“Not all publics offer full tuition scholarships.”
“Not all students qualify for those that may exist”
-That was exactly my points. You got to find those that do. My kid did not receive much at other places. Out of her list, two publics offerred full tuition and one private offer $27k/year out of $33k. Other publics offerred very little.
And I agree that not all students qualify, that is why I said, that PLANNING is required and this planning has to start when the kid is 5 y o.
Again, it is family decision. Some MDs are sending kids to local colleges to save on living expenses in addition to having free tuition because of Merit awards. I know very rich families who are done that and very thankful kids who graduated from local Med. School (again, no loans, free because parent was working there) without any loans. These kids could easily be accepted to very prestigious and expensive UGs and expensive Med. Schools. They decided otherwise.
So, what is an argument here? Family sends the child to whatever place they deem appropriate for whatever reasons and they face consequences of this decision. If they decided to send a kid to a school that they cannot afford, then they were ready for consequences of this decision.
What’s the cutoff for getting anywhere near COA based on merit alone? Or any decent merit for that matter? So many people on CC mention it like everyone is a shoe-in if they just apply, but in reality I don’t think most kids can get substantial merit awards (after all, 50% of kids are below average). Obviously CC is severely slanted toward high-achieving kids/parents who care a lot or they wouldn’t be here, but reading these boards leaves the impression everyone is in the top 5% or even 1%, whereas in reality that leaves out >95% of the student population. For some of the ivy and bigger name schools, I did an informal tally of some of the Stats postings that people put on the individual college acceptance / rejection threads, and the “average” ACT posted is >31. Well 32 is 99% percentile, so what about the bulk of non-merit grade kids? Obviously GPA is almost impossible to evaluate given different scoring systems, extra points for AP classes, etc etc
I don’t agree with MiamiDAP’s numbers (only in Lake Wobegon can all students be in the top half of the class), but I do agree the middle class families have to make compromises. The better the student, the better the choices, but some may have to drop the ‘dream’ and look for something else. Both of my kids did, and the one who is the better student had more choices. Her sister is very happy with her college, but she definitely had fewer choices.
I also think they have to drop the sense of entitlement many have developed. She’s EARNED it to go to the dream school, he deserves to go to an Ivy, for free because we’ve saved no money and have only been earning $$$ for 3 years. That doesn’t work when you are buying a car, a house, or an education. Some models are more expensive and if you want that model/house/school, you have to pay for it. The education may not be less challenging, may not be less valuable, but you may have to work harder for it.
As Tim Gunn says, Make It Work.
I didn’t do it (honestly) but there must be a lot of families that simply stash a significant amount of cash somehere (mattress, cookie jar) so it doesn’t count against them when “need” aid is computed.
Moooop…well, if families stash the money under their mattress or in a trunk buried in their backyard, the money is till theirs…and is required to be reported on the fafsa. If it’s not, and they are caught…and yes, this is possible ( think of it…how would a family without the resources have the cash to pay the bills…the college will notice the bills got paid), the student could face a fine, repayment of any aid received, loss of admitting status, loss of diploma if done with college. It is fraud to misrepresent your assets ( and that includes what is in the cookie jar…unless it is petty cash change) for financial aid gain.
@moooop I’m not so sure that your scenario is very realistic. First of all, over time, to forego investment returns on the $$ would be a potentially huge opportunity cost. Second, if the money is the parents’ it’s only counted around 5% per year for FAFSA purposes (I recognize some colleges tap more of this savings for CSS, but it still wouldn’t take the entire things, or even 25% per year). And finally, if you are saving the money for college, why wouldn’t you spend it on, well, college? Parents who do this would be very short-sighted because depending on the timeframe involved, they could double or triple that mattress money if they had it invested.
I cannot imagine any one accumulating or stashing $100,000+ in the cookie jar over ten years or more just to receive better college financial aid. Never mind “a lot of families”
@SlackerMomMD,
Just popped up in yesterday’s news. Lol, this woman in china had a Walter White sized mattress of cash (check out the photo):
LOL, all of that cash was less than $20K, and then she put the rest (probably around $70K for a 730i) on a credit card! What a waste of time for those workers!
Thumper, I’m not saying it’s legal. I’m saying not saying it’s foolproof. I’m also not saying you’d need to do it for decades. But people do all sorts of shady things to lower their income tax, even a little bit; don’t tell me they would hesitate to game the FA process.
Cam, I don’t get why u think they wouldn’t be using the money for college, or why they would need to stash it for decades preceeding college. Take Family A and Family B. All other things being equal, Family A has $100k in a 529 fund getting a 6% annual return (and running the risk of a loss). Family B has gradually stashed a total of $100k in the cookie jar over the 2 years preceeding college (they cut back on expenses, liquidated some investments, etc). They are equally capable of paying for college, but Family B gets more need aid, no? It’s like the people in previous comments who stashed cash in retirement accounts so that it wouldn’t be used against them when computing need, except in this case the cookie jar money can still be used to pay for college. Cam, the average family that is applying for need aid is probably not in a position to double or triple money in a few years, are they? And yeah, if FAFSA is only 5%, then it’s the CSS schools where this would be done.
[Once again, I didn’t do this, and wouldn’t do this…you can come and search my mattresses any time you want;I’m just saying that some people are ruthless and unethical when it comes to money, so I can see it being done]
Some people are unethical, but income is the big determinant for fin aid most of the time, and if you’re not making money on the black market or illegally; if you’re a regular salaried working stiff, income is pretty hard to hide. But certainly, some people lie. Some even admit to it; I’m surprised that schools don’t do more to catch them.
You’d be surprised how many people have cash stashed at home. Many immigrants do not want to deal with US banks, and continue to do banking abroad or stash cash until they can find a bank they ‘understand’ - a Vietnamese bank or a Korean bank. Many small businesses use check cashing places because they don’t understand banks, don’t have SSN or don’t want to be found to be here without papers. There is a case in Nevada of an older guy who died, and it turns out his house was full of gold and silver coins and bars. Millions of dollars worth.
People have cash in safe deposit boxes. Aren’t supposed to, but they do. There are still a lot of people who are afraid of another market crash. There were people who lost money when IndyMac was closed because at the time the FDIC account limit was $100k, and they had more than that in one account. Even when the limit was raised, they still didn’t recover all their money. People don’t like banks.
“How do middle class families afford colleges that cost $60K per year?”
I don’t think that they realistically can pay full sticker. Usually they get financial aid grants.
Or they don’t send their kids there if the fin aid isn’t good enough.
@moooop I suppose your case is possible, although absent an inheritance, anyone who can afford to stash $100k in a few years is probably at an income level that exceeds financial aid cutoffs at most schools. Like everything else, it’s certainly possible, but not probable.
As others have noted, there are plenty of taxpayers who figure out ways to hide income, and illegally do not report their accurate income so I guess some of these folks could avoid the FAFSA/CSS net and get need-based aid when they don’t need it. But for these people it’s probably less about college and more about a way of life to stay out of reach of the government, and it just happens to serve them well if they happen to have kids going to college.
However, if it’s just a working stiff like myself, who happens to have some assets and make a decent living, it would be very difficult and not worth the prosecution risk for me to switch things up just to unlawfully attain financial aid.