<p>Speaking as someone who has experience with both sides of the equation, I will have to agree that its easy to get annoyed by the family who makes a quarter of a million or more every year complain that their child doesnt get enough aid to attend the college they want, but I also realize that those families may not stop and consider how much better off they are than most. I know I never really considered it.</p>
<p>We sent our 2 kids through private school from 5K on. We have always lived in a modest home, less than $100,000. I do drive a town car, however it has 246,000 miles on it, most of those miles accumulated driving the kids to and from school, as there is no bus service for private school. Because we lived a modest lifestyle, my children were able to take advantage of experiences their ECs and school offered. My husband was self-employed as a remodeling contractor and there were certainly times that it was a struggle to come up with the tuition payments as that type of business cycles up and down. There were times we spent 1/3 of our monthly income on the kids, other times not as much, but we had nowhere near the yearly income as the majority o As another poster mentioned, I do not begrudge one cent of this, education is highly important to me and I wanted my kids to have the best I could provide and like the other poster, Im sure the money would not have been saved, but instead used for a more expensive lifestyle. My mom used to say; the more money you make the more you spend if youre not careful and that is so true.
Flash forward to about 5 years ago, I know have a disabled spouse who will never work again and a son graduating high school this May and an income about ½ of what we had. I was fortunate that son is a good enough student and we had been at the school for so long and I had always volunteered my time that the school offered him a scholarship that combined with his social security check (as dependent of a disabled worker) allowed me to keep him at the school through high school. </p>
<p>When the college application time rolled around, we chose several colleges where his stats were high enough to garner enough merit combined with the Pell grant and Stafford loan that I knew I could get him through. These were 2nd and in some cases 3rd tier schools but I knew he would get a college education. I count my blessings that 2 of those 50,000 a year LAC and 1 of our state flagship schools saw enough in my son to give him enough aid (both need and merit) that now his problem is choosing, but I certainly didnt take it for granted or expect it. If he had ended up at a 2nd or 3rd tier school, I wouldnt have whined about it, but would have helped him take advantage of very possible opportunity he had to enhance that education. </p>
<p>The LAC packages have both subsided and un-sub Stafford loans in them, but thankfully no private or parent-plus and just a small gap of less than $2000. But dont think that I wont be putting in the pot for college too. To cover the gap and the un-sub, Ill most likely be eating beans and cornbread several nights a week and trying to baby the car along, and I will do so gladly. </p>
<p>The thing is, I have met folks who have always gotten by on a little of nothing, whose kids havent had the advantages of mine, and who cant even help their kids afford a 2nd or 3rd school. I feel deeply for those kids and am somewhat ashamed that I never gave them much thought before. Ive learned a lot about judging someone until youve walked in their shoes. So not everyone that qualifies for need-based aid blew the money on fancy clothing, luxury vacations, million dollar homes etc
I sincerely wish that I was able to be full-pay; its a horrible feeling knowing that you cant afford what your child needs. If things had stayed the same, I would have had the money I was spending every month for tuition toward college expenses. Plus the jobs I have now to pay for living expenses would have gone toward college. But you have to play the hand youre dealt and it is what it is. Im lucky its working out, but if it hadnt we would have gone forward from there, and I wouldnt have complained that it wasnt fair that my son had worked so hard and ended up not being able to attend his top choices, because what matters in the end is that he go to college somewhere.</p>