<p>I just meant personal expenses to be- not board- not tuition, just extra clothing and activities. If she wanted to go out for pizza- or heaven forbid a six pack of PBR.</p>
<p>She also is much more frugal re clothing expenses than her clotheshorse sister- & she graduated in '06, which hasn’t quite morphed into the * olden days* for me ;)</p>
<p>Clotheshorse? I’ve never heard that term before! (I had to look it up lol). Sounds exactly like the difference between my sister and I.</p>
<p>Mysonsdad, I’m sure your son will have some good options. He may get accepted to a well-endowed school that grants generous aid to students and understands the limits of your income. (My son’s best friend has a mother who’s a college professor and a father who’s a lawyer, and he gets quite good aid from an elite LAC. He is borrowing, but not unreasonably, and the parents are able to pay their share without compromising other priorities overmuch.) Or your son may opt for an honors college at a good state univ., these can be real bargains and often have good grants for high achieving students.</p>
<p>I have a kid at a tip top LAC (that provides strong need-based aid) and one at the honors college at our flagship state univ. They are both getting excellent educations, and one is not qualitatively better than the other. I’m sure your son will have wonderful opportunities and you will find a way to muddle through with the costs. Somehow we all do. That book that an earlier poster recommended, How to Pay for College Without Going Broke, is excellent, by the way.</p>
<p>Meh, I’m a Cali resident attending a UC. My family (from what I’m told) makes less then the OP, by around ~20K. Honestly, you make it through with loans and savings. I’m lucky that my parents are able to afford paying for me, otherwise I would be taking up loans like no other…Be fortunate for what you have. My parents have always lived thriftly and they continue to do the same, because I have two younger sisters. BTW, getting paid at 9$ for a part time job does little/no justice for the COA…esp with the increase in tutition.</p>
<p>*Harvard University announced over the weekend that from now on undergraduate students from low-income families will pay no tuition. *</p>
<p>I’m confused. Why is this a new announcement? Harvard has had this policy for awhile. Additionally, isn’t Harvard’s policy that poor students don’t pay for anything? Not just tuition?</p>
<p>I feel that Harvard making parents in my income bracket pay only 10% of the yearly cost is extremely fair.</p>
<p>True, but with Harvard’s low acceptance rate (what is it now, about 10%?), no one can expect to get to go. If Harvard REALLY cared about “not doing enough in bringing elite higher education to the lower half of the income distribution,” they would make their school bigger and accept more students.</p>
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<p>This has basically been the case for a very long time. I think now it means Harvard won’t even bother to write the tuition on the financial aid bill. Before, they just paid it. That is, because low and lower-middle income students had 100% of their need met, even if they were paying a few thousand dollars per year, it wasn’t going toward tuition. Stanford did this a long time ago. Still, Pell Grant recipients at Harvard (and comparable schools) roll in at barely 10%. At Stanford, 15% of students come from incomes of $60,000 or less (50% of the US population). 51% of students do not qualify for financial aid at all, which means 51% of students come from families of $150,000 or more (a very small portion of the US population). I believe - but can’t find the article - that the number of low-income applications has increased since these financial aid initiatives were taken, but the number of low-income admitted students has not significantly changed.</p>
<p>OP, that is o.k. I understand where you are coming from.</p>
<p>A slight twist of orinigal question. Do students from low/middle income families get look down from those full paying rich kids at these super expensive schools?</p>
<p>As we know, school bill is one thing, there are a lot of other expenses such as clothes, eating out, movies once a while etc. If a family could barely pay the school bills, I would think it will be difficult to afford the kid eating out three times a week etc. Everytime I saw a post asking “how much should we give … …”, I feel really bad.</p>
<p>^^No they do not get looked down upon.</p>
<p>“I believe - but can’t find the article - that the number of low-income applications has increased since these financial aid initiatives were taken, but the number of low-income admitted students has not significantly changed.”</p>
<p>Because there aren’t a lot of low income students who have the confidence, knowledge about colleges, stats, and academic background to be accepted at top colleges. Most low income students are fortunate to be able to graduate from high school. They don’t take the SATs. They don’t take courses like APs. They are in very weak high schools where one is considered a success if they manage to graduate from high school with a very low gpa.</p>
<p>"there are a lot of other expenses such as clothes, eating out, movies once a while etc. If a family could barely pay the school bills, I would think it will be difficult to afford the kid eating out three times a week etc. Everytime I saw a post asking “how much should we give .”</p>
<p>When it comes to places like Ivies, most students are spending lots of time on campus pursuing their ECs. What’s respected are students who are smart, interesting conversationalists, and good at their ECs and intellectual and extracurricular passions.</p>
<p>When I went to Harvard, I had friends who were wealthy and friends whose families had gotten church food baskets for holidays. All got along for the reasons that I said. </p>
<p>There also were plenty of free and dirt cheap activities on campus, so one didn’t need to spend a lot of money on entertainment or even for clothes. College wasn’t a fashion
show. </p>
<p>My S is in a second tier LAC now that happens to have some extremely wealthy students. S doesn’t qualify for need-based aid, but is not rich. He uses money from his campus job to pay for books, clothes, and entertainment.</p>
<p>He has a nice circle of friends who do social things like take swing dancing lessons for $5, watch Netflick films together, or once or twice a semester go to a nearby theme park or a low price restaurant. They’re all active in campus organizations – making films, taking pictures, helping with theater productions, volunteering.</p>
<p>S just looked over my shoulder and said to tell you that it’s b.s. that a scholarship student wouldn’t fit in on college or wouldn’t find friends because of not having enough money. He said students don’t talk about money and most aren’t doing lots of expensive things. He added that only if one’s kid normally hangs out with superficial people who visibly wear their money and throw it around would a student who lacks lots of money have to worry about their college social life.</p>
<p>"When I went to Harvard, I had friends who were wealthy and friends whose families had gotten church food baskets for holidays. All got along for the reasons that I said. "</p>
<p>It is exactly the same at Harvard today.</p>
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<p>Dad II…not wishing to be fresh…but your daughter is a student at one of these super expensive schools. What does SHE say about this?</p>
<p>Most kids have NO IDEA how their friends’ college bills are being paid. Once you are a student at HYPSM, how would anyone KNOW you were a scholarship recipient unless the STUDENT tells someone themselves. Quite frankly …it’s no one’s business how a student’s college bills are being paid.</p>
<p>My guess is that most students do NOT know whether their friends are full pays or getting significant need based aid. Most kids do NOT know the wealth of the families either.</p>
<p>FWIW…my undergrad roommate was from a VERY wealthy family. I had NO IDEA…none at all. And I was NOT from a wealthy family at all. It never mattered. We were good friends anyway. I never really understood her family’s wealth until I attended her wedding about 10 years AFTER we graduated.</p>
<p>Many students are well aware that their classmates have lots of money. This occurs on campuses everywhere (not just ivies) … and at high schools everywhere. While there are certainly times others have no clue, there are definitely situations where it’s apparent the other kid has money. Let’s see … Prada clothing, Tory Burch shoes, ski trip to the condo at Aspen, summer at the villa in Italy, etc are pretty good tips that the kid has money. When your roommate gets a Golden Sachs internship through his dad’s golf partner, you can guess that dad has a pretty good job. When the kid across the hall is spending the summer in NYC doing an unpaid internship, he may well have family money (since you will be working two jobs & living at home in order to make enough to have spending money in the fall). Really, it IS often apparent. Does it matter, though … THAT is the question. The answer is that it does for some, doesn’t for others. Just like everything else in life, everyone has a unique way of looking at & responding to the same situation.</p>
<p>Agree, Thumper, that it is not easy to tell who has financial resources and who doesn’t. Someone posted on another thread a while back that their child’s friends, many of whom were on significant FA, were the ones planning the expensive trips to Cancun or on cruises for their winter break.</p>
<p>Most of my daughters friends probably didn’t know or care how much money she had or not. However she did have friends who would want her to accompany them to various places, for holiday breaks. When she would beg off citing lack of funds they would retort" just ask your parents for the money". :rolleyes:</p>
<p>being busy with work study job on campus and your parents staying at a hostel instead of a hotel when they come to visit are also indicators.</p>
<p>Some students especially those from certain parts of the country play a modified game of “who are your people”.<br>
Parents jobs, where they got their degree, are they head of the dept and how many post docs do they have working for them.</p>
<p>Surprising amount of class conciousness. But in many cases after that was all established , they learned to look beyond the lables. ( some one who drinks PBR because it is “hip”, can’t afford to be judgemental.</p>
<p>My kids are at different schools and the money is <em>roughly</em> apparent to the kids. It may not be if you can fit into the middle class crowd but my kids haven’t always been able to afford to come back for break or have to take a series of buses to get home… so, yes, it’s apparent when they can’t afford the plane ticket (nor concert tickets, nor do they have their own car). Still… some kids think we have more $ than we have and some of them (who cry poverty) have their own car, have brand new huge flat screen tvs, etc. They really just don’t know $ yet.</p>
<p>To the OP,</p>
<p>Some ways people afford college:
<p>As far as saving, well…
<p>Since you’re planning ahead, I would suggest you think of a marketable skill you can give your son so that he can earn some decent $. </p>
<p>As far as your daughter, around here, it is possible to become a volunteer firefighter while still in high school and the local government will pay for their college fire science courses. (They may pay for the whole degree; I’m not sure, but I do know they have to major in fire science.) </p>
<p>Oh… other techniques:
I’ve heard of people who purchased a house or rental near a college to rent out to students. When their kid went to college, he/she basically had a free room because housemates paid all expenses. This really only works if your kid is not going to get financial aid because otherwise, the investment property will hurt you in the aid formula. </p>
<p>Colleges in Canada are cheaper for full pay people.</p>
<p>*Do students from low/middle income families get look down from those full paying rich kids at these super expensive schools?
*</p>
<p>My nephew is at Vanderbilt, which has many affluent kids attending. I wouldn’t say that the richer kids look down upon the “full aid” kids, but I would say this.</p>
<p>My nephew’s roommate attends on 100% aid. HE (the roomie) doesn’t like that HE doesn’t have the money that the other kids have for weekend activities and spring break. No one puts him down, but a person can feel a bit deprived when those around him have money for the off-campus hangouts, entertainment in Nashville, ski trips, etc.</p>
<p>Some might say that he should just count his blessings, and I’m sure he does. However, a young person might have a hard time dealing with this issue.</p>
<p>I agree with you rocket6louise. Nowadays, it is quite easier to pay for college…and I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but one thing most of the repliers here have failed to mention is scholarships based on merit alone. Not need-based scholarships, but merit. I was currently accepted into three colleges that offered me full rides based on merit alone - three very good colleges I considered up until my acceptance into Vanderbilt. It is possible for a student to pay for college his own way. If he does not have the grades/extra curricular/etc. , however, then yes, I completely understand most of the worries in this thread about paying for college. It’s not easy for someone with a 2.8-3.4 GPA to get into a top 20 college for free and as some of the posters here have already mentioned, it is certainly not wrong or demeaning for a child to go to a community college. In fact, my brother went to an incredibly low tier college with somewhat okay GPA. He got most of it tuition paid not because of his grades, but because the college was such low tier (and I know he would agree with me). He failed. He failed and went to the community college. Now, he is staring to transfer into IVY league schools.</p>
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<li><p>You can go to a community college and still be successful in life, take a look at my brother. He even failed out of the public college and though unmentioned before, he was riddled with debt, which also took a hard toll on my family. But now he is thinking of IVIES, with quite a good possibility of getting in.</p></li>
<li><p>My family makes less than everyone here has currently posted. Of course, as someone said before, I am thankful to have feet without shoes than no feet at all. I have worked incredibly hard through my high school career, in part because of my family’s low income, and simply because I took hard courses. I got into my dream school recently. I have applied already for 12k+ scholarships, as well as a full-ride, and I am planning to look for more scholarships to add up to 38k. It is possible to pay for college if you have the determination to go. Don’t be lazy and blame your financial status completely. If I did that, I wouldn’t be registered on so many scholarship sites, looking at a list of over ten next to me, and trying to think of good essay topics.</p></li>
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<p>I guess I got off a bit! But there are plenty of ways to find happiness for all of the posters here, including the OP. I would focus on making sure your 6th grades puts his nose to the grind stone…not neccessarily now, but sometime before he goes to high school. Make it obvious he’s going to have to work hard for it. It is possible to go to college with whatever financial status, regardless of what some of the posters have said thus far.</p>
<p>“No one puts him down, but a person can feel a bit deprived when those around him have money for the off-campus hangouts, entertainment in Nashville, ski trips, etc.”</p>
<p>Get use to it! As most know, there are always people who have more than you. Apparently many adults also can’t deal with this, thats why they try to “keep up with the Jones”</p>
<p>^^^^</p>
<p>Of course that is what he has to do. But, when someone is immersed in such a situation 24/7 for 4 straight years, it is going to a bit frustrating. When schools used to “bus” lower income kids to richer areas, they found that many of those bussed kids found it frustrating to be surrounded all the time with kids who had nicer clothes, nicer things, nicer homes, etc. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t want to live in a neighborhood where I was - by far - by REALLY far - the poorest family on the block. I think that would have been too hard on my kids. It’s one thing to have somewhat less money, but in this case the difference is staggering and ongoing.</p>