EFC and the realities of living

<p>If you start college planning when the kid already finished Junior, it is definitely far too late. I started saving for my kids college education when they were 4 and new born. I have to squeeze 2-3% income every month in order to accumulate half of the EFC in their 529 accounts. The rest would be paid from current income and other forms of saving/assets. Most people cannot suddenly start using >20% of their monthly income on their kid’s college education.
Also, I think your kid will need to get a much higher score in order to get a “significant” merit aid that may reduce your EFC unless your EFC is near the full cost. </p>

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<p>Every year people post these same words. College is expensive, very expensive and families have to decide how much they are willing to pay and adjust accordingly. Poor families have a far more difficult time getting college educations for their children. Attending a 4 year college is a privilege and an expensive one. Some people save money by having their kids attend a local junior college for two years, get the basics out of the way and then transfer into a 4-year college. Most state public have a sliding scale cost-wise so some families simply adjust expectations downward with the public choices until they find a sweet spot they can afford. Very few families pay less than their EFC and EFC is generally considered the minimum a family will pay. </p>

<p>The adage about past savings, current income and future income is very true. The vast majority of families swing it through that combination. Whether or not you take out loans as parents, whether or not you have your kids take out loans is an individual decision. How much you can squeeze out of your current income can also be a factor, some families can squeeze very hard and cut back on all kinds of discretionary spending and some families have a more difficult time with the budget. As parents, be truthful with yourself about your discretionary spending and what you are willing to “give up” during the college years.</p>

<p>Best of luck - you will survive. We’re on kid #3, year number 8 of college tuition, room and board with a higher EFC than I ever thought and with two done and the last to go we never, ever thought we’d “make it.” Granted I’m going to work a few more years than I planned, and we’ve had to dip into our savings, and we see the inside of a restaurant maybe once a year, but it was the greatest gift we could give to the kids so we bite the proverbial bullet as many, many parents before us and many yet to come. </p>

<p>Take your kid on a tour to help them fall in love with a couple more affordable colleges. An overnight visit in a dorm can help, along with getting together with a friendly student who attended the same high school.</p>

<p>Ohio State has automatic and competitive scholarships (COA for Ohio residents is about $22k).</p>

<p><a href=“Merit-based scholarships - The Ohio State University”>http://undergrad.osu.edu/money-matters/scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>These look to be automatic:</p>

<p>ACT 27 -$1,000/year x 4 years
ACT 28 -$2,000/year x 4 years
ACT 29-31 -$3,000/year x 4 years
ACT 32 -$6,000/year x 4 years</p>

<p>See the link for the competitive scholarships.</p>

<p>I had stats similar to your kid, and probably similar financial situation (upper middle class, another sibling not much younger, too rich for financial aid not rich enough for expensive tuition to be affordable). I went to a local university for a semester, realized it was silly to spend that on that university for gen ed classes, went to community college for a couple semesters, then went back to get my bachelors. I lived at home, so no room and board fees. Local public university is not that expensive, especially if community college can turn that into 3 years there instead of 4. Sure, even public school is still expensive, but it’s much more manageable. And I didn’t have merit aid (I had a few very small scholarships - amounts to less than what’s sitting in my wallet right now). And honestly, with those stats (which aren’t bad, again, I had stats about the same), he/she isn’t too good for public school. </p>

<p>Ignore the posts about liquidating yourselves and living like paupers because college is too expensive.</p>

<p>You need to set the expectation with your chid(ren) of what you can afford…be that $500 or $50000. The rest is up to doing good research on the best school they can get for the money they have available.</p>

<p>My kid had stats good enough to go to plenty of expensive schools . He may have even won a scholarship or two to defray some of it. We, like you, are in that wonderful place where the ‘system’ things we are rich and despite living frugally all of our lives we could never afford the sort of contribution the system suggests. Taking out anything more than nominal loans is not only a bad idea, it is borderline immoral. (and I am in the business of loaning money)</p>

<p>In our case we told the kids from the time they were little that college was going to be ‘on them’. Not that we don’t help out here and there, but the expectation early on has been to strive for scholarships and/or set your sights on schools you can afford, not ones that others see as ‘perfect’ or a ‘dream school’.</p>

<p>We also found hundreds of good schools that offer substantial money. Look around on other threads and you will find helpful people who will get you some ideas on where to look. Right now, your job is more likely one of helping your child understand the reality of her situation and finding ways to set her expectations for a good school, but not one that will be unaffordable. SD Mines was mentioned earlier. Very affordable and highly underrated school. </p>

<p>I don’t know how any school can give $$ to a valedictorian. By the time the student is awarded this honor, college notification and financial awards are completed months earlier… As for merit, child # 1 in my house had a 33 ACT, 4.5 GPA. He only merit money he received was from the state flagship-the top tier schools he got accepted to did not offer any merit. Child #2 with a 32 ACT, 4.5 GPA received merit $ from 2 private schools valued at 20K per year. Sounds good right? Well, the school costs $57K per year. Keep in mind that the tuiition rises EVERY year, but the scholarship stays the same.</p>

<p>@twocollegekids Valedictorian title would be too late for admission, but not for merit aid. My D received 1 of her scholarships around a month after her graduation and another one just a few days before her graduation. The college just keep revising the financial aid package when new scholarships coming in. My D got 3 revised award notices so far and the last one was from the end of July. You just cannot count on that scholarship when you make the decision by May 1.</p>

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<p>@Torveaux - you’re singing my song! We set the expectation early with our children that we would not and could not pay 60k per year and they needed to adjust their college selections accordingly. I see now the difference it makes in the kids’ attitudes. </p>

<p>OP, it may be a little late in the game for you to start getting your D mentally prepared for the reality of paying for college, BUT there is still a lot you can do. Make sure she knows, interacts with, likes and respects both older and younger adults who went to affordable (but not necessarily prestigious) colleges. Shake a stick and find some recent grads who are swimming in debt. Very often, they’ll be the biggest cheerleaders for taking the cheaper, less prestigious way out. Also, make sure she applies to several options - if you’re in Ohio, there are very likely some more affordable commuter schools available to you, at least for the first two years. </p>

<p>Right now, she may hang with the high achieving academic crowd and many of those friends are probably looking at prestigious colleges. But until the financial aid numbers are actually in, she has no way of knowing with certainty where anybody is going. A few years back, one above average student we knew was heading off to Fordham. She was thrilled and living her dream. The financial aid statements all came in and this poor girl couldn’t afford Fordham and did not have a single financial safety. She ended up going to our community college for two years. She’s now following it up by commuting to a directional state U. And she’s taking loans out to do it. Your D will be surprised where her friends end up going after all the numbers come in.</p>

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momofthreeboys is right, this is a common enough refrain, but it indicates the need for an attitude readjustment that many of us have had to go through. What would the alternative be? If being poor suddenly looks attractive, you can get there easily enough. If you have managed to position yourself financially such that you have a high EFC, you are doing a lot better than many families in the large picture which includes not just college but everything else in your lives.</p>

<p>The fact is that colleges expect parents and students to take out loans if their savings don’t cover the costs. </p>

<p>So if you saved money, there is some for college, right?</p>

<p>In any case, the financial realities are what they are. As someone mentioned, if you feel that a low income is better, that can be easily achieved. </p>

<p>BTW, while OSU isn’t at the top of the heap in engineering (or any field that I know of), the fact of the matter is that a bright motivated kid can get a great education from there (or UCincy or other OH publics or NM Tech, which may be my choice). Then, if you feel that you still need/want the prestige of a top engineering school, you can try to get a funded graduate degree from one of those places or, once you start working, spend the money on one of those PT Masters programs at a place like Stanford.</p>

<p>Undergrad education isn’t the end-all and be-all of life, after all.</p>

<p>^^ USN&WR ranks engineering at Ohio State at #26, with a score of 3.5 out of 5 (where MIT, #1, is a 4.9) based on peer assessment.
This puts OSU at the same rank at Renssalaer Poly, UCSD, Penn, Univ Southern California, and Univ of Washington.
OSU is ranked at #18 for its school of business.</p>

<p>Retaking the ACT or SAT would be good if that would mean merit aid at OSU for OP’s kid.</p>

<p>Frankly, a lot of your daughter’s friends parents may find themselves in the same boat too.</p>

<p>And more science and engineering PhDs attended tOSU as an undergrad than attended Yale, Brown, Columbia, Duke, JHU, or UPenn as an undergrad. Obviously tOSU is much bigger, but that shows that tOSU would have a good number of talented kids.</p>

<p>In fact, 12 of the 14 current Big Ten schools has more undergrads go on to get science&engineering PhDs than Columbia, JHU, or (obviously) Dartmouth.</p>

<p>@purpletitan NM tech? Just for engineering?<br>
At this point Shawnee, Wright State and OU are dismissed by D16. OU was “too retro” Ha.
Financial super safeties are YSU (honors program), Akron, and Bowling Green. Bowling Green is the first choice here. Financial reaches are OSU, Cinnci and UMiami.<br>
Super Financial reach is UK but that will only work with some significant money.</p>

<p>I have to say I really felt like my 50000 was chump change. But I think we can do this. she may get some debt, but that’s her choice. I feel a lot better. </p>

<p>Look at some of the women’s colleges that have engineering – I recall seeing that there’s a fair amount of merit money at Sweetbriar for engineering. By the way, if you’re playing the odds, seven hundred dollars for Stanley Kaplan SAT prep is money well spent – it netted us 36,000 in merit aid. </p>

<p>Look at Rochester Institute of Technology. Private in the Northeast but costs $46k and not $60k+ like most northeastern private colleges. My daughter with lower grades than yours but higher ACT when she took it in September got need-based and merit aid and the net cost to us ended up just $3000 more than the State U. of NY top tier schools. My daughter is not an engineering major and in many places, being female helps for engineering students.</p>

<p>The RIT website is pretty clear about the necessary criteria for merit awards.</p>

<p>Also check out State U. of NY schools, especially Binghamton, Stony Brook, Buffalo. All have engineering, with a cost of $32k for out-of-state students and Stony Brook and Buffalo give some merit aid.</p>

<p>What about Miami of Ohio?</p>

<p>We’re feeling your pain with child#2 right behind our first – DD managed nice scholarships, and we’re hoping for some of the same with DS. He is also looking at engineering schools, particularly ones that have strong co-op programs. The co-op option may turn into our saving grace. Have you discussed that option with your daughter? The advantage is coming out with experience and sometimes a standing job offer. </p>