That’s it. That’s the tweet. ;0-)
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- They get enough FA to make it happen. This will most likely apply to low income families.
- They are full pay.
- They might be one of the very few who gets a lucrative scholarship.
- They dig into savings, they take out parent plus loans, the student takes whatever Federal loans are available, the student does work study, etc…
- They go to a cheaper college.
BC is not known for generous financial aid, though as of last year they say they will meet 100% of demonstrated need. Use their NPC to see how much they say you will pay.
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Yeah. Did. They expect a LOT.
The same thing happened to my police officer dad when I got accepted there. Gave us bupkus even with my sister attending MIT at the same time. Ridiculous.
Of course that was 100 years ago when it was easier, etc. Oy.
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BC uses your house’s value against youe FA, even if you’re still payibg most of the mortgage.
If you rent it’s better, but of cojrse most people would rather buy a house and pay the mortgage than rent.
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We live outside of Boston. Our small suburban HS has 1/8th of the senior class applying Early Decision to BC. All these people live in 700k+ homes so they are not getting a dime of financial aid. But we are in a high cost of living area so many don’t necessarily have the $ saved to pay for it. I think some of them will sell a kidney to cover the cost as long as their kid gets to go to BC. I asked one friend how they plan to pay for it and their response was “we’ll figure it out”. I know they have no 529’s for their kids and make too much for FA. It’s nuts. It’s a great school but we told our kid it’s way too expensive, luckily he probably wouldn’t get in anyways.
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According to data which is a couple of years old, BC found “42% of undergrads to have financial need; average aid package $45,952.”
For the same reporting year, Notre Dame found 48% to have financial need & awarded a bit over $51,000 in its average aid package.
Overlap schools: Harvard, BU, Penn, Virginia, Northeastern, Notre Dame, Villanova, & Georgetown.
Northeastern (also in the Boston area) found that just 32% had financial need with the average aid package at almost $31,000.
Georgetown awarded financial aid to 38% & Virginia to 35%.
Villanova awarded aid to 48%; Penn to 46%.
Harvard awarded financial aid to 58% in average amount of $58,403, but, Harvard is the Harvard of financial aid.
BU awarded financial aid to 42% just like BC. Average aid amounts are similar.
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@Publisher Thanks for sharing these stats.
I believe this question is not specific to BC but to any top-tier highly selective private schools that offer actually zero or practically zero merit-based scholarships.
Students who can be admitted to this tier of schools can also apply to public schools and private schools from the next tier that offer merit-based scholarships in addition to need-based ones. Once all the decisions with financial aid numbers are in, it is a decision specific to each student and the family.
My first kid chose our state school after being also admitted to private schools (with merit scholarships for some and full pay for others). She is happy and doing really well (secured a Wall Street summer internship before the sophomore year ended).
The second kid chose her dream school BC. The initial financial aid letter came with no aid. We asked if they can match a scholarship for having a college-age sibling offered by another college from the same or slightly higher tier, and they came back with an even better package (more than double of the other offer). It is still very expensive but these scholarships help alleviate the financial burden.
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Put money into 529 the minute your first kid is born (or as early as your state allows). Add as much as you can, as early as you can, as often as you can - then your chances for another stock market boom before your kid needs the money are very high. And c’mon, a new car every 3 years? An overpriced foreign trip because Airbnb is sooo inconvenient?. Lighten up.
Expect no more than 50% of FA you are “hoping” for (based on fuzzy math). You’ll be fine if you planned early.
Your personal experience may vary but that’s how we have been able to afford one of the most selective LAC in the country. Very generous, just not to us. No hard feelings though, it is a fabulous institution, and the kid is supper happy.
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Who gets a new car every 3 years?
Let alone a new one.
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BC is different from most colleges in the way it looks at equity and home value. Run the NPC on BC and the college you could afford: you’ll see the difference.
Interesting, my daughter’s friend got into BC and BU, received FA everywhere he applied. Chose BU over BC because the cost was significantly less.
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So you only have one child? We had 529’s for all 5, so that helped a little. We buy our cars used and drive them into the ground (every single one has been towed away after 20+ years of service). We’ve never had an overseas trip, but try to take a family vacation every 4 years or so. We never go out to eat, get takeout a few times each month. My kids who wanted to go OOS mostly applied to safeties because a lot of merit was needed. One really liked Villanova and got into honors, I think she did get enough FA there to bring tuition closer to $60,000, because she had a sibling in college. According to Realtor.com, my house is under 1600 square feet and worth $520,000. Not living large here. Our household income has been significantly higher these past 4 years.
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Sure it’s harder to save enough in a 529 depending on how many kids you choose to have. We had two and it’s worked out to where we can afford the in-state public, obviously not the mega pricetag some pay for elite colleges. Everyone’s situation is different. I’m glad to have saved since my kids were born. I think it’s been a worthwhile investment and they’ll certainly benefit because if it. If we had only one kid they could probably go anywhere. If we had four they would probably need to seek out a bunch of aid or perhaps two years at CC first. A 529 is certainly a good way to save for future education costs.
I never presumed to know anything about financing college education in families with many kids.
My rather careless remarks were based on discussions with several friends who lived large (for their income) and then were shocked to find out how ungenerous FA was for their child (or two children).
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Also, life happens. So there are years where you don’t have the “disposable” income to fund retirement (what one’s supposed to do first) and also 529s. ESPECIALLY if you’re self employed.
So when people on these forums ask for advice, (not in this thread) they’re not the 1%ers who shelter assets abroad, etc. Or even top 10%ers.
Aside: one year my husband finally made me get a “new” car bc my front door didn’t work and I had to get out via the passenger side. LOL.
Most people who didn’t have $$ growing up can’t grow out of the frugal mindset.
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I was at the supermarket picking up my online order and a man in a truck approached me and asked if I wanted a quote for bodywork! My dad grew up with money, he attended private boarding school before attending Ivy’s for undergrad and grad, my mon grew up sharing a bed with her sister in a railroad style apartment in an urban area, never even learned to drive until she got married, they never owned a car. Our retirement is in good shape, we just don’t have nice things. At one pint my sister will need to buy a second home somewhere to live 6 months 1 day out of the year. Her kids’ college education fund is fully funded anywhere including grad school. Every situation is different.
I try not to be judgmental about how other people spend their money- but I sure wish the “not frugals” would follow the same courtesy!
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My first year tuition at BC (mid-1980s) was $6,500 (tuition, excluding room/board). My friends who are also parents of HS seniors laugh when I tell them. IIRC it went up to $7,350 2nd year, then $8,400 my 3rd year.
We students were outraged at how large the annual increases were lol!
Ran the numbers… If I had saved $5500 per year since 1/1/04 in a S&P 500 index fund, I would now have $300K.
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