<p>"I have lived in “mixed” socioeconomic areas all my life, but I had never been involved with the poorest among us in a truly hands-on way "</p>
<p>I guess I haven’t either then, though I grew up with, and have had many family members who have been on public assistance. I have never heard anyone say that or give that impression. I DO remember shame.</p>
<p>Of course, I’ve heard a LOT of things here I’d never heard before!</p>
<p>okay back on topic.</p>
<p>
No one attacked you for “asking a question.” Had you asked a question about how to afford a college education on $130,000/year salary with 6 years to go before college, the responses would have been quite different. Instead you include rants that the poor are being rewarded for being poor, that the poor get a free ride, and that your child faces the same challenges as poor kids. It is perfectly appropriate for other posters to address your sweeping - and incorrect - statements. </p>
<hr>
<p>For our family - an actual middle-class-California-living-in-the-suburbs-in-a-house-we-bought-in-2003-on-the-California-median-income-family (mom2collegekids hypothesized that I was sensible enough to buy my home before I got my driver’s license… Not correct.) - our strategies, starting 5 - 6 years before college, included:</p>
<p>-Pay off vehicles in the years before college, and keep current vehicles in good repair. No car loans during the college years frees up anywhere from $400 - $1,200/month (for two vehicles) for college expenses. (Critically think over the standard “It costs me more to fix than it’s worth…” excuse to replace a vehicle. Even major repairs rarely cost more than two month’s payments on a new car.)</p>
<p>-Invest monthly in a 529 plan for college. The funds in the 529 will be assesed for financial aid purposes at the parent rate (currently 5.6%) instead of the student rate of about 20%. As vehicles are paid off, shift the amount you were spending monthly into the 529. </p>
<p>-Invest in IRA and other retirement accounts as much as you can spare every year. As well as being a good financial strategy, IRA and retirement assets are not included on the FAFSA, and though schools that use the CSS/Profile may want to know the balances, they say they do not consider those funds to be available.</p>
<p>-Keep as much equity as possible in your home. FAFSA-only schools - **such as the UCs **- do not consider equity in your principal residence as available for college.</p>
<p>-The UCs are very generous with AP credit. Encourage your child to take AP classes and AP tests, and to prepare very well for them. Students can be awarded specific course credit, even in required general education courses, and may receive a full year or more credit at the UCs. This can shorten the time to graduation, or if budget cuts continue, at least assure that your student can graduate in four years.</p>
<p>-Look into scholarships from your place of employement such as from the CTA. Many are available to children of California School teachers.</p>
<p>-More money is ALWAYS better, but if you or your wife are *already planning *a year or two off for professional development, pursuing a Master’s degree, or some other sabbatical, the best time for that - financial aid-wise - would be in the year before your child expects to begin college. </p>
<p>-As college years approached, we looked carefully at our close family members and where they were located. We talked with those living close enough to a UC or CSU to which our child could commute about the possibility that she could live with them to save on room and board, and we would pay them a (small) monthly rent. Those were our “financial safeties.”</p>
<p>-If your child turns out to be a social and gregaious kid, have him look into becoming an RA (resident advisor). Most schools allow Juniors and Seniors (and some allow sophomores) to be RAs, and the typical compensation is free room and sometimes free meal plans. That can be a significant savings.</p>
<p>-Apply strategically. Help you child take a hard look at their qualifications, and apply to schools where he is in the very top % of applicants. The VERY top. They will be the most likely to offer merit aid. Although the Ivy League schools would be very affordable for your family at your current income (it seems they see YOU as poor…), they are a reach for EVERYONE, no matter how well qualified and can not be counted on. There are more than 3,000 colleges and universities in the US - widen your search to include more than the “name” universities and you will find many opportunities.</p>
<p>Good luck</p>
<p>“And NSM, I like your question about the “not going outside because of fear of being shot at in a drive-by.” Do you know what it is like to run away from a gun fight with your 9 year old son? There have been three people shot on the three streets I have lived on in my area. I”</p>
<p>One of my former mentees was a first gen high school grad who lived in a very poor section of Detroit. Two of her siblings were murdered. Twelve of the 400 students who entered as freshmen in her high school class were murdered by her senior year.</p>
<p>Her parents and siblings made fun of her because she aspired to go to college and had a wide vocabulary. </p>
<p>Although at least one of her parents had a substance abuse problem, my mentee felt fortunate to live in a relatively stable (in that they weren’t evicted) two-parent home in a community where many of her peers were living with grandparents because their parents were drug addicts or were in jail.</p>
<p>Despite having a much lower family income than you have, she didn’t get the full rides that you seem to think that poor people get. Nor did she get into top colleges. As the top student in her horrendous public school, she applied to Harvard, but was rejected. She ended up graduating from second tier public university, and had to take out big loans to do so.</p>
<p>Even in Calif., where the cost of living is sky high, poor people aren’t making $130 k a year. The fact that you’re here on CC posting means that your kids have advantages that most low income students don’t. Some of those advantages include the fact that you are smart, technology-savvy (i.e. finding and using this site) , and supportive of your kids attaining higher education.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids hypothesized that I was sensible enough to buy my home before I got my driver’s license… Not correct</p>
<p>Uh…no…I didn’t say that at all. I said that I didnt’ know when you bought your home.</p>
<p>*It’s great that you live in a SFH in a Calif suburb on about the median CA income. I don’t know when you bought your home, but that can make a difference, too. One of my Calif friends lives on a policeman’s salary. But they bought their home in 1979 for a tiny fraction of what it would have cost if they had bought it during the last 20 years. Eight years ago, they could have sold their home for nearly a million dollars. They bought it for $150k.
*</p>
<p>Mysonsdad, it was that you glibly tossed off that the poor get a free college education. It’s just not true. Yeah, you can point to the occasional freakishly talented and freakishly lucky kid who gets admitted to HYPS, but as a generality nothing could be further from the truth.</p>
<p>And you also didn’t acknowledge that the real middle class earns half of what you do and they are by no means “poor.” They pay for college, too. At state schools, they will pay the same you will pay, by and large. That makes state schools a subsidy for the affluent, yes?</p>
<p>We all, at first, flip out when we look at the cost of college. Even down to the community college level when you have to buy a textbook that costs $150. What? (I had to do that recently, for a class for myself. It wasn’t available used online… so I had to shell it out.)</p>
<p>We also all wonder how to pay, but we do it. If so many others who have so much less than you do it, you can certainly trust that you will be able to do it too. The kids themselves are a great help in this. Mine work all summer and then work 10-15 hours a week during the school year. That money adds up! It will work out for you, I am sure of that.</p>
<p>Another thing we all do is exaggerate how desperate our situation is when trying to make a point. I just looked on Realtor.com and there are 218 houses listed in Compton for less than $200,000, many just above $100,000. I realize why you wouldn’t want to live there (former LA resident, myself)… but it’s not true that it costs $300,000 to buy any house in Compton.</p>
<p>You will do fine, just skip the generalities about how everyone has it easier than you, and be realistic about all the advantages your son will have… even if it isn’t all the advantages in the world. As smart as he is, he may well be eligible for some great merit aid at a lot of schools when the time comes.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I think this is the number that the poor have to worry about more than tuition. People neglect the fact textbooks can cost over 1k together per semester.</p>
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</p>
<p>I can tell you unequivocably that your statement is as far from the truth as my house in NYC is from your house in CA. As others have posted, most of the poor kids go to community college while living at home because the “free money” does not cover the cost of attending state university even for those with a “0” EFC unless the student is taking out massive loans (usually maxing out on the substafford, perkins and unsub stafford), even if they are admitted through the opportunity program.</p>
<p>You will find that there are a small number of pell grant recipients at the schools that meet 100% demonstrated need no loans. The family who is not pell grant eligible, who makes way less than the 130k that your family is bringing in pays the same amount of $$ that you are paying to attend state U.</p>
<p>How do families do it you ask? I can tell you how it played out in my house. I borrowed, no vacations, no new clothes, no big ticket christmas presents (her present was having the tuition paid so she could go back to school on 1/2), bag lunches, no out for dinner/drinks with the gang, no first run movies (netflix) and all of the belt tightening we could come up with.</p>
<p>What you must remember that you and your wife are the first payers when it comes to the financing of your child’s education. This is why it is important to make sure that when the time comes, you have a financial safety that your child would be happy to attend. If your child continues on his current track, make sure to cast a wide net to include schools where he could get merit $$.</p>
<p>Be reminded of the saying I cried when I had no shoes until I met a person who had no feet. Financially your family is in a much better position to make choices than families who have far less income.</p>
<p>
mom2collegekids, you have dismissed my posts pointing out California’s median household income - and the fact the OP earns more than twice that - with your “guesses” about when I purchased my home or that I don’t live in a suburb. You have been incorrect. I did not buy my home in 1979, I bought mine in 2003, so your hypothesis suggesting that is the only way we survive on the income MOST Californians survive on is incorrect. (Also, police officers in *my city *make significantly more than the California median salary of approx. $59,000. But maybe the cost of living is higher in my city.)</p>
<p>OP-we are middle class(my family makes around 80k/year in PA) and the way we’re paying for college is simple: I am responsible for all college costs. This has made me very frugal in looking at colleges. My safety is UAlabama where i will receive full tuition. If I go there, I will probably RA to keep my college costs low. </p>
<p>I also applied to a few more expensive schools with good merit aid in hopes of getting lucking. I am not expecting this. I am simply trying to find the cheapest way to finance my education.</p>
<p>Your family could do the same thing. Look at schools with merit, and the opportunity to RA and/or work study. This will help defray costs. I also work part time and save all my money for books for college. </p>
<p>So, it is possible. You look for a cheap option. Have a kid do a work study and even have them take out a few loans</p>
<p>I dont think its sweeping to suggest that many low income students get a boatload of money at many schools, particularly if they are URM’s, and kids who are middle income and the majority race, often get hosed. This is true not only at the uber elite colleges but many second and third tier colleges as well. I see it every day. Not that I would switch my lifestyle and comparative situation with any of them. My rant is only that colleges are very UNFAIR and highly DISCRIMINATORY (reverse discrimination) when it comes to financial aid and scholarships, in direct violation of Bakke v. California, which addressed only admission standards. Its most egregious at private schools, even if they obtain huge federal funding for grants. </p>
<p>Its not to pick on the poor and URM’s. If I was in their shoes, I would take the money as well. Its only that the middle class particularly white middle class who get hammered.</p>
<p>You may have had the opportunity to save money the 6 or more years before your kids went to college. Many middle class families were not in that situation, facing layoffs, etc. Higher education has more than DOUBLED in cost in 10 or 12 years. So the planning we MADE and SAVED FOR, didnt comport with our investment earnings…</p>
<p>Yes, we make choices and some of us choose NOT to attend state universities and we must live with those choices. I only wish colleges were more even about spending their financial aid funds and scholarships.</p>
<p>
The OP has a 6th grader and has asked for ideas on how to afford college for that child. My suggestions are for a person with a sixth grader - someone with 5 - 6 years to plan financially for college.</p>
<p>Ghostbuster, very few colleges (any?) have succeeded in admitting a class of students that represents the ethnic and socio-economic face of this country. Low-income students are still under-represented everywhere. At most elite privates a full-pay student has a marked advantage over a full-need student. The fact that in some cases a highly-qualified low-income student may get accepted over a similarly qualified affluent student, is no different than boys having an admissions edge over girls at elite schools, legacies having an edge, athletes having an edge. The colleges are trying to build a well-rounded community, even if they basically fail at doing so because their campuses are dominantly white and middle or higher class.</p>
<p>Oddly, people do not get up in arms about legacy admits or athletic admits the same way they do about ethnic or socio-economic admits. It has something deeply to do with seeing someone who society frames as below one’s own station, getting something we want. It runs deep. But it is not true that those needier students are getting an unfair piece of the pie. Look at the numbers. There has been much recent examination about how things are actually getting worse for poorer students, not better.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.jbhe.com/features/61_lowincome.html[/url]”>http://www.jbhe.com/features/61_lowincome.html</a></p>
<p>“many low income students get a boatload of money at many schools, particularly if they are URM’s,”</p>
<p>I’d sure like to see some numbers in place of “many”, assuming we agree on the definition of “boatload”. At least this suggests there are SOME “non-affluent” URM’s in schools!</p>
<p>Just occurred to me that info for each school that shows percent of kids getting need based aid, and on average of how much, is on that Available in “Premium Online Edition”; Was it US News? Yes; under “financial aid statistics.”</p>
<p><a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/national-universities[/url]”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/national-universities</a></p>
<p>There’s also a chart with percentage of Pell eligible kids somewhere.</p>
<p>We won the lottery with our oldest kid, who was accepted at Harvard. However, that still cost us since the kid turned down full-ride scholarship offers elsewhere to go to Harvard. (Our family income is a little less than the OP’s.) And the “no more than 10 percent” figure Harvard assesses “middle-class” families is 10 percent of all income before anything is deducted (including 10 percent of what we are trying to put aside annually in a 401K since neither of us is covered by a pension plan). So it still isn’t free, although we are not complaining.</p>
<p>Our second kid is smart, too, but her stats are not stellar enough to get into Harvard (or similarly generous schools) or earn a full-ride scholarship. She is a high school senior and will be heading off this fall to a college to be named at a later date (after admissions decisions and financial aid/scholarship offers are rendered).</p>
<p>Our primary vehicle is a 1998 minivan that has 240,000 miles on it; the heater is not working. Our other two vehicles are a 1993 and a 1996 model. We are using a combo of savings, income, and loans to pay for our kids’ college, with the two kids expected to contribute or borrow for costs above what we agreed to cover (before any college decisions were made).</p>
<p>It isn’t pretty, and my H and I will probably be working a lot more years than we would like to pay off college costs. However, it’s doable – as long as one of us doesn’t lose a job or suffer a major health crisis.</p>
<p>I do feel sorry for friends of our kids whose parents are not able or willing to help pay for their schooling. These kids are so susceptible to dropping out of college (and still having loans to pay back) due to the little setbacks that everyone encounters (losing a housing or utility deposit, higher than expected book costs, transportation breakdowns, a rocky semester academically, etc.). Having someone who will help them out in a pinch – even if it is a financial hardship for the parent – is the huge advantage middle-class kids have over low-income kids.</p>
<p>As others have suggested here (alamemom, sybbie719, etc.), change your spending habits (if you haven’t already). Keep your cars, replacing with used models when necessary. Et cetera.</p>
<p>When you get a raise, every additional cent should go to savings. (DO allow yourself a bottle of single malt scotch if it’s from a promotion!)</p>
<p>But you also have to consider that you will likely be taking on some loans. Plan accordingly (i.e., don’t take on other loans).</p>
<p>Myson’sdad- I sympathize with you. Your choice may be between a (still expensive and crowded) state university, a Canadian or Scottish univeristy, and one that your son is lucky enough to win some merit money from. First, scrimp and save as you will, good luck reaching the cost of even one year’s tuition and housing six-ten years from now at the college your son may want to attend. This would be very difficult even if you started saving when your son was born. How does one save (and earn interest) to reach - let’s say - even a good chunk of $320,000 ($80,000 x 4) for undergrad alone- for one child?</p>
<p>The question of “how in the world can I or anyone afford college for my child(ren)” is a reasonable one. The answer should NOT be “you make enough money, suck it up, because the next kid’s parent earns nothing.” </p>
<p>I’m very sorry the next kid’s parent earns nothing. I think most of us on CC would rather spend money to send all kids to college instead of spending on certain other governmental programs. But we are talking about what our jobs are as parents, and that is to send our own kids to college without miring anyone in debt or losing all our assets, like the house. </p>
<p>It is frustrating to look at the situation at most of the top 20 schools, which have to be removed from consideration by middle class families. The rich can just write a tuition check and the poor go free. (The situation may be different outside of these schools but that is not what I am talking about here).</p>
<p>The middle class family in which the parents stay married, do whatever they need to to go to their job every day, both work with no break, buy a modest house, and save money is not going to make out well when the tuition bill is computed.</p>
<p>The system we have ended up with is a mess. Whether or not you agree with my post, you must agree: that the system where tuition bills rise every year faster than inflation is not sustainable, that community colleges (the schools for which a student can pay by working) shouldn’t be busting out the seams, that in-state schools shouldn’t charge students close to the cost of private colleges, and that it is detrimental to the future of our country to have new graduates and their eventually retiring parents encumbered with tens of thousands of dollars in debt.</p>
<p>We are neither poor nor rich so I guess that makes middle class. Make under six figures, live in one of the most expensive area of the country.
Oldest studied hard k-12, her first choice school was a small private liberal arts school out of state that did not give need based aid, but pledged to meet 100% of need as many of the top schools do. Not need blind- but need aware for admission.
We didn’t know how we could possibly afford it, knowing that need is met by a combination of loans grants and work study, as determined by the FAFSA and PROFILE, and we weren’t sure if she would be admitted anyway.</p>
<p>However the profile found same efc as fafsa , and she was admitted with a very generous package. I guess it pays not to complain about something that hasn’t happened yet. 
( and the good karma that comes with having an affordable good fit that she would have been more than happy with)</p>
<p>“It is frustrating to look at the situation at most of the top 20 schools, which have to be removed from consideration by middle class families. The rich can just write a tuition check and the poor go free. (The situation may be different outside of these schools but that is not what I am talking about here).”</p>
<p>I know middle class families who are sending their kids to top 20 schools. They are doing it with a combination of aid, summer and school year jobs by their offspring, and loans. </p>
<p>Unless middle class families don’t want to take out moderate loans, many can afford top 20 schools.</p>
<p>While poor kids may get excellent aid from some (not all) top 20 schools, due to their educational resources, most poor kids have far lower chances of getting into top 20 schools than do middle class kids.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, I don’t think it’s a horrible hardship that some students turn down top colleges because of financial reasons. Actually my older son turned down a top 25 for that reason. I still feel that we are lucky to have been able to financially support our kids in so many of their educational goals and to live in a country where colleges are so accessible.</p>
<p>Sorry, Northstarmom, but anyone who’s speaking in the past tense about their college graduate’s experience is not faced with the same economic dynamics that exist today. Things are getting exponentially more difficult, with costs skyrocketing and public schools not only more selective as a result, but also more impacted with state budget crises. </p>
<p>It’s not a question of feeling that “poor people” get more/better opportunities; there are challenges of all types among all groups. It does frustrate, however, to learn that governmental efforts to ease the college affordability gap are skewed toward lower incomes, when all levels are truly overwhelmed. That whole topic is fraught with tension. The real issue is the outlandish costs themselves, and the unrealistic EFC formulas that assume a family can somehow live on $25K per year while simultaneously paying more than that for tuition!</p>
<p>It is a grave concern that our young adults and retiring parents are destined to be saddled with debts; it seems there is very little light at the end of the tunnel. What to do?</p>
<p>Are there really schools that are charging $80,000 as mdwest mom quotes for tuition?
that is frigging ridiculous</p>