I think it is easy for GC and CC posters as well to impost their own situations onto others. Most of us here do a pretty good job of discriminating based on the variety of situations people might be in, however, I know I’ve found myself looking at posts through my own lens.
“Do parents ever go back and correct/educate these ignorant GCs? Like in this case? or in cases where the family believed the GC and then got little/no aid and schools were unaffordable? If not, why not??”
I think I would be inclined to ask the GC to explain his/her comment and then ask leading questions about various situations. I might inject “I have heard” comments and ask their opinion but I don’t think I’d go so far as to correct or educate. I do think that if a GC said “don’t worry about paying for xx university” I would be asking why they say that. That said I think GCs should be aware that not all families have similar situations and should qualify their statements.
I specifically recommended this site to my D’s GC when they were in the college app timeframe. I don’t know if she ever checked it out but I’m trying to do my part.
This is the seminar at Ds school tonight. I’m very curious as to what we will learn! The whole “how to send your child to schools you never thought you could afford…” Hmmmmmmm.
W TO PAY FOR COLLEGE WITHOUT GOING BROKE
College planning workshop on Tuesday, February 9th at 6:30pm in the Library.
The PTA is bringing back college planning expert Doug Bryan with Ducerus-Your Total College Solution. He will be sharing secrets on how to send your child to schools you never thought you could afford.
THIS WORKSHOP IS INTENDED FOR PARENTS OF FRESHMEN AND SOPHOMORES AND JUNIORS. Parents of seniors will still get some benefit. As Mr. Bryan says, “When it comes to college-the more you plan, the less you pay.” Again, this free workshop is Tuesday, February 9th at 6:30 pm in the Library.
I just got done emailing with D because Naviance shows that her mid year grades still aren’t in at one of the schools to which she applied. She has been mentioning this to GC for a month. We’re in Florida so grades were final in mid December. She is admitted to three schools and all three called to ask where her scores were - one was giving her a $20k per year merit scholarship and was going to have to pull it if the scores weren’t in within 24 hours. Scores weren’t even sent to her ED school until three days before the decision was sent out - and of course she was deferred. I can’t complain because she has a younger sibling who will have the same counselor (divided by alpha order of last name).
When my kids were in school, their school had a financial aid meeting late January (a little better than your school). However, it focused on the FAFSA with a March deadline. So it was really for those applying to UC/CSU’s. Granted that’s a large segment of the HS population, but for those applying to private schools that used CSS Profile and had Feb 1 deadlines (both my kids had plenty of schools in that category) it left a gaping hole in the information (and was a little late in the game!)
@NJFL123 I would have a really, really hard time keeping my mouth shut on that one. I’d be roosting at that counselor’s front door (and I’m not saying this is the right thing to do, but I have a do-battle temperament).
Seems like they should have that at the beginning of the school year, with enough lead time before application deadlines, and it should cover more than just how to fill in the FAFSA – stuff like checking net price calculators, searching for automatic versus competitive merit scholarships, etc…
First GC college related meeting with all parents (those who cared to show up) was about March of junior year. Opening words: “Don’t assume about discounts; don’t count on being a recruited athlete with money thrown at you.” She had to put the responsibility back on the families to research, not enough staff to do anything else.
Many of us now have kids out of college. Many of us have found that, when the kid is savvy, it doesn’t matter what college, certainly not to the degree some on CC agonize and twist themselves into knots over. Of course, I can admit I see some sheen on some college names. But all those hs peers who went to less known schools? The kids who are motivated, have some sort of vision and are able to work toward goals, are all doing well. And I also know kids who did go to various colleges, including the shiny, and aren’t.
I’m glad that I did my research in time as our high school, like many public high schools, does not do a very good job of informing families of the realities of college admissions and finance. We had a plan in place and applications started in the summer prior to my DC’s senior year. Biggest frustration was the counselors “reach for stars” message without consideration of costs and mentors who insisted that if you were close to full pay then you must be rich and your parents can afford it. Not to mention all the bright and talented peers/snowflakes who were applying/hoping/planning to go to Harvard and other elite schools on merit scholarships or financial aid when their families were definitely upper-middle income. There were a few tears in our household during the journey, but I told our DC many times in the process that “success” has much more to do with the student than the college as long as you went to a good school and that there were many good schools. In the end, most of the talented peers went to the state flagship and I expect they are happy now and will do well. But for most of them it was a huge disappointment when reality hit. Our outcome was happier as expectations were more realistic and we were exceedingly lucky.
@ucbalumnus - Yes, I agree — that was my point. While it was slightly better than the previous posters experience (who posted their meeting was in February), it was still pretty late in my opinion. Heck, by the time I went to the meeting the first time we already had the FAFSA done! But they were focused on UCs so those kids had a little more time. I’m guessing they figure most families won’t even think about that stuff until it’s time to actually do it.
In reading some of the earlier posts I do want to mention that I too have more than a few friends who never saved one dime for their student (now Seniors), and they are freaking out now. I want to say REALLY? You live in a nice home, drive nice cars, go on nice vacations, overindulge on gifts at holiday time, have at least two lattes per day from the coffee place, always seem to have the latest Iphones, big flat screen TV’s with all the channels, and eat out fairly often. Good for you, I totally get it, but how can you now say that you need all this financial aid/merit money, etc or your kid will be in massive debt after leaving college, because you were "never able to save’? Yes, it is tough to save for college, but if you start saving a little each week when your kid is young, and putting into a 529, you can make a nice dent. BUT it takes CHOICES! Live in an adequate house/apt, not something over the top. Drive reasonable cars, not the swanky logo brands, be reasonable with holiday spending and vacation spending, make most of your coffee at home or in the office, eat out 2x per month vs 4x, go for the lower end of cable plans and have one TV not 3. There are people out there that TRULY need and deserve financial aid and they will deservedly get it, but most financial aid is based on household income, not how in debt you are for that big house and boat. So if you have a pretty decent household income you will not get much aid, if any. What you get will likely be in the form of ‘loans at 7%’. BOTTOM LINE: everyone should start saving the day they have a child, and making the tough daily choices along the way to carve out an extra bit each week to put away. If you do that, you can make a decent dent by the time your child is 18. I am not judging those that truly need it, but my pals that are now freaking out due to not having any $ for their seniors to go to college are otherwise very bright folks. I don’t ‘get’ how they somehow for 18 years lived pretty nice lifestyles and did not think to put even $25 per week away. Had they done that for 18 years in a 529 they’d likely have enough to send their kids to community college3 for two years and then fund a respectable chunk of the final 2 years at a state college. I know some prefer a fancier school, but it is totally ok to go to a community college for two years and then to a state school if that’s what you can afford.
I feel I’ve been on a financial journey with college. I initially made an assumption we would not get any need-based aid. I make $150K and save alot (although mostly in retirement accounts). I also have saved about $330K in 529 plans. My son gets great grades (SAT-2250, GPA weighted over 100). I expected to get some merit-based aid, although I realized it would not be at his dream school.
This year, my view totally changed. Some of the schools he’s applying to, especially when I have 2 kids in college, show as giving generous need-based aid. I know he probably won’t get into most of those schools, but I would not be surprised if he got into one of them. He applied to 5 or 6 schools that are need-blind. Some of the other schools appear to be generous with aid after using the school’s calculators. So, schools I expect him to receive need-based aid if he gets in: Harvard, Yale, UofP, Wash U, Vanderbilt, Hopkins, Cornell.
We applied to some schools where I do expect him to get some merit-based aid: Case Western, University of Miami. We also applied to a couple OOS schools: Virginia and UMich that I don’t expect to get much of anything. Of course, we also applied to NY state school, Binghamton, as we are from NY. And one last school, with great tuition - McGill.
The point here is one should not expect anything, but it’s good to apply to a financially diverse group of schools. That may mean applying to more than the recommended 7 or so I hear. My son applied to 13 schools.
Maybe I’m wrong, but with that income combined with those very significant assets… I wouldn’t necessarily be expecting FA even from the most generous colleges.
I am skeptical as well till I see an offer. However, either the calculators are not accurate or we will receive a decent amount of need-based aid. For every school I mentioned as potentially receiving need-based aid above, everyone shows us receiving over $30K when I have 2 kids in college. I was pretty surprised when I saw those numbers.
I ran the calculators with one and two kids in college (our overlap will be for only two of the years). With only one in college, still got something decent: $18-20K. My EFC was around $48K.
