Live in NYC. Therefore, $200K in combined income equals no savings. Rent, no assets. Are we in for a rough time for Financial Aid? I guess I am asking is income the be all end all or are other considerations taken into account. Thank you!
Assets are taken into account as is family size. Your best bet is to run the net price calculator for the schools your child is considering. The good news is that you have great SUNY options!
$200k in NY doesn’t mean no savings. You didn’t save, but saving is possible. I lived in NY on far less and accumulated quite a bit of savings.
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What colleges are you thinking about?
How much can you pay annually for college?
When does your student start college?
What can you and your family pay for college each year?
Have you run the NPC (Net Price Calculator) for those schools that interest you? If not, do so , and see what kind of aid you might expect at various schools.
What are your academic stats, test scores, unweighted gpa, courses taken and taking? What area of study are you considering? Merit awards might be a possibility Top 10% in the class eligible for scholarships at NY school with certain limitations
Are you the student or the parent?
I would not be so quick on judging whether someone could save or not. A lot of reasons for no savings. Like just recently getting those earnings, having had some horrible expenses in prior years, parent recently marrying into that income bracket, etc etc.
No savings means no assets to be hit at the 5.6% over the protection allowance, so it’s all income that will be assessed.
Number of dependents , income protection allowance, taxes , others in college, 2 parents working allowance, will figure in that formula.
That’s FAFSA. If the school also uses PROFILE, it all depends on how they take the info and non custodial parents, family owned business will be difficult to take into account with the NPC
Kid is a Junior. straight A, Top HS. So, SUNY and everything else is on the table. Will run NPC. Thanks!
Hi. Thank for the NPC advice.
Yale returned= $4g
USC returned $49g
Suny returned $15g
So, I guess we’ll see.
Out of state public schools are going to be painfully expensive unless you pick from the ones with good merit aid. AZ, NE, AL…there are others, but that’s what I remember offhand. Test scores and GPA are what counts for big auto scholarships.
Is this directed to me? My questions were directed to you so that I and others might better be able to answer your questions.
The SUNY schools are terrific, and you are fortunate to have them as your instate option. Many different choices too.
Yale and similar very selective schools that meet full need for all also have very generous need based aid…if the student gets accepted, and that isn’t a slam dunk for anyone. But if your student has the application for decent consideration for admission, go for it. As long as your kid knows your price limit!
I asked about your annual ability to pay because this does make a difference. Some schools will be affordable, and others won’t be with your income.
The net price calculators are set for students starting in 2020. You will want to run them again either very late summer or early September of you kid’s senior year in high school.
Generally speaking OOS publics aren’t great on merit unless you are looking at Arizona, Alabama, Iowa State, etc… If your student does well on the PSAT/SAT and becomes a NMF, it will open doors for some of the big merit scholarships.
IMO, it’s good that you are starting to run numbers now to get an idea. Some of the big merit scholarships are from schools with rolling admission so it’s a good idea for your student to be ready to submit applications as soon as they open. My $.02 is to have the common app essay written and edited, and have recommenders lined up this spring.
Did OP mean U of Southern California?
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FA folks understand some areas are more expensive to live in. There’s a little give in the Fafsa, for this. But Yale and S. Cal will add the CSS Profile, which looks at a broader range of info. Get a reference, like Fin Aid for Dummies or How to Pay for College Without Going Broke.
And look for colleges that offer merit awards.
If student has 1500+ SAT or 33 + ACT, merit at University of Pittsburgh, Ohio State, WVU, U Alabama is possible.
It might or might not come in under SUNY cost.
How about running some school NPCs like Davidson, Wake Forest, Gettysburg , Cornell ( if you can do one of instate land grant schools and the private schools) , And what others suggested.
What can you afford?
What is expected area of study?
SUNY is a wide open field. Binghamton offers no merit money and Id expect NPC to be ~$25 there unless the STEM award is in there or income used can be reduced to $125k by taxes, and other deductions and your son qualified for the Excelsior.
Other SUNYs might have auto merit.
Can you afford to pay anything out of your current income? I wouldn’t expect much/any need based aid. Does your student qualify for merit anywhere? If you tell us their stats people here might be able to offer suggestions.
What can you afford to pay each year? Any test scores?
If you can afford to pay for the SUNY’s, then with high stats and being in-state you at least have multiple very good schools as options.
Based on our experience, being willing and able to pay about $40,000 per year might open up some more options based on merit aid if your child’s stats are very good. Most of the schools that either daughter applied to came out at or below this number, in many cases due to merit based aid.
With an income of $200,000, plus having to afford to live in a very high cost of living area, some very good universities will simply not be affordable. I think that most students (not necessary most who participate on this web site) have to limit their choices quite a bit based on budget issues. The NPCs are probably the best way to guess which schools will fall into this category.
One thing that worried me a little bit: The majority of university students in the US do not graduate in 4 years. Financial aid usually ends after four years. One advantage of a public in-state school is that if you do go a fifth year, then you are still getting an affordable education for the fifth year. This might be a lower risk for a straight A student. However, even straight A students can have a change of major late, or want to take on a dual major.
What schools does your son have in mind? Yale, USC and SUNYs quite a gap in selectivity in between. Again, what does he want to study?
Your post is a concern.
If you weren’t able to save any money at all, then how much can you spend each year on college?
How much CAN you spend each year on college? $5k? $10k? $20k? More ? Less?
Are you looking for a total free ride?
What are your child’s stats and major/career goal?
You’re likely going to have a FAFSA EFC of somewhere between $50k to 70k per year.
Every family has different financial demands. That you don’t have a pile of money saved up for your kid is saddening for you, but it is not the end of the world. You still have time to put something away - even if it is only enough to help pay for books - provided there is a way to carve it out of your current budget. We had zero college savings until January of Happykid’s senior year of high school. Yup, you read that correctly. Zero. January. Senior year. Beginning then, we set aside $500 each month with the goal of having the fall tuition and fees at our local community college ready when the bill would come. The plan was to stash enough each semester to pay for the next. And that system did work. We were able to consistently put $500 into savings each month through the CC years. As luck would have it, she won a tuition & fees scholarship at her CC which meant the money could sit in laddered CDs until she needed it to help pay for the state U she transferred to.
Look at your household budget. Pretend that you’ve just dropped your kid off at SUNY. See what you can cut back on in order to be ready for the next semester’s bill. Then try living that way for two or three months, and set the money into a savings vehicle of your choice. If it is do-able you will know pretty quickly, and can keep on living like that. If it isn’t, you also will know that pretty quickly. In which case your kid can start looking at the CUNY and commuting distance CC options for financial safeties.