<p>
Maybe not most people, but those who put a priority on their kids education over large homes, expensive cars and fancy vacations. We limited the number of children we had just to make sure we could do this. We paid for all three for four years out of savings. And no, we’re not rich. We never made over $100K a year. Just knew what was important.</p>
<p>Those are good, but not great stats (especially the GPA) and I don’t think those are meet full need w/o loans schools. If a real offer without loans comes in thousands under 12K a year for tuition, fees, room, and board, I reiterate, JUMP ON IT.</p>
<p>We are fortunate in Georgia to have had a visionary governor (Zell Miller) who set up the HOPE scholarship program many years ago. This covers most or all of in-state tuition if you have a B-average in high school.</p>
<p>We also saved $100/month since birth for each child in a college fund, which for our first child amounted to about $45K when she finished high school. This should be enough to more or less cover room & board at the state colleges for 4 years.</p>
<p>So with the state scholarship program and our savings, we are looking at a few thousand dollars per year for each child if they go to a state school.</p>
<p>I’m not surprised to see LAC’s coming in cheaper - this is true for many middle class families. When we ran NPC a year ago, our state flagship (UConn) was coming in around $25,000. Many private colleges came in higher than that, but there were several that came in lower. Part of the problem is in how EFC is met. The reason an LAC might be lower is because some of the schools with better aid do pledge to meet full need, and do so without loans (or very minimal loans).</p>
<p>Our planning started long ago, and isn’t going to work for families whose children are close to college age, who haven’t started saving yet.</p>
<p>First, we funded a 529 account, with $20,000 per child - so $5,000 is available each of 4 years. Next, we contributed significant amounts to 401K accounts and Roth IRAs. Those accounts are significant enough that we can afford to not contribute while the kids are in college if necessary, without risking our retirement. Lastly, we payed down our mortgage. Our former monthly mortgage payment is now available to pay tuition costs.</p>
<p>Savings - the 529, and in a pinch money from the Roth IRAs
Current earnings - the former mortgage payments
Future earnings - limited student loans each D will take out, and will pay back with her own future earnings. Youngest is 7 years younger than oldest D, so we expect to be paying tuition over 11 years, and will be done in 2024, a few years before we are ready to retire. Given current balances in retirement accounts, pensions and estimated social security, if we stop contributing to retirement accounts today we will still retire with 70% of our current income (with a household of 2 instead of 5, and no work expenses).</p>
<p>You have to plan ahead - I feel bad for those families that haven’t planned, but not too bad, because we did make sacrifices, and chose to live within our means.</p>
<p>Do not rely on those Net Price Calculators, also use the one on the College Board website…
Choose both formulas, IM for Institutional Methodology and FM for Federal Methodology.</p>
<p>When I did my daughter’s FAFSA the other day and compared it to the College Board’s FM result for the EFC, the difference was under $100.00. </p>
<p>Those Net Price Calculators will not be accurate if you have a self-employed parent, a noncustodial parent from a divorce or if a parent owns their own business. There have been some instances of posters reporting that the NPC predictions of financial aid fell short of their expectations.</p>
<p>
You asked the question. You need to provide enough information so that people can answer your question.</p>
<p>Not only that, but he/she provided the answer in an earlier post. </p>
<p>OP, you need to get realistic. Your grades and scores aren’t good enough to get the full ride you are dreaming about.</p>
<p>You live in NY, parents make $40,000 or under, have a lot of debt, and won’t talk college finances to you (so safe to assume they won’t pay anything). You think your EFC is $200. You say you will kill yourself if you have to go to cc and live at home. You are Asian. The colleges you will be accepted to probably won’t meet full need (as you define it).</p>
<p>Female, Asian, NYS resident, an EFC of $200, a low EFC can be very difficult to make it work financially.
SUNYs will not meet 100% of need. Mt Holyoke would be good financially if you could improve your SAT scores and your GPA. I think Mt Holyoke is test optional. Take a look at Fair Test Dot Org to see what schools are test optional.</p>
<p>Here is how we intend to do it. First we saved about $10,000. We will be able to contribute about $5000 per year. So that about $30000 total. Daughter was a good student and has merit scholarships ranging from full tuition at an instate public to $25500 at a private university with institutional and federal grants equaling full tuition (this year). It will put us within our goal only if she borrows the maximum amount of Federal loans. She will major in engineering and intends to co-op which will allow her to earn up to $15000 to contribute to her education (that’s her earnings minus a reasonable living expense to give her a balance of $15k to contribute to college). She is also eligible for work study and will work over the summer her freshman and sophmore years hopefully making around $1500 to $2000 each summer. We are self employed so she will be guaranteed a job unless she can find something better. If she chooses the in state public she should be able to graduate debt free. If she chooses the private she will graduate with at least $27000 in debt (this year she is eligible for a Perkins loan). That is how we plan to do it.</p>
<p>
The annual cost of a SUNY education is about $22,000. Less if you could get financial aid.
See [Comparing</a> College Costs - Financial Aid - CUNY](<a href=“http://www.cuny.edu/admissions/financial-aid/estimating-costs/college-costs-overview.html]Comparing”>http://www.cuny.edu/admissions/financial-aid/estimating-costs/college-costs-overview.html)</p>
<p>One of my kid is attending SUNY UB. She gets about $7000 in financial aids, borrows about $5000, and get me (the parents) to pay the remaining $10,000. And I paid the $10,000 with the 529 savings. (These numbers could be off by $2000.)</p>
<p>All my kids attended community college for first two years.</p>
<p><a href=“that’s%20her%20earnings%20minus%20a%20reasonable%20living%20expense%20to%20give%20her%20a%20balance%20of%20$15k%20to%20contribute%20to%20college”>quote</a>
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</p>
<p>Don’t forget that she will be taxed on that income.</p>
<p>Another of my kid is attending a local private college. Its COA is about $34,000 a year.</p>
<p>He gets $11,000 transfer scholarship, financial aid of $9,000, and borrows about $5000. I (the parents) paid the remaining $9,000 with 529 savings.</p>
<p>I think to spend first two years at the local community college is key to the college affordability.</p>
<p>Mathmom:Yeah. At the state school she would have 3 mandatory co-ops making around $12,000 per co-op session. At the private school they are 2 seven month co-ops (similar wages). Typically the company either provides or subsidizes housing. One issue by then might be transportation. Our extra car would probably be driven by her sister by then.</p>
<p>*Quote:
The net price for me commuting to my local state is 12,000- every LAC on my list is by thousands cheaper than that.
*</p>
<p>Your estimate to commute to a SUNY seems high, especially if your income isn’t high (which your estimates from the LACs make it sound). Those LACs will likely have full loans, so you have to figure the same for your local state school. </p>
<p>CTSscoutmom…Yes, a private with good aid might be cheaper than the state school when dorming, but the OP is talking about commuting to her state school. Her state school has tuition, fees, books for about $9,000. So, it just seems odd when she says that the LACs that she’s considering are “thousands less.” That suggests that she has a low income and maybe Pell and TAP eligible, which means she’d have aid for the SUNY as well. </p>
<p>does anyone know the income limits for TAP? Is it based on family size as well?</p>
<p>OP…most families do not have college savings accts for their kids. Most college students can’t go away to college simply because of cost. “Going away” to college often costs about $20k+ for a state school, and most families can’t pay that even with some aid.</p>
<p>
For undergraduate students, HESC subtracts $3,000 from net taxable income for enrollment by a second family member. HESC subtracts another $2,000 for each additional family member enrolled. HESC then uses the lower taxable income resulting from this adjustment to calculate the student’s award.</p>
<p>MAXIMUM AWARD
$5,000 or tuition whichever is less ($4,000 or tuition, whichever is less, at certain schools only offering programs of 2 years or less in duration.)</p>
<p>MINIMUM AWARD
$500</p>
<p>NTB…REDUCTION
$ 7,000 or less…0
7,001 - 11,000…7% of excess over $ 7,000
11,001 - 18,000…$ 280 + 10% of excess over $11,000
18,001 - 80,000…$ 980 + 12% of excess over $18,000
80,001 or more…NO AWARD</p>
<p>I think the answer to the original question is that many don’t.
If the average student debt upon graduation is not equal to the maximum loans, that tells you that every student who took maximum loans is balanced by someone who took less than the average, meaning the money came from somewhere else.</p>
<p>That money comes from past, present, and future. As much as those of us who have saved feel that the system is stacked against us (because we saved, we are expected to pay more), we are in a position to pay for college. The process starts long before Junior year of high school. It starts with the choices you make when the children are younger. For the middle class family, it may start with the house you buy - do you buy the bigger fancy house where you are barely comfortable making the mortgage payments for 30 years, or do you buy the “lesser” house and pay it off in 15 or 20? Or maybe even 10 years? Do you go on a cruise every summer, and pamper yourself, or do you take less expensive vacations and put some of the savings into your 401K? What do you do to instill in your children the value of the education they get before college? Do they understand that the decisions they make, even in middle school, can be what gets them into a college that will meet need?</p>
<p>It may sound brutal, but if your parents are in a position where they are unable or unwilling to help pay for college, it is likely due to decisions they made throughout your life. Those of us willing and able to pay college costs for our children made different choices, to our children’s benefit. They have not always like the sacrifices we chose to make, but I suspect 20-30 years from now when they are sending their own kids off to college, they will appreciate them.</p>
<p>Did I freaking ever ask about MY situation? I asked a very general question, can’t any of you read? For hells sake.</p>
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<p>For example, University of Delaware offers some huge merit-based scholarships. That’s one way people afford expensive “sleep away” colleges.</p>
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<p>Profanity, even though you used profanity substitutes, says an awful lot about who you are. Think about how you want to portray yourself, even in “anonymous” settings. You started the thread with an interesting question, and you got some good discussion. Now, you look petulant and immature.</p>
<p>@ordinarylives- Contrary to what you may think, I did not post this thread to show off my social graces to anonymous users who I don’t care about. I also did not post this thread asking for any advice on what I should do. I posted it because I was genuinely interested in how others can afford college.
Good discussion? Where? Many other users just started discussing about what I chould do, and I didn’t ask about that.</p>