Not requesting FA is tacit acknowledgement that you are prepared to pay the sticker price.
@9241libom, I was just reacting to your comment that it is unethical of the school to expect ED students to be full-pay. There is nothing unethical about the colleges expecting full-pay students from families that make $280k/year, and if the student/family is not willing to pay, given the results of the NPC, then they should not be applying ED.
ETA, and if it’s a “parent-student issue”, that should have been worked out BEFORE both parties signed the ED agreement.
Actually 280k a year assuming LA or SF and two kids in college at $140k really does not get you that far. Not trying to count OPs parents’ assets but taxes will take out 39% or more and then housing costs. If they have younger kids in private schools, good luck. If anything OP is in that perfect storm range, her parents make too much for FA (probably, possible with brother) but are not wealthy so this may impact them.
As far as no FA, if there is a material change in circumstance, you can get out of ED whether you applied for FA or not. It happens all the time. Sometimes it is something unpredictable. Usually the kid hoped to get merit money, did not get it or got way more merit money someplace else.
Is it gaming the system, absolutely. Is it illegal, no. I have never heard of a college enforcing an ED contract. Anyone?
I agree with the people who said just answer her question and stop judging.
Also, some schools really do make it a pain to decline. D had a lot of trouble last year with one of the privates, just declining. The portal did not work, the button she was supposed to push was not there. She was afraid she may accidentally have accepted. She emailed the school and they told her to go back to the portal (which still did not work). Finally emailed her rep and the school again and they said since they did not hear from her on May 1, she was automatically assumed not to be coming.
An income of $280k is ~6 times the median US income and puts the family in something like the top 5% of wage earners in the US. That’s upper income. I don’t believe colleges take their area of residence into account when determining aid, so if a family is hoping for that when applying ED they probably shouldn’t apply ED.
I don’t understand how the cost comes as a surprise. Are kids applying ED without running the school’s Net Price Calculator? If the parents are divorced or business owners and the amount of aid makes a difference, why apply ED? I also don’t understand how they end up with other financial aid packages to use for comparisons. I thought the way that ED works was that families knew the costs going in and if the package ended up in the ballpark, they agreed to accept it. In return for the early consideration, they agree not to look at other packages. How much merit money they got elsewhere isn’t supposed to factor into the decision.
It can be 6x or 10x the median income, at the end of the day they would still be paying 140k a year in college costs in a year. ALMOST NO ONE CAN AFFORD THAT. Plus most families that make the median income and go to a private college get substantial financial aid. What is it that Harvard says, for families making under X, Harvard is cheaper than state?
D has friends who had a projected family contribution of $5000 per kid. At a full need school that gives very little merit money to a kid that had previously been wait listed. The kid ended up not taking it because he got someplace he wanted to go more where he also got a generous package.
While that may be in the top whatever percent nationally, in New York, California and a few other places those families are sometimes borrowing money to make ends meet. In Iowa, if you make $280K a year and have for a number of years, you have a nice chunk put away if you are responsible. Sometimes I watch house hunters and just salivate over what you can get for $300-350 in some other part of the country. In my area that would be a two bedroom on a main street with stores and unsavory foot traffic in a school district with metal detectors and a high drop out rate or a perhaps a three hour a day commute or more. As it is most people have a two hour a day commute anyway.
As for it being a choice to live near a big city (as I have seen stated on these forums), if your family is from the area, especially if you are responsible for elderly relatives, if you have a family business, if you are of an ethnicity that is not well accepted in certain parts of the country or are more comfortable where you have a community based on your homeland, first language or place of worship, or do not want your child growing up as the only one of his or her race, religion or ethnicity in his or her classroom, if you are licensed or have a practice or built a business in a particular area, it is not a choice. If you are your average caucasian middle class christian living near relatives in an inexpensive area of the country, this simply may not be something you are familiar with and think it would be easy for everyone to live more inexpensively and move away from big cities. Perhaps colleges s should think about this more as well.
Colleges not taking that into account, that is a fact, but it does not make it fair. Also when you negotiate with a college, if you can, that is something taken into account then.
Look, it seems quite simple to me: tell the ED college you can’t pay and, boom, you’re done. They can’t argue with you or make you pay. Unless they have a full FAFSA which shows you could pay, then they’re in the dark and will have to take your word for it, yes?
@Seeking Pam - They won’t be paying 140k a year…the younger sibling isn’t in college yet. And as for affordability, the family didn’t apply for FA and the OP has stated that money isn’t an object and they were prepared to pay sticker price, so apparently they can afford it.
FWIW - I don’t think the OP wants to withdraw her ED. I think she was just worried about her Mom’s new job. She’s disappeared so maybe she has talked to her parents (something she should have done in the first place) and found out that it isn’t an issue. Perhaps it is time to move on as well.
If the going rate is $35k/year and a family is full pay, they should only allow their child to apply ED if they’re willing to pay for it. Don’t the families have any idea going in what the cost is likely to be? Why would they sign an agreement saying they’ll accept the offer if they have no way of gauging what that offer might be? It doesn’t sound like OP’s family didn’t know; it sounds like her circumstances may have changed. If her family income has been reduced since she applied and the school is no longer affordable, she should definitely refuse the offer.
The OP never said they wanted to refuse the offer. She was just worried about her parents paying for it. It seems like they have that all worked out now.OP said the UT Austin acceptance came in mid January. It’s only the 26th. It’s not like she kept them hanging for months. I really don’t get the uproar.
Wouldn’t be an uproar if she hadn’t brought up getting out of the ED agreement. And it just takes an email to admissions to tell them, except the UCs.
Those wascally average caucasian middle class christians…
Backing out of the ED school may not have been first choice, but notice there was no question about “what can I do to make Scripps affordable” but rather “is it possible to remove the binding nature of ED”
This entire thread was a train wreck. Certainly nice to see a couple of mature adults to scold a high schooler over the internet, huh?
If you had to say something, at least offer a bit of helpful advice rather than criticizing her for her family’s situation.
^ I thought there were a number of posts offering useful advice.
I think many of the posters on this thread don’t realize that this is one of many threads that the OP had started to discuss her dissatisfaction with her parents insisting she apply ED to Scripps (or CMC). This is an ongoing saga that NEVER ends. It just takes on a new form.
@CheddarcheeseMN Sure, and there were plenty that were also fairly vitriolic.
OP no financial reasons unless your mom was earning the bulk of the 280 and left the job for minimum wage. No claiming that being 18 makes one independent to colleges. No claiming your parents can’t afford this until you speak with them.
You say you would “be happy to go to Scripps.” So withdraw the other apps and decline UT Austin.
I can’t see how financial concerns can be a legitimate factor without having spoken to your parents.
I think people are responding to what seems like an increase in the number of families who want to back out of ED agreements this year. OP apparently never wanted to apply ED to this particular school, but I can’t imagine that’s the case with everyone.
Is it always like this and I haven’t noticed, or are more people backing out this year? And if more are declining than before, why is that? Is the aid not coming out the way they expected? I haven’t seen any complaints that the NPC’s were wildly off, but I suppose that could be a contributing factor. Cost of living expenses seem to come up a lot. Are people hoping colleges will take the high cost of living in a particular area into account when determining aid and are disappointed when they don’t? Or are they just hoping to get a better deal somewhere else?
@austinmshauri - The questions about an increase in the number of families who want out is being discussed here:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1848806-more-ed-issues-than-usual-p1.html
Thanks, @ClaremontMom.