I’ve ready many post on CC in which posters refer to some colleges being known for offering financial aid to more affluent / upper middle class families. Can anyone provide a list of those schools?
I would look at the programs offered by Stanford and Colby and see if you qualify. I believe Colby’s is for families making up to $150,000.
Many families look instead to merit aid. Some of those include Denison, Clark, Union, Gettysburg, Dickinson, Wooster, Earlham.
Typically the richest colleges (and toughest to get in to). Take a look at rankings of per capita endowment and then run NPCs.
Merit money is more of a sure thing.
ETA…
You got a lot of good suggestions on this thread.
What income do you think is “middle class”. Make sure this is the gross income you earned…it needs to include all contributions to tax deferred retirement plans for the tax year of your financial aid forms.
You say you can pay $30,000 a year. And that Miami in Oxford OH is your daughter’s safety. That’s a good start. I’m going to second Denison. I think she would get good merit there…worth a try.
What schools is she now wanting you to consider? Would she consider any of the all women’s colleges, because some give merit aid, and some decent need based aid for “higher earners”.
Have you run net price calculators for any of her new schools of interest?
I’m happy with the list we have for my D21. I was just curious because my research says we are only going to qualify for merit, not for financial aid, but many threads on CC talks about top schools giving financial aid to families making $250k. That has not been my experience based on NPCs.
My question was more to about finding out if families making $250k have actually received financial aid or if it was just conjecture on the part of the posters.
There’s a current thread about donut hole families talking about hypothetical differences in aid to 2 families who each earn $256k and what would happen if one had saved and the other spent all their money. But there aren’t any schools that I know of that are actually giving need based aid to families with those incomes.
I think $250,000 annual income would put you out of the running for any substantial need based aid…everywhere.
At places like Yale, Harvard, Stanford, you might get a smaller amount of need based aid…maybe…because remember your assets are also considered when making the need based aid calculations.
I’m not sure you would get your costs to $30,000 even at the most generous schools with $250,000 in income and your assets added in. If the net price calculators are not giving you lower numbers…you probably want to believe them.
Note…some folks here say they got significant need based aid…but when queried add things like having multiple kids in college at the same time.
It wasn’t our experience either.
The only folks I knew who had incomes of $250K and up that saw financial aid had huge families (6+ children). And even then, it wasn’t a lot.
Here’s one: Union College.
I ran some numbers on Princeton’s NPC with 250K earnings, 1 in college, and modest savings, which resulted in institutional grants.
250k is the range at which FA is going to start drying up even at the most generous schools. Still, I do know a few families in that range receiving aid. One with a single kid in college was pleasantly surprised to get aid at all, the other with a second kid in college was gleeful at the amount. Both at highly selective, wealthy schools. That’s only to say that, yes it does sometimes happen in real life. But anecdotes on the internet aren’t really going to change what the NPC says for any particular family. So I’d run the Princeton estimator and see what results you get for your particulars. That’s one of the most generous schools and a pretty simple NPC. If it shows little or no aid you can probably assume you won’t get much need based aid anywhere.
@Mwfan1921 how much in grants?
@Mwfan1921 and how much in savings? I would say that, anyone making that much in income is probably doing a decent job of saving some money unless they live in a very high cost of living zip code or have really mismanaged their money.
For a family of 4 in CA with 2 kids in college, AGI of 250k, federal tax of 40k, non retirement savings of 200k, total family contribution at Princeton is estimated at 34k. The grant amount is 43, 520.
If only one child in college, family contribution is 62, 800 with a grant amount of 14, 720.
People can tinker with the numbers. Higher tax amount will increase the grant. More savings will decrease it (in the first scenario, increasing savings to 500, 000 increases family contribution to 43,500).
ETA: no loans in a Princeton FA package.
I get similar numbers to @politeperson.
AGI 250K, one earner, family of 3, non retirement cash/savings $75K, gives $25K in institutional grants.
$75K. I don’t know what proportion, but I expect it’s not an insignificant number of families with college age kids (lived thru great recession) that have limited savings, even at that income. It doesn’t matter why, but that’s the reality for some.
Most schools are not as generous as Princeton, which is arguably the most generous.
@teachme21 - I have seen that Notre Dame will offer some need-based aid up to $250k. The (*) is that assumes a larger family with either multiples in college or private catholic schools. I do not make $250k. I make enough that no other school than those mentioned above would offer in aid. Notre Dame has offered generous aid to get my out-of-pocket to approximately my (son’s) EFC. I have 2 children in college right now.
Having two kids in college at the same time…at these very generous colleges…most definitely helps with need based aid.
And Princeton…? The rub is…you have to get accepted. About 95% of applicants don’t get accepted.