<p>I don’t see third parties making this kind of offer. Of course it would be wonderful if everyone could attend the most selective and expensive colleges in the country, </p>
<p>Maybe some others will see the value in offering merit awards to all.</p>
<p>But really, there are many colleges that offer merit awards.</p>
<p>And some of the most competitive and well endowed schools already offer significant need based aid to families with incomes in the $180,000 range…including Harvard.</p>
<p>What does vfairness mean in this case? Is it fair you can’t afford a Mercedes Benz? Its the price for the product. Too many people get wrapped up in the name - Mercedes Benz, Harvard… Many routes will get you where you need to go</p>
<p>The schools that cost $20,000 were not an option for DD either. Kids like DD cannot afford to go to state schools or schools that don’t meet full need. She only applied to schools that met full need. With the exception of Howard U & UNC-CH. They both wanted her to take loans…so those schools came off the list. </p>
<p>Harvard and others are very generous with aid for middle class students as well. But if you’re saying that the $60K COA would be one quarter of the family income, then you’re talking about $240K income which would hardly be considered middle class. Harvard and others provide full need without any loans for family income of 65K or less and for incomes of 65-150 families are asked to contribute from 0 to 10 percent of their income. I think that aid generally ends when you approach 200K. According to Wiki, $250K is the top 1.5% of wage earners in the US.</p>
<p>As for some of the programs you mentioned, while students have to have financial need, the scholarships are extremely competitive and are based on academics, community service, essays, etc… There are thousands who qualify financially, but only a small percentage make the final cut. </p>
<p>The hardest part of attending Harvard and other generous colleges is getting admitted. </p>
<p>@SoMuch2Learn as my own DD found out! She made it all the way to finalist status with the GMSP and didn’t make the cut. There were other big national scholarships that she applied for, made it down to the final selectees and the door was shut. She was accepted to some pretty snazzy schools that gives lots of FA to kids like her. </p>
<p>^Congratulations to your daughter NHCTmom! Yes, thankfully there are some incredibly generous colleges. When you really need 100% need, the list of schools becomes very limited. </p>
<p>@"Erin’s Dad" I think it’s pretty clear that I’m not talking about the families who can afford a Benz…</p>
<p>Look guys, Harvard was just an EXAMPLE. Even an OOS public school like UVA could be over $40,000. And UVA is just an example. </p>
<p>I wasn’t only talking about schools take cost $60,000. A family with an income of $140,000 would probably struggle to pay $35,000 for college. I was just wondering if there were any options for that large chunk of families who don’t meet the low income requirements. </p>
<p>@SoMuch2Learn </p>
<p>I get that students don’t just get in without working for the named scholarships. Do you know of any that are solely academics based?</p>
<p>Even after paying income and payroll taxes and $35,000 for a kid’s college, that $140,000 income family would still have remaining income comparable to or higher than the US median family’s gross income, so it is not like paying for a kid’s college will make them “poor”.</p>
<p>Full rides are rare but if you are looking for full tuition scholarships then look to individual schools. The Stamps scholarship did not have a family income requirement. This was at the Univ. of Miami but Stamps is available at different schools.</p>
<p>Well, a family earning 240k is paying at least 20 percent, if not a good bit more in taxes, including SS. Truth be told, 60k is probably more like a 1/3 of their income. Some families are willing to do that. Others make it happen through Parent Plus loans. Every year at Harvard, a couple of hundred families take, on average, a little more than 20k in Parent Plus loans (coincidentally about the amount we’d need to send our kid there). Others are probably tapping home equity and other lines of credit. But the fact is most people in that not so sweet spot of being too rich for financial aid but too poor to pay 60k per year per child are choosing other educational options, particularly when they have very bright, very talented children.</p>
<p>We can talk all day about the unfairness of the variable tuition pricing (and lots of folks would disagree), but the bottom line is the colleges can do what they want. And so well to do families in the position of having a high stats student have the option of using the variable pricing scheme to their advantage by seeking out schools who actually want their kids and who will prove it by offering those families a significant discount via merit aid. And then there’s always the state school, which is typically an affordable option for better off families.</p>
<p>It’s not like the stork dropped a fully-formed high school senior on the parents’ door step. I’m betting that pretty much all the aid calculators assume that there has been some degree of college savings going on prior to the application process. A family with an income of $140,000 and little or no college savings likely has poor financial planning skills.</p>
I agree with this and was going to post a similar thought. But I think the OP is asking a different question and it’s a good one.</p>
<p>M2CK, I picked your post to reply to on purpose. Over the years we’ve been in discussions over financial versus merit aid at the college level. You’re a big believer in merit aid while I generally come out on the side of financial aid (at least fund financial aid first then start merit programs). So if I were a multi-billonaire who wanted to start a national scholarship fund it would be focused on financial aid (actually if I had the money I’d donate money to Cornell to make sure it had the best financial aid of any college in the US). However, there are lots of folks like yourself you have merit aid higher in their priority order for schools to pursue … and this is valid and very effective approach.</p>
<p>So among those believers in merit aid you’d think there would be some very rich folks who would set up a fund similar to the Gates program but with a focus on pure merit aid. When I started reading this thread I thought the OP’s idea was naive but now I think the question is dead on and actually surprised there are not more pure merit programs out there.</p>
<p>Oh please. Our family income was under $150,000 a year for ALL the years our kids attended expensive private universities. Gosh…I guess we shouldn’t have been able to pay the bills. No, we didn’t have. 529 or any other college savings, and no one was bankrolling college costs for us. We did NOT take out Parent Plus or Private loans.</p>
<p>Paying for college was our number one priority during those years…after paying our living expenses here.</p>
<p>I think the Stamps scholarships (available only at select schools) have nothing to do with need. </p>
<p>And of course there are lots of other endowed scholarships at individual colleges that are not need dependent. I know, because those are the schools we’re looking at for our oldest.</p>
<p>ETA: I think it’s because top tier students have LOTS of options already. Maybe not HYPSM, but lots of options nonetheless. Folks who are interested in helping those kids are more likely interested in attracting them to their individual alma maters. </p>
<p>@thumper1 Well gee, you don’t have to be so snarky about it. Perhaps you live somewhere where the cost of living is fairly low and it’s easy to simply say that you are just gonna cut back on spending. With our $1 trillion student loan debt, I’m sorry that more people couldn’t be like you.</p>
<p>@3togo I’m glad you no longer think that I am naive anymore lol. I think it is a very valid question. There ought to be at least a few more solely merit based scholarship programs. It’s beyond me why there aren’t more of them. I get that those who are poor need that extra boost, but there are a lot of middle class families that are thousands of dollars in debt.</p>
<p>Sorry to disappoint you Annie, but we live in one of the top five most expensive states…and in an expensive area.</p>
<p>Both of my kids received merit awards from their universities…smallish ones. I’m not sure why you are adverse to the notion of merit awards from the many universities that give them. </p>
<p>I’m not being snarky. I’m stating the facts. A family in the $150,000 or so income range should have plenty of college options for their kids. See ucba’s post above.</p>
<p>In addition, I think the term “middle class” means many different things to many different people. </p>
<p>Were you paying 35k for each kid, each year? I’m asking because I honestly don’t think I could do it on that income. Not without loans. I’m one to account for every single penny of our expenses. Some things would be easy lifestyle calls - cutting out cable, turning down the heat, changing how we eat, cutting cell phone plans, etc. But all that frugality would amount to maybe a 1k per month. For the big bucks, it’d take things like getting rid of one of the cars, exposing ourselves to risk via minimum insurance, and not saving for retirement. Are those choices that you made? If you didn’t make those choices, I’d really like to know how you did it - would you happen to have a budget? Not trying to be combative, I’m simply very curious. Thanks.</p>