<p>So any college that has a price tag of up to $60,000 p/yr will come out of our pockets, Right?</p>
<p>What if my D doesn't get into the colleges with reasonable costs of let say $30-32000? Looks like we got ourselves stuck in a sticky situation. </p>
<p>I'm not sure what we are going to do? It seems to late to send in more appications. We will be maxed out in loans if we want our D to have a college education. What are we going to do for the second child's education down the road. I realize the EFC will change every year, but seriously this will completely dry our funds up.</p>
<p>There are many schools that full cost is under $30k, and many more that give merit aid. I do think you need to realize that it is unlikely you will get need based aid at any point for either of your children, so you need to concentrate on ways to get money for merit, scholarships for skill, work opportunities for your children.</p>
<p>Some schools have aid in the departments, so look into those.</p>
<p>You are correct that the schools expect you to use up your savings first, so that usually means the first child gets the benefit of any general savings your family has.</p>
<p>You need to sit down with your financial records, and determine just exactly how much you can afford each year. </p>
<p>Then you need to tell your children that they can only attend a college or university that costs no more than that - either because it is cheaper, or because they find enough scholarships to bring the cost down to that figure.</p>
<p>It really, truly, is that simple.</p>
<p>There are scads of options in this country that are under $30,000 a year. To find them, run the college-matching search engines and look for places that offer your children’s potential majors where the Out-of-State tuition and fees are no more than $15,000 (leaving $15,000 for housing, meals, transportation, etc.). Many of the places that pop up will have late application dates or rolling admissions, so there still is time to add a few.</p>
<p>If your child has good grades and test scores, a gap year might be in order so that a new list can be drawn up specifically targeting places that will offer significant merit-based aid. For ideas on what could comprise such a list, check the threads at the top of this forum on the subjects of Automatic and Competitive merit aid, and Out-of-State fee waivers.</p>
<p>What are you and the student able to pay? Our limit was $35K. That meant that if our son wanted to go to a school that cost more, he had to come up with the difference. He figured he could borrow and make up to $10K a year, maybe $15K with his savings, which made his absolute limit. But he stuck close to the $35K with an OOS public. All of our state schools and all of the schools within commutable distance were affordable, so he had quite a mix in there. Some private schools surprised him with some nice merit money that made them in range too. There were, of course, schools that were automatically off the table as they were over the $50K mark, which my son had self lowered anyways by then.</p>
<p>I see your child has applied to Penn State - University Park where the COA for residents is about $35,000 and nonresidents is $46,000; both of which are quite a bit under your EFC.</p>
<p>What is your resident state? If not PA, can you still apply instate?</p>
<p>I feel like we worked really hard to get to where we are today. My H and I graduated from state schools. We have many friends that have gone to state schools and are making mid six incomes or more. So sending our D to schools for a name sake, excess cost is a waste money to us.</p>
<p>Penn State is what we are hoping for especially only because of the price tag and education. I just wish they would stop raising the cost!</p>
<p>UofDEL is the only OOS. The others she applied to are too high and are in state. Not sure why we were told to apply to higher priced schools when in the end it would not work for us. Dumb, dumb on our part. </p>
<p>The school reps kept saying not to rule out higher priced schools because these could be affordable if given scholarships. Ok, well these $55-60,000 colleges at point that is not an option if we don’t get a scholarship that is substantial! Now, this whole scenaro makes me feel nervous if D doesn’t get into PSU.</p>
<p>I feel like crying! I know we will get through it, but we will be broke with loans. How sad! I almost want to say why did we even bother working so hard. In the end it is screwing us b/c we make six figures. And the ones that don’t get help…always!</p>
<p>As somebody else suggested you need to come up with the max you’re willing to pay. We’ve been telling our kids since before they cared that we wouldn’t go higher than what penn state would cost us. Now that shes finally looking at schools, our oldest has the price tag of each school in mind. Her reach schools aren’t reach for admission. They’re reach for enough merit aid to bring the cost in line with what we’re willing and able to pay. </p>
<p>Maybe we’re fortunate but our daughter has no shortage of friends whose parents have had the here’s what we’re willing to pay conversation with their kids. For the most part theyre exceptional students but these kids are not dreaming of the ivies. Interestingly, they’re all from families who are EFC full pays.</p>
<p>Although PA is a state with high tuition schools, you and your DD are fortunately able to pay what they cost. PSU and Pitt are two priciest. Temple is the other national university in state, and it would probably be worthwhile to shoot out an app there. The accept rate there is more favoarble. There are also any number of smaller colleges such as Kutztown, WestChester, Slippery Rock, Clarion, and many more that are probably still taking apps. Finally as Onthecollegehut says, PSU satellite camupses offer direct entry, not even transfer but entry to the main campus. </p>
<p>The tough part about being a PA resident is if you cannot pay their relatively steep tution , since they do not meet need. I know some families who are in that situation in the Pittsburgh area, for example. They can get two years at a CC, but the low cost alternatives to getting a 4 year degree are just not there. Shame on the state of PA for this.</p>
<p>Did you just figure your EFC now? Didn’t you estimate it earlier and run NPCs at schools before applying?</p>
<p>Or you did do those things and the magnitude of the burden is finally hitting home now.</p>
<p>We all go through it. I remember that surreal feeling when first figuring it out. ‘That can’t be right!’ Long past. Luckily for us it was well in advance of any applications or even college visits, so plenty of time to talk over in family, and not a last minute surprise for our kids. Even so, it was hard to settle on absolute numbers, but at least it was constantly discussed and the difficulty of paying hashed over many times. Have you talked to your D?</p>
<p>What are her stats? It’s late to be applying, and for merit especially, but there might be options. Unfortunately it is also rather late to be informing D that all you can afford is CC and live at home, if that is what you think your finances permit. How much do you think you can spend? I can’t tell if you are saying that $30K is affordable and fine, or that even that will be difficult.</p>
<p>*UofDEL is the only OOS. The others she applied to are too high and are in state. Not sure why we were told to apply to higher priced schools when in the end it would not work for us. Dumb, dumb on our part. </p>
<p>The school reps kept saying not to rule out higher priced schools because these could be affordable if given scholarships. Ok, well these $55-60,000 colleges at point that is not an option if we don’t get a scholarship that is substantial! Now, this whole scenaro makes me feel nervous if D doesn’t get into PSU.*</p>
<p>People (stupidly) say that because they don’t know what your EFC is, so they think “everyone gets aid”…when the truth is if your EFC is too high, you don’t get aid. Plus, many schools don’t give much aid no matter what your EFC is.</p>
<p>What are your D’s stats? maybe there are still some schools that will give her merit. I don’t know what UDayton’s merit deadlines are, but they can be generous with merit scholarships for the right stats.</p>
<p>Tell us more. It may requires sending out a couple more apps, but some here can suggest where she might get merit for her stats.</p>
<p>GPA
test scores (include SAT breakdown)
Major
career goal</p>
<p>Gannon University, Geneva College , Grove City College . Messiah College ,
Pennsylvania State University , Pennsylvania State University, Erie,
Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg , Pennsylvania State University, Wilkes Barre,Philadelphia University, Robert Morris University, Temple University, University of Pittsburgh, Widener University )
Wilkes University, York College of PA</p>
<p>These are some college in PA with not so onerous requirements to get accepted in an engineering program. Penn State, main campus, fills up fast. I don’t know about Pitt, but there are satellite campuses for Pitt where one can start an engineering program.</p>
<p>There are also a number of well priced private schools like Manhattan College, to name one, that have engineering programs. </p>
<p>Many of these schools are still open for apps. Whether the engineering program is still open at them or not, I would not know.</p>
This is a common response to the shock of learning that you might not actually be able to afford a Jaguar. Hopefully you will undergo the necessary “attitude readjustment” soon and figure out how you’re going to pay for where ever D does end up. You are very fortunate to be able to afford as much as you can. Otherwise you might have to settle for a used jalopy.</p>
<p>OP - I feel your pain. Our EFC is almost the same as yours. My husband purchased a house for his mother and we had to report it as an asset since it is paid off. I am remarried and my DH didn’t know we had to use his income. We make a comfortable living and pay in taxes what a years worth of tuition is and we still owe the IRS. We are trying to save for retirement and do not want my D to take out any loans. So we are applying for any scholarships we qualify for. …which aren’t many because most are need based.</p>
<p>Came back to update and answer a few questions.</p>
<p>FIRSTLY…my daughter was excepted to Penn State Main yesterday!!! We are relieved.</p>
<p>She is mostly likely going to accept. The price fits within our budget. Of course, I would have liked a lower tuition…who wouldn’t?</p>
<p>We always knew we would pay out of pocket. We never expected that we would get financial aid or anything.
We had the discussion with our children what we were willing to pay for yearly costs. We looked for colleges that fit the price give or take $10,000 either way. The school also needed to have a good engineering program as well.</p>
<p>We now feel misled by the college admission lectures that we attended. Two things that stick in my head from these talks.
“It’s a myth that if you have a nice home, make six figures and have two cars that you will not get finincial aid.” Yes, we were told this!!!
This is something we heard several times from various people. We were told that we should apply to schools that were more expensive because they could be more affordable by money given by the university. We applied to some $ 60,000 colleges.
Ok, so here is where the problem came in and I freaked.</p>
<p>My D applied to one school within our budget. School #2 was higher, but it would still work. #3, #4 and #5 were colleges with $55,000-60,000 price tags.<br>
I started thinking what if D does not get in PSU or #2. Then we are stuck with the higher priced schools if she gets accepted to those. We screwed up! I did not and could not afford these schools for more than a year. We would be drained. And, we could not count on scholarships to help us.</p>
<p>I felt it was too late to apply to lower cost colleges at this point. We missed several of the deadlines.</p>
<p>If I could have gone back and redone the whole process, she would not have applied the way she/we were encouraged to do. This wasted our time and wasted our money on admission fees. I should have stuck to what had orginally planned with our budget.</p>
<p>I want to thank you all for taking the time and trying to help. Truely thankful!</p>
<p>Congratulations to your D on her PSU acceptance! </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Well at a very few top schools that is true, as long as the six figures start with a “1” or in rare circumstances, a “2”.</p>
<p>Also, those schools calculate their own EFC so the number may be different depending on assets, medical costs, etc.</p>
<p>There are also schools that offer non-need based grants (aka merit aid or scholarships) that can defray the cost, sometimes by a lot, sometimes just a few thousand $.</p>
<p>It is true that you can get aid with a 6 figure salary (as long as it is in the low 6 figures), and a “nice house” does not mean the same to everyone … the worth of my house in the low 100’s and I consider it very nice; my friend who just bought a 10,000 square foot home likely considers hers a nice home. And of course there is the “if you own a business” caveat. Admissions officers don’t lie … they just don’t always tell the whole truth.</p>