<p>after reading these posts i am even happier i took my kids out of that 20K/year private elementary school (where i found out they were way behind the public school kids) and put them in a charter school where they are thriving…now maybe i can pay for college!</p>
<p>Re Post 80: Not kahones. cojones.</p>
<p>Not to be confused with ■■■■■■■, Spanish for drawers.</p>
<p>There are people who can pay for both private schools and private universities. Some have to make a choice. We chose to send our kids to public schools and private universities. Couldn’t have afforded both.</p>
<p>Thanks, midmo, I guess I wrote the Hawaiian spelling of a Spanish word!</p>
<p>That’s OK, Bay, it lightened up an otherwise tense discussion.</p>
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<p>They are also whiners.</p>
<p>cpt,
Nice analogy but not quite the same, because one can shop for better prices on the same airline by waiting it out and hoping for prices to come down, or canceling the higher ticket, paying the penalty, and still come out ahead with a lower cost. Also, the seat prices are not allocated by the airline’s preference for those deemed worthy of a cheaper seat. It is random, depending on timing, as to who gets the cheap seats.</p>
<p>If everyone pays a discounted rate on airplane tickets, the company can’t make enough money to justify flying a plane to a destination. Some people need to pay full fare.</p>
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<p>Most airlines have been money-losing propositions for decades.</p>
<p>Southwest, one of the more successful airlines, locates hubs outside of busy cities reducing their costs. They were also smart to hedge oil prices when they went sky-high. Perhaps cutting costs is the key to making a profit in the airline business.</p>
<p>We are full pay. One of the colleges that D1 was accepted last year had the cost calculation around $48000 (excluding personal expanse, which is another 5-6K). The letter explained that no students were truly full pay, since the real cost to educate a student under their world class facility and world class professors would be around 100K per year.</p>
<p>I don’t know what is the true cost. When I explained the daily meal cost to D1. She could not believe it:" But mom, I can’t eat that much". I was like:" you are right, but I am paying for you and someone else to eat."</p>
<p>I think the price of college is outrageous. However we were told by our accountant , that we made too much. I never expected money, anything we got was a bonus.</p>
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<p>Really? I thought the meal plan was the ONLY reasonable part of the package. I’d say about $5 per meal on average (say $3 for the food and $2 for other costs). Between cash and meal swipes, that’s probably $100 a week (if all 19 standard meals are used). That’s $3600 per year, and that’s barely including the cost of labor, variety, etc. I mean heck, at HOME, we’re cheap eaters and it’s usually about $3-$5 per meal, per person. Now room and board (minus the meal plan), tuition, fees… that stuff I have problems with! Especially old dorms. Does it really cost $6000 to house a student in an old dorm?</p>
<p>I’m the type that can eat a peanut butter sandwhich (on whole wheat of course) everyday. With $2.50 for a loaf of whole wheat and a few bucks for a jar of peanut butter, one can have lunch for under a buck a day. I like egg sandwiches too - 20 cents for the egg, 20 cents per slice of bread, maybe 20 cents for a little milk and grated cheese and breakfast for under a buck. Veggies and meat can be budget killers but they don’t have to be.</p>
<p>"According to H, for example, children of $180K earners are “needy” and receive FA. "</p>
<p>Huh</p>
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<p>Excellent! Drop your meal plan and save a ton of money. My sister did this and loved it.</p>
<p>Well, I’m a little old for school and my wife likes to cook fancy meals even though I’m fine with simple stuff. Daughter eats like a bird and son loves ethnic foods (chinese, american, italian, indian, greek, japanese, mexican) so my wife is a short-order cook for the family.</p>
<p>^^ you married a saint. If my family doesn’t eat what I make, they go hungry. </p>
<p>I used to think board was high when we were talking abotu daughter. Now that son will go to in the fall, their flat fee with no restrictions seems perfect! And my own grocery bill will be surely cut in half.</p>
<p>I agree with DownToEarth, the cost of a private college is outrageous but our family earns too much to qualify for need based assistance. For me that is the end of the discussion. It is not exactly new information that private colleges are out of the reach of the middle class. People seem to forget that when they apply for financial aid they are asking for money and no one owes them anything. Plenty of parents I know made the decision to send their kids to the State schools purely based on finances and their kids seem to be doing great.</p>
<p>I don’t know about other schools, but at Cornell, you can specify where you want the money to go (i.e., to finaid, a specific department, a library, a specific person…).</p>
<p>Also, I don’t think colleges cost shift (at least the top schools). Most of the top schools have need blind admissions and at least among the ivies, they meet 100% of your need. Some people say that they the student’s geographic location as an indicator of socioeconomic status, but I just don’t think this is the case (at least in terms of trying to get a certain percentage of full pay students). The money that schools get from tuition is actually minuscule compared to the potential billions of dollars they get in gifts a year, not to mention grants from organizations such as NIH, NSF, etc.</p>