m not trying to deceive anyone. My point of this whole conversation is to take a second look at schools that initially seem expensive, because the aid may be there for your student.

But it’s not helpful when people give false or misleading info.

Free tuition is much different than a full ride.

Room and board scholarships are taxable. So even with a full ride, its not free. And unless the school is paying for you to get to and from school its not free either. But if you are getting something others are paying $65,000+ for and you are paying $332, its pretty much free (at least to the vast majority of people).

@COSpgsparent three kids in college at the same time makes a HUGE difference.

And they didn’t attend Stanford for FREE. They got free tuition. The devil is in the details…and these details are important ones.

Your first post was very misleading.

The OP to this thread doesn’t have three kids in college at the same time.


[QUOTE=""]
80K for an engineer is not going to to be generally described as "good money."<<<

[/QUOTE]

For sure. It means engineer is the wrong job description in an audience of people who know what graduate engineers actually earn.