<p>I've been reading some threads about this topic, and many people are just advising to choose a school outside of the Ivy League. Those replies didn't exactly answer the OP's question, but rather were just trying to convince the OP to forget the Ivy route. But what if your child gets accepted to an Ivy League school, and that school is his or her dream school? Would you tell your child to give up his or her dream, and possibly entrance to better opportunities? I know very well that public schools are great, but it shouldn't be that the rich and poor can choose any college they get accepted to, and the middle class is forced to choose among public schools and wherever they can get scholarships from. I know that some middle class families just pay anyway for an Ivy League education, but how do they handle it? After saving, taking jobs, and winning any scholarships possible, it's still hard to pay the $70-80,000 tuition+room and board each year. Sorry to sound bitter, but I'm just upset haha</p>
<p>Well, the ivies have generous aid, so have you run the NPCs to see how much aid you’d get. You seem to think that you’d get no aid.</p>
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<p>Well, if you can’t afford the school, then it’s “no”. Your child will survive. lol</p>
<p>BTW…if your child can get into ivies, then he has the stats to get large merit at other schools…privates and publics.</p>
<p>There are only a couple of careers that expect a top school education. What career interests your child? If it’s not Wall Street, then he can go anywhere to college.</p>
<p>Dream jobs, dream school, dream life, is a fallacy that will hold more people back than advance their “dreams”.
Work with what you’ve got.
If you can’t afford your EFC but qualify for need based schools, look for merit awards & schools you can afford.</p>
<p>The way to answer your question is to go to each school’s web site and use the net price calculator to get a financial aid estimate for your financial situation. Assuming and complaining based on assumptions won’t be helpful in making a realistic application list, but getting the net price calculator estimates will (although you should be aware that more unusual financial situations may result in less accuracy of the net price calculators).</p>
<p>Well this subject has been addressed with great depth by a multitude of posters here on CC. Colleges with the mega buck endowments may afford more financial aid to middle class families than those with less in their coffers. Those schools are usually the prestigious ones with very, very low acceptance rates. For those schools as I understand, may give financial aid to families who earn six figure incomes. Then there are those private colleges that would be willing to give a lot of merit who in turn offer something to their campus- be it stats (SAT,ACT scores), diversity or athletics/extracurricular pursuits.</p>
<p>Our S applied to a variety of schools and got offered a variety of merit packages- one with an almost full ride, another with tuition, another with $10,000 of merit and another with nothing offered. He ended up at his reach with nothing offered and we are paying the full price. How? With savings (because we lived way below our means), from 529 college plan, from current income and his summer job earnings (he actually got a great job at a high tech place). I actually ratcheted up to full time work to pay his tuition- all of my paycheck goes to this endeavor. We have always lived on one income even when I worked full or part time. Not all families can make this decision or want to go this route. I use tuition management to handle the tuition payment. </p>
<p>Not sure how we will handle the next one coming up in 2016. Good luck OP. </p>
<p>This topic is close to my heart since my daughter applied to few Ivies and for our income (according to each school’s net cost calculator), only Harvard and Princeton (Yale will not give us anything) will give us any need based aid. We’ll see if she will be accepted to any of them and will decide from there.</p>
<p>If it doesn’t work out, she’s already accepted to a top 25 school that she’s willing to attend (with some merit money) or to any of the UC’s. We’ll see.</p>
<p>“How does the middle class pay for an Ivy League (or private university) education?”</p>
<p>Our situation was very similar to that of goingnutsmom. Our DD (applied as an engineering major) received everything from a full ride, full tuition, various Presidential-type scholarships, to nothing at our state flagship. What did she choose? Juilliard (she auditioned just so she never wondered if she had what it took) at full pay. We had saved, since her birth, four years worth of the COA at our state flagship in a 529. I re-entered the workforce, after an eighteen-year absence, with a position in a completely different career field that paid 40K per year and worked this particular job for the four years she attended Juilliard. She became an RA for three years and significantly cut 12K-13K off the bill plus applied/worked fellowships and performance gigs throughout the academic year and summer for another 5-10K per year. She graduated debt-free with about 12K in her bank account to start her career in expensive NYC. Had we not saved, she would have never had the opportunity to attend Juilliard or experience the life she is now living.</p>
<p>S2’s dream school was MIT. That is the only place he “wanted” to apply. I, of course, made him apply to 4 other schools because (1) it was still a reach even for my NMF valedictorian white male student and (2) we probably could not afford it if he got in. He, like the majority who apply, did not get in. I wouldn’t admit it to him, but it was a happy day for me when we found out he did not get in as now he would go to another school he liked with almost a full-ride scholarship. If he was admitted to MIT, I don’t know if we could have afforded it (hopefully he would have qualified for some aid) but it would be hard to turn down the opportunity for him to go to MIT. I was so glad we didn’t have to make the choice.</p>
<p>That’s a simple answer. They don’t. You’d got a few examples above of putting 100% of a second income into savings/paying for the tuition, but most people just can’t swing that. If you’ve got a family earning 80K with 2 incomes (and that’s still 30K above the US median household income), and it’s pretty darn tough to put half of that into college or savings. </p>
<p>We argue a lot about what constitutes the middle class. Middle 50% of household incomes? I’d probably argue that someone expected to cover the full freight of an ivy is in the upper socioeconomic class, not the middle, but there’d be some dissent, I’m sure. </p>
<p>The definition of middle class can vary widely. I wish I knew what the income/asset 25-75% range is for families with college aged children since averaging elderly, young people, etc does not result in a true picture. </p>
<p>The way costs are met vary. Some are lucky enough to have a grandparent in the background to pick up the cost. Some are unlucky enough to have “fools with pens” as Sybbie has written who borrow more than they should which can and has led to financial grief later. </p>
<p>College costs ideally come from past, present and future income from both parents and student. Both parties should have some savings, be willing to work and take a portion of present income to put towards the costs, and maybe borrow some. What’s lacking in one department means more pressure on another. </p>
<p>Like Sillyrabbit and Goingnutsmom, my college kid applied to a variety of schools, and when the acceptances were on the table, the costs varied from $60K+ to commuting costs. He got no money at all from some private schools with costs right up there at the top of the price range and he also got a full tuition scholarship from a local school that is minutes away. In between, there was state U, there were privates with lower sticker prices, privates with some merit that varied in range, and public OOS schools. His first choice was a public OOS university that he could manage without having to earn all that much himself and without borrowing if we paid what we committed to paying as a max, which is what we have done. Actually, living off campus this year has brought his costs down significantly as he found a low rent situation and is disciplined about not eating out and watching his money. His brothers did the same, (though one had some issues about discretionary spendng). That is an advantage in picking a school with inexpensive, available, off campus housing. </p>
<p>This document gives a generally good range for middle class with school age children:
<a href=“http://www.commerce.gov/sites/default/files/documents/migrated/Middle%20Class%20Report.pdf”>http://www.commerce.gov/sites/default/files/documents/migrated/Middle%20Class%20Report.pdf</a>
At least it takes out the elderly and young.</p>
<p>That looks like reasonable data. I’d go with it anyway. </p>
<p>Even at that upper end, 122K, the family isn’t going to be expected to cover full freight at a 70-80K per year ivy (numbers supposed in the original post). </p>
<p>From running the NPCs of the Ivies, M & S, for HH income of about 140K, EFC is lower than a UC full pay (32 K). Once you past 150K you dont get a lot of aids anymore. Once you reach about 200K, only HP will give you anything. Of course YMMV depending on assets. </p>
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<p>Only half right. The rich can afford to choose any college they get accepted to. The poor can afford to choose any college that they’re accepted to…which also offers them enough aid. </p>
<p>^And while the former half can be difficult to attain, the latter half is well within reach of any middle class family who chooses to go there. I prefer to stay middle class and deal with the cost of college over earning less and gaining an advantage (of varying degrees) in need based FA.</p>
<p>Re: <a href=“http://www.commerce.gov/sites/default/files/documents/migrated/Middle%20Class%20Report.pdf”>http://www.commerce.gov/sites/default/files/documents/migrated/Middle%20Class%20Report.pdf</a></p>
<p>Table 2 on page 9 suggests that the $50,800 income two parent, two kid family might budget $1,800 per year to afford to send the kids to two years of community college and two years of state university as a commuter. For the $80,600 income family, the college savings budget would be $4,200 to afford four years of state university (one year as a commuter). For the $122,800 income family, the college savings budget would be $6,800 for four years of private university. All assume some financial aid.</p>
<p>The much lower income one parent, two kid families have a much lower budget, according to table 3 on page 16. The $13,200 income family is “unable to live a middle class lifestyle”. The $25,200 income family is unable to save anything for the kids’ college. The $44,800 income family might budget $1,700 per year to afford to send the kids to two years of community college and two years of state university.</p>
<p>Of course, the cost of community colleges and state universities and their financial aid varies by state. The poorer families in California, with cheap community colleges and better in-state financial aid, probably find college to be more likely in financial reach than poorer families in Pennsylvania, where the expensive Penn State branch campuses fulfill the community college role, and in-state financial aid is poor.</p>
<p>A family earning $122,800 could save more, in most locations (excluding some high cost areas like NYC and SF). I can tell you that we saved a lot more while earning less than $122k. The thing is, though, that most people live in a way that uses all their money. I am not saying it’s good or bad, but it “is.”</p>
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The selfish side of me also wish that my D will not be accepted to her ultra-reach-full-pay-or-near-full-pay schools so that we don’t have to make that choice.</p>
<p>OK, I have been eager to ask a question for months. It seems to me that many parents are at the whim of their kods’ decisions. I am reading that parents hope that their kids don’t get into their expensive dream school or that they choose the cheaper alternatives. Are people afraid to tell their kids no? </p>
<p>My D didn’t apply to schools that gapped/we couldn’t afford.
I didn’t want to have to say no either.</p>