<p>oh, i see. so it’s about being angry that colleges are promising stuff and not following through? then yeah, that definitely sucks.</p>
<p>It depends on when your father was earning 50K. 30 years ago, 50k was a large salary.</p>
<p>Nope…dad retired less than 20 years ago…and never earned more than $50k in salary…even with overtime. Actually, a better way to say that is that he never even earned $50k in salary…even with over-time (which was only made available towards the very end of his working years.).</p>
<p>And, when I graduated from high school, dad wasn’t even earning $11k per year.</p>
<p>so, no…my dad NEVER earned a large salary…ever.</p>
<p>I didn’t qualify for FAFSA and we’re on the verge of losing our home…California has some outrageous rules. It doesn’t really account for the living expenses of the second most expensive region in the nation (after NYC).</p>
<p>^^^
Sounds like there has been a job loss. </p>
<p>But…What outrageous rules does California have?</p>
<p>I understand how you feel. Please, please, please, though … do NOT telegraph the above feelings to your child. I can assure you that not being “happy” in college does NOT make it “harder for her to be successful.” Rather than focus on the negatives, accentuate the positives. Help your D find the silver lining, and help her to bloom where she is planted.</p>
<p>@@@@@@@@@</p>
<p>Kelsmom, you are absolutely right. We actually attended an event at d’s safety last night (it’s only a little over an hour from home) and I’m so glad we did. It was for the kids who have been invited to join the Honors Program and she feels much better about it now, as the kids who were there are like-minded. We are still waiting for one admissions decision and two other packages, but if the safety winds up being the best (read: only) choice that makes sense financially, it will be okay.</p>
<p>That is the biggest bunch of hooey I’ve ever heard. Colleges say that bunk to get people to apply to their schools in hopes that they will hook them into going. </p>
<p>Do you remember going to look at houses and the real estate agent said, “Oh you can afford this!” and you looked at the numbers and realized you would literally have NO money left after you paid the mortage? That’s exactly what they’re trying to do! And my son’s friends do have the money and we don’t and it’s heartbreaking to have to say, "No, we can’t afford the state school he’s wanted to go to and worked hard to get into and now we are unable to pay. They won’t even publish the tuition on line! Have you ever committed to pay for something that you didn’t have a pricetag for? That’s what these state schools in crisis are asking! As parents we do have to look at the big picture. If we had bought that house we would have ended up in forclosure and losing all the money we had worked to save for the down payment.</p>
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<p>I have to agree with this. I don’t mind a little venting or complaining, but I think it’s silly to believe colleges when they say they will meet your need. Do you believe that diet pills work? What about ***** pills? Really, even though it’s nice to believe these things, you’ve got to turn your bull crap meters on.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Before I was involved with the whole college app process of the 21st century, my brother took his son on the Notre Dame tour. He was given the ol’ spiel."don’t worry about money, if you can’t afford the cost, we’ll help you with that. " He believed it. </p>
<p>My bro figured that he could afford about $20k per year for his son, and the school would come up with the rest…free and clear. He didn’t realize that the SCHOOL determines your “need” and not the family. The “happy no-worries spiel” didn’t include that very important piece of info…especially since the school determined that my bro’s family didn’t have ANY need.</p>
<p>Vocemom…what school won’t publish its tuition? Is that UIUC or another? Is that because they don’t know what the 2010-11 tuition will be?</p>
<p>Mine was like $12,000 or something.</p>
<p>This is worth repeating:
</p>
<p>The problem is the 1/3 from savings if it’s not there. This can be tough to overcome, but it’s expected nonetheless.</p>
<p>University of Illinois Champagne Urbana. My husband called and they said they see a 12-20% increase and that puts it around 30,000. a year. The admissions person even told my husband, “We used to be able to help middle class families like yours, but those times are past!”</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Bummer. What are your child’s back up schools?</p>
<p>An EFC of $30K assumes 1/3 will come from savings, 1/3 from current income, 1/3 from future loans. If you can pay $10K/yr out of current income, then you can pay $10K/yr to service the loan portion.</p>
<p>The problem with that is when EFC has been bumped by a recent income increase. If a family has only recently had 2 wage-earners and is now earning 6 figures, the family may not have had the ability to save that much in prior years. Or, if the income bump was due to a “one-off” situation.</p>
<p>“If a family has only recently had 2 wage-earners and is now earning 6 figures, the family may not have had the ability to save that much in prior years.”</p>
<p>Such a case makes paying the loans on future earnings even easier.</p>
<p>"Do you remember going to look at houses and the real estate agent said, “Oh you can afford this!” and you looked at the numbers and realized you would literally have NO money left after you paid the mortage? That’s exactly what they’re trying to do! And my son’s friends do have the money and we don’t and it’s heartbreaking to have to say, “No, we can’t afford the state school he’s wanted to go to and worked hard to get into and now we are unable to pay. They won’t even publish the tuition on line! Have you ever committed to pay for something that you didn’t have a pricetag for? That’s what these state schools in crisis are asking! As parents we do have to look at the big picture. If we had bought that house we would have ended up in forclosure and losing all the money we had worked to save for the down payment.”</p>
<p>@@@@@@@@@@@@</p>
<p>It’s not quite that simple. The realtor is not saying, “don’t worry about the list price on this house–go ahead and bid on it anyway and the finances will work themselves out, don’t worry.” The colleges are not hawking snake oil or diet pills. AND it’s not just the salesmen (i.e., the admissions people) saying this. It’s them, plus professors, plus high school guidance counselors, plus the folks that publish the financial aid and college guides, the list goes on. Yes, as parents, heck, as consumers, we need to adapt a buyer beware philosophy, but especially when it’s your first child and you THINK you’ve done your due diligence only to find out you really didn’t, it’s frustrating, disappointing, maddening, take your pick of adjectives.</p>
<p>*“If a family has only recently had 2 wage-earners and is now earning 6 figures, the family may not have had the ability to save that much in prior years.”</p>
<p>Such a case makes paying the loans on future earnings even easier. *</p>
<p>That may be so…but that might only care of the 1/3 loans part…not the 1/3 savings part. It certainly doesn’t mean the family can now afford to borrow 2/3 of college costs. Often that second wage-earner isn’t doubling the family income. </p>
<p>In fact, many times that new second wage earner’s income is needed just for the rising costs of having teens in the household or some other needed family expense…like a new roof or to replace a 15 year old car that has died…</p>
<p>Unfortunately, parents are subjected to some sadly misleading come-ons about how much financial aid will be forthcoming for their child. I attended the “financial aid info night” which was put on by our high school counselors. They invited some speakers from a nearby private college to address the FAFSA and financial aid in general. (It might be worth mentioning that neither the counselors or the college representatives were old enough to have college-age children, so none of them had actually gone through this process they were lecturing us about.)</p>
<p>If I didn’t know better (thanks to CC), I definitely would have come away from the meeting with the strong impression that every family in the room was guaranteed to receive enough financial aid to make attendance by their child a real possibility at just about any college of their choice. However, I knew for a fact that quite a few of the families would have EFC’s too high to qualify for anything but loans at all but a tiny number of elite schools, and their kids would not qualify to be admitted to those.</p>
<p>This is a real disservice to kids and parents.</p>
<p>It might be worth mentioning that neither the counselors or the college representatives were old enough to have college-age children, so none of them had actually gone through this process they were lecturing us about.</p>
<p>LOL…that’s almost as bad as my kids’ GC whose kids had long gone thru UFlorida - which was so cheap in the past that FA was hardly needed by anyone in the middle class.</p>
<p>However, I knew for a fact that quite a few of the families would have EFC’s too high to qualify for anything but loans at all but a tiny number of elite schools, and their kids would not qualify to be admitted to those.</p>
<p>Exactly…another reason why student loans/plus loans should be called “payment plans” and not financial aid. When I bought my home, I wasn’t given financial “aid,” I was given a payment plan. LOL Financial aid for home-buying sounds like VA benefits (O down) or tax credits.</p>
<p>We were definitely better informed the second time around. I try to give a heads up on financial aid to families with younger children. They need to know tht financial aid is likely not as good as they would expect, and ditto for merit scholarships. Knowing that ahead of time helps you filter the overly optimistic admissions info when you do the college tours and research.</p>
<p>
I’ve seen this posted on CC in a number of places.</p>
<p>Does anybody have any evidence to back this up? Because it makes no sense to me. It’s a nice sound bite, but I don’t believe it is true, based on what I know of how EFC is calculated.</p>