Confused About Financial Aid for Upper-Middle Class

I’m in my second semester of junior year, so I’ve started doing some college research. Today, I calculated the net price of some schools I was interested in and got some results that surprised me (probably because this is the first time I’ve thoroughly researched financial aid). My parents have a total combined income of around $200,000, so I already knew I wouldn’t get much financial aid if any at all. This originally made me think I’d probably get stuck at my state public school, which frightened me because I live in Colorado and would like to get out more than anything. However, the net price I got for CU Boulder (in-state) was $30,000 while I got $33,000 for UPenn and $27,000 for MIT. I also calculated the cost of a few less competitive private schools that were all-around $40,000, which my family could easily pay with minimal to no debt. I also calculated the cost of Berkeley which was $70,000, and UMich which was $64,000. I’ve always heard private schools are much better with financial aid, but I had no idea that my state school would be about the same as or even less than some private schools. But, now I’m confused as to why private schools have such a bad rep for being so expensive. Are private schools the cheaper option for many families or is it just the fact that my parents make too much to get any financial aid whatsoever from any public universities. This is just really surprising because I’ve heard at least twenty thousand times that you should go to your state school because tuition at private universities isn’t worth it. So, why is it such a common sentiment that an Ivy League education isn’t worth the price when it would basically cost the same.

(I’m also wondering how accurate these net price calculators normally are because I’ve heard a lot of stories of people getting completely different prices after they were accepted)

There are so many factors involved here! First, private schools often have endowments that allow them to meet financial need better than the average state public university does. Secondly, some state schools are just way more expensive than others. Check out the cost of U of Florida, a fairly selective school, and you’ll see it’s a bargain for FL residents.

Remember, attending a state university as an out-of-State resident is entirely different than your in-state school - that’s why Michigan is so expensive for you, a CO resident.

In my experience, students from upper middle class families can fare better at privates than attending a public U as an OOS resident. And in many cases, they can attend a private for the same or just a little more than their own in-state university (depending on state) if they target their schools well.

NPCs vary. They’re only as good as the info entered. And they don’t all show merit aid that a student may qualify for. But I think they’re good for giving a pretty nice ballpark figure for purposes of comparison.

@mollisrosea Have you worked through the NPC with your parents providing all the details, or just based on an overall bottom-line income number they gave you? You’ll get the most accurate read by going through the NPC line-by-line with your parents. Also, keep in mind that the NPC numbers can vary quite a bit from the actual awards in certain situations, particularly when self-employment, family owned businesses and investment real estate are involved.

One issue with NPCs is that if your parents are divorced, or if they own a small business, farm, or rental property, then they tend to be not accurate. In these cases reality is usually significantly worse than what the NPC predicts. Also, as @Collegefortwins says they are only as accurate as the information that you enter.

From where we live (in the Northeast) the University of Colorado is considered a very good university, and Boulder is a very attractive town (I used to have periodic business trips there – I did learn not to go hiking the same day that I arrived in Colorado due to the altitude).

Given the strength of your in-state public university, I would certainly apply to it along with other schools. Then when you get your offers you can see how the cost there compares with what you hear back from other schools. We did find some schools that gave merit based awards that got the cost to about the $40,000 per year range (which if you have the stats for MIT might apply to you also). There are of course some universities that are a lot more expensive than this.

I am not surprised to find that Berkeley and Michigan came in as expensive for you. These are funded by the taxpayers of their state to cater to in-state students, and these two schools are famous enough to bring in strong students from out of state who will pay full price.

The cost of university will vary enormously between schools, and will vary at any one school between one student and the next. It is a confusing system.

CU is very expensive, even for Colorado residents. Other state schools like Mesa, CSU, Northern Colorado will be cheaper. Even U of Wyoming is cheaper paying OOS tuition because there are a lot of scholarships offered. You can also look at the WUE rates at places like Utah or some of the Washington schools (not UW-seattle).

California gives no need based aid to OOS students.

Of course the trick to paying $30k at MIT or UPenn is getting into MIT or UPenn.

Have you got all their financials? Savings? Investments? Property? Home equity in certain CSS schools.
What is your PSAT score? Any SAT or ACT? GPA? Rigour of curriculum?


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$40,000, which my family could easily pay <<<

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Really, that doesn’t sound like something your parents might say, 40K a year off before or after tax 200K is a chunk. Have you sat down and talked numbers? is there a 529? Your parents both work to get that 200K? Full time?

@Sybylla we paid for college out of current earnings…at expensive private schools…so it is possible to do so with $200,000 in income.

But to the OP…

  1. Michigan does not guarantee to meet full need for all accepted students from OOS. So what you got on their NPC sounds right.
  2. Berkeley is a UC. They give zero need based aid to OOS students. Your cost to attend will be the full,cost of attendance there.
  3. MIT and Penn give great aid...if you are amongst the small %age if accepted students.

Are these NOCs accurate? Well…right now they are set up for students entering college in 2020. You won’t be starting until 2021…the NPCs will be updated…so do them again in September. Policies do change.

For the 2021-2022 academic year, you will use 2019 tax year information. Don’t forget to add back in your parent contributions to tax deferred retirement accounts…because the colleges will.

Right now…you are guessing assets…those are counted as if the day you submit your financial aid application forms.


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Unweighted GPA: 3.65 Weighted GPA: 4.2 Unweighted UC GPA: 4.0 Weighted UC GPA: 4.6 (I got straight B’s freshman year and straight A’s every year after) SAT: 1500 ACT: 33<<<<

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Once you establish a budget, the important thing is that you find match schools. your UW GPA is going to be used in most scenarios, and that is probably going to be sub 3.7 at the end of this year? That is going to preclude you from admission at top schools and merit $ money at many schools that might have made your list. If your ACT& SAT results are real tests, you have time to get that up a bit which can help in some merit situations.


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Unweighted GPA: 3.65
Weighted GPA: 4.2
Unweighted UC GPA: 4.0
Weighted UC GPA: 4.6
(I got straight B’s freshman year and straight A’s every year after)
SAT: 1500
ACT: 33<<<<

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Your stats are high enough that you could get large merit elsewhere.

The UCs in Calif aren’t going to give you anything. You’d be paying full freight which is about $56k per year.

Only the richest privates in this country meet full-need and are need-blind and only some of them are generous to the upper-middle class. Keep in mind too that they tend to be relatively small (and thus are quite difficult to get in to). For instance, CU and CSU has roughly as many undergrads as the entire Ivy League (even though it includes relatively large Cornell).

What are you confused about? Private colleges have a rep for being expensive because for many kids, the privates they get in to tend to be more expensive than in-state public options or other options where they can get big scholarships.