<p>Does anyone know about getting financial aid after being taken off the waiting list? I’m waitlisted, and IF I were to be taken off the list (if being the operative word), I would definitely need financial aid to go. I’m just weighing my options at this point. Anyone have any information?</p>
<p>WOW Simpson that is incredible! Congrats! :]</p>
<p>I’m still waiting to get a financial aid offer.</p>
<p>I got in EA, but am still waiting on FA. Though they did need some extra info from me that I sent in a few weeks ago.</p>
<p>congrats simpson!! I have to compare Gtown’s and Brown’s so I’m a bit nervous.</p>
<p>I haven’t either</p>
<p>Son <em>finally</em> received his finaid package last week. It was disappointing. Although we are considering an appeal, we’re not even sure we’re doing that. He has a full-ride to a LAC, and a fantastic flagship state university possibility, also.</p>
<p>P.S. He is also turning down UChicago and Notre Dame because of bad finaid.</p>
<p>Tough year, HS09Parent.</p>
<p>Still no word from Gtown.</p>
<p>^ HS09Parent: I think you are in the same “death zone” that my parents are in. They make more than $100K, but less than $200K, which means that the FAFSA assumes that my parents can pay $45K or so per year for me to go to school. But in order to come up with $45K for a year of college, that translates into $75k/yr that they need to earn before taxes. They only make in the low/mid 100’s, so that means that HALF of their take-home pay would have to go to my college. </p>
<p>My dad says he would have been better off quitting his job or taking a leave from it – or taking one that only pays $30k/yr – for the 4 years I am in school – and get $200,000 in free money via grants and scholarships – and then get a good job again in 4 years. </p>
<p>Or open a pizza shop and only “make” $20K/yr ;-)</p>
<p>But if you are a W2 wage slave in the $100K-$200K range (you know, one of those “rich” people making in the mid-100k range that Obama talks about on TV), with no way to hide money or defer it showing up on your finaid forms, then I know what your household is going through right now. We are in the same boat here. I worked my butt off to get into some good schools, and now I find out that I can barely afford them, if at all.</p>
<p>^ Sharing your predicament. </p>
<p>Sincerely,
The Entire Upper-Middle Class</p>
<p>If I haven’t received a financial aid letter yet (which seems to be the case for several others as well), do you think it would be worth it to call the university?</p>
<p>TheDukefEarl, no we are not in the same income “death zone” as your parents. We are in a much lower income bracket. My dh is contributing to the economy by owning a business that employs people. Yet my son is punished for that. Business is down. It’s far better to be dirt-poor and have parents who don’t contribute to the economy and are simply freeloaders. Then one is rewarded with huge need-based aid awards, apparently. Ain’t finaid great?</p>
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<p>I love the conflation of being poor with not contributing to the economy and being freeloaders, as if those of us who receive financial aid are nothing but leeches. Arrogance and entitlement are terrible things, boys and girls.</p>
<p>As a high school senior listening to you adults talk, I am really disappointed. </p>
<p>Those “dirt-poor” people you are talking about (a.k.a income <$30,000)? Only a few of them will be accepting huge need-based aid awards at top schools like Georgetown. Because those people that have worked at pizza parlors and McDonalds their whole lives have bigger concerns than sending their children to college. They are thinking about if they are going to stay employed, how they are going to feed another mouth, or pay last year’s medical bills. You really don’t want to live what they have been living their whole lives. You don’t understand how blessed you are. </p>
<p>Now colleges are offering a chance for these kinds of families to break out of the cycle.</p>
<p>HS09Parent - So, you would want to be the one living at or below powerty (dirt-poor) in some crappy neighborhood just so that you can get money for 4 yrs of college? FOUR YEARS??? And you think it’s worth it to be dirt poor?</p>
<p>My parents own a small business, and my younger sister will also have to turn down Georgetown b/c of the high price, but I can never ever imagine saying something so stupid as you have just said. What is this world coming to?</p>
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<p>Wow, in addition to being an over involved helicopter parent, you’re seriously going to sit here and call everyone who doesn’t make as much money as you a ‘freeloader’ who doesn’t contribute anything to the economy?</p>
<p>You are ridiculous.</p>
<p>If you’re unwilling to make the financial sacrifice necessary to send your son to the institution at the top of his list, just admit it instead of launching a baseless and pathetic attack on an entire class of people, thanks.</p>
<p>I apologize for my post above. I am frustrated. I am disappointed in our finaid package, because Georgetown and other privates are not affordable for us. If they used FAFSA, it might have been, but using the Profile hurts us (and many other families). We did not realize how we would be penalized by the Profile.</p>
<p>Time to toss the G’town acceptance and financial aid packages in the trash and move on…</p>
<p>Peace.</p>
<p>^^HS09Parent: First of all, sorry that my post ended up leading you to post something that drew flames; and I see you apologized for your response, and I understand your frustration. My point was not that aid should go to me instead of people who have less than me. My point was that I think the income “bar” at which aid drops off is currently set too low, and is perhaps based on an outdated algorithm or stale assumptions. Any attempt to deny folks who have income of, say $20K or $30K, a college education simply perpetuates the low-income trap they live in for the next generation. College aid for those folks has always been, and rightly so should remain, available. But a family living on an income of $120K or $150K, while once well able to afford the cost of a college education, is now not in a position to pay $45K or $50K a year out of pocket.</p>
<p>Over the past number of years, college costs have risen unabated, at rates up to 3x or 4x the rate of inflation, while incomes have stayed static or even dropped relative to inflation. So that a college like Georgetown which not too long ago cost only in the mid-$30K range, is now close to $50K. </p>
<p>This has created the “kill zone” that I mentioned. It’s not a case of saying poor people shouldn’t go to colege, or are less motivated to go to college. It’s a case of middle class “rich” people being priced out.</p>
<p>I thought it made sense to do some back-of-the-envelope calculations to explain my point in more concrete terms:</p>
<p>Here’s the math. Example below is Georgetown, but it could be any one of a number of elite schools.</p>
<p>“Poor” guy
Annual Income = $40,000
FinAid @ Georgetown = $50,000 in grants, which (assuming 30% combined fed/state tax bracket) equals a gift of equivalent $72,000 income
TOTAL: $40,000 + $72,000 = $112,000/yr in cash and income-equivalent service (in the form of tuition)</p>
<p>“Rich” guy
Annual Income = $150,000
FinAid @ Georgetown = zero
Pay out of pocket to Georgetown = $50,000/ year, which assuming same 30% tax bracket as above, meaning he must earn $72,000 to take home that $50,000 for payment to Georgetown, so we are essentially saying he now “earns” $150,000 - $72,000 = $78,000 / yr in cash and income-equivalent service</p>
<p>“Super Rich” guy
Annual income = $300,000
FinAid @ Georgetown = zero
Pay out of pocket to Georgetown = $50,000/ year, which assuming same 30% tax bracket as above, means he must earn $72,000 to take home that $50,000 for payment to Georgetown, so we are essentially saying he now “earns” $300,000 - $72,000 = $228,000 a year in cash and income-equivalent service</p>
<p>So…
We’ve taken the guy who earns $50,000 and given him a “raise” of $72,000 equivalent gross income, via a transfer of fed dollars to his grants, and raised his effective income to $115,000.
We’ve taken the guy who earns $150,000 and told him he must allocate $72,000 of his earnings to cover the cost of the education, and reducing his effective income to $78,000.</p>
<p>The “poor” guy now makes $112K equivalent.<br>
The “rich” guy now makes $78K equivalent.
The “super rich” guy now makes $228K equivalent.</p>
<p>And before anyone starts getting up on the political correctness stump and starts posturing, I am <em>not</em> passing judgement on the “poor” guy or the “rich” guy or the “super rich” guy — none of them is a derelict or a deadbeat. They all get up, shave, and go to work and work hard to make livings for their families every day. And they all deserve to be able to afford to send their children to the best college possible. </p>
<p>It’s just that you cannot point at the model above and in any way say it is fair for the “rich” guy stuck in what I call the “kill zone”. That is, unless you subscribe to a belief system that advocates rampant redistribution of wealth. </p>
<p>It’s ok to say to me “yeah, well, you just got unlucky that your family income falls into this zone at this point – and it only lasts for 4 years – and you could just as easily be one of the poor or the super rich, and if things had been different you may be not posting here”. All true. I admit completely that my position on this is focused on ME, and focused on why my situation leaves my family paying a larger percentage of our income than anyone on either side of us. I think it is unfair, and I think it will over time lead to an imbalance in who gets educated at the top colleges in this country. Unfortunately, the backlash on this will not come in time to help me and my family.</p>
<p>Thats mostly true…assuming that they all continue to work after their Georgetown acceptance. I am a full time employee and nearly 30 years old, making under 40k. I won’t be working full time while in school. It is probably very different for students however. 150K is not very much money today, and its ridiculous to think that a household that makes 150k per year has 50k for college.</p>
<p>Still haven’t received it, how annoying…</p>