<p>Im trying to figure out how a private college ever becomes affordable. With total cost of $55K per year, where does the money come from?</p>
<p>Is there an assumption that most people that go to private are either EFC=0, or have top stats, and the school provides full ride. I'm trying to figure out how an average (3.5) student with EFC of 11K can swing it. </p>
<p>Looks like there is expectation of taking out huge loans. Which we don't want to do. I think I am still trying to make it work, when the reality is that it won't. </p>
<p>(ignore below this line. Again typing on an iPad and it won't let you edit past a certain point.)</p>
<p>Merit aid and/or need-based aid and/or savings and/or current income and/or loans and/or state aid and/or private scholarships and/or well you get the picture.</p>
<p>There is a wealth of information on this issue in the Financial Aid Forum. I’d suggest you start there.</p>
<p>And where you get the notion that 3.5 is “average” is beyond me. Lots of decent institutions have merit money for people with that GPA - especially if they have equivalent SAT or ACT scores as well.</p>
<p>We were almost full pay parents at two pricey private schools for our kids. Each of our kids got a merit award ($10,000 for one and $6000 for the other per year). Both took the Direct Loans and worked. I’ve posted this numerous times. My ENTIRE salary…every penny…paid college costs for seven years (we had one year when both kids were in college…whew). My husband’s salary paid the rest of our bills. The only outstanding debt we had was our really modest mortgage. No car payments, no credit card debt, no other real big bills at all. We didn’t have a penny of college savings…not a penny. We used current income (mine) only.</p>
<p>If you have two professional wage earners in your home, IMHO this is very doable. We knew it would only be for seven years.</p>
<p>It depends on what the AFC (actual family contribution) + ASC (actual student contribution = student loans and work earnings) is.</p>
<p>If your AFC +ASC < EFC + ESC, then even schools which “meet need” will be unaffordable. But if your AFC + ASC >= EFC + ESC, then schools which “meet need” will be affordable, although many schools won’t “meet need”. Also note that different schools may calculate EFC and ESC differently.</p>
<p>Since you are in California, the UCs appear to do the following, based on their net price calculators:</p>
<p>EFC = federal methodology EFC
ESC = approximately $8,500 (= $5,500 Stafford loan + $3,000 work earnings)</p>
<p>in-state net price = EFC + ESC if less than in-state list price
out-of-state net price = ISNP + $22,000</p>
<p>Saving consistently from the time kids are born so that by the time kids are in college, tuition comes from the savings and current income if necessary. Yes, there are people who absolutely cannot save, but there are also people who can save but don’t.</p>
<p>With an efc of 11k, that’s about 50k for 4 years assuming some increases. That would mean saving about 2700 a year for 18 years, less if the money is earning some interest. So, saving about $225 a month would mean close to the entire efc would be saved, if it were done over 18 years. So, families that can save, should be saving something.</p>
<p>It’s the reality. It looks more and more like the average middle class family is being priced out of the elite private college market. The low income high stats student and the wealthy student will comprise that market. </p>
<p>The only other factor to include is the student who has good stats (but not tippy top) applies to a lower tier private college where their stats are in the high range for them.
They then may get the scholarships that allow them to attend private school.</p>
<p>My S who had solid stats but not tippy top (3.7 GPA weighted, 2240 SAT, good extracurricular activities) managed an almost full ride (full tuition, housing) to a great school (but again not tippy top). So again applying to a school that your stats are something that school wants is key. I’ll add that he showed interest and visited as well as interviewed.</p>
<p>He ended up at another school but it was a good learning experience for us.</p>
<p>Sorry for the double posting. Also want to add that we are paying for the private college now for our S through college savings, my income (every penny goes to the tuition) and my H’s income pays the household bills. Debt was paid off before he started college. Every family has to decide what is worth it to them.</p>
<p>crizello - Our story is pretty much the same as thumper’s story. I went back to work part time to afford the extras - private music lessons and sports camps, etc. Then when we decided to put our kids in private schools (one in elementary, one in high school) I went back to work full time to afford that. I continue to work full time, as our youngest is still in college. Wishing you the best - and know that your child can be happy/successful many places. Both our children have/had college classmates from every income level. S currently has friends that have full financial aid packages to full pay - and everywhere in-between. D did take out Stafford loans and is paying them back. Would I change it? No. I’m happy we could do this. As soon as S is finished, I think we should start an account for our (future) grandchildren.</p>
<p>Are you looking for your child to go for free? If your child applies to a school that meets your full need then you will need to pay $11K per year. You should have been saving SOMETHING for the past 18 years. Were you? Middle class is not destitute. Middle class people should have been saving something.</p>
<p>We are paying almost full amount for pricey private with a combination of inheritance (it will all go to tuition) and about 10% of yearly work income. DS 1 is borrowing full amount of Stafford loans each year and does work study 10 hours per week plus a summer job. We are cutting corners on everything but retirement savings as we are in our mid- late 50’s. We are happy to do this as it has always been our vision to send our kids away to college. They have chosen professional majors and we are confident that they will “launch”, pay off their loans, and move forward in life. It is an investment in their futures.</p>
<p>Another point I have wanted to make is that we did not invest a lot in our children when they were younger. We kept clothes, toys, hobbies, and EC’s fairly modest in cost. Lots of hand me downs! All public K-12 education. Now we are able to shell out some money for their college experience.</p>
<p>We are not wealthy and will not qualify for financial aid. When my youngest ( HS sophomore) graduates she will have enough money in her 529 plan to attend an in- state college without taking out loans. Our in- state schools are very good. She is a top student and I already know that her guidance counselor will tell her to apply to the Ivys. I won’t let her apply because we can’t afford the price and there is no merit aid. She will apply to schools that will give her merit, and also to the state schools. When all of her acceptances are received she will narrow it down and choose the option that is a good fit and is affordable. If I had known 15 years ago what I know now, I would have saved more so that she could possibly attend Cornell. Oh well. My older daughter is currently a freshman at a college that she loves. She is an average student and received merit aid from 2 out of the 8 schools that accepted her. She chose an in- state school that did not offer her $$. The beauty of this is that we did not take out loans and she is happy. We are now " arguing" with my brother in law, who seems to think we should take out $100,000 in loans to fund an undergrad education at a tippy top school. Both my kids need grad school. I refuse to take out loans.</p>
<p>We had done a pretty good job of saving until I lost my job. My salary dropped $40,000 over the year and we added a cross-country move to an area with lower salary. I have yet to get back into my field. I don’t feel guilty that the college savings went to pay for mortgage and medical bills. When DS was looking for schools, we asked him to use his strong academics and ECs to apply for schools that would show him the money. He has full tuition at a very challenging school. As my income improves every penny that I earn goes to him. If you look for schools that give great aid to their top students it can be done. The important thing is to find a school that takes academics very seriously even if their average student wasn’t a star in high school. Look for strong honors departments, research opportunities, etc.</p>
<p>We saved for college every month from the time our two son were born. Evenso, that would not have been nearly enough for two private school educations. S1 had the grades for merit money at some privates. S2 did not. Neither were interested in small private schoools so there was no angst. S1 got a fullride to his univ. Both went to instate big state u’s,had a great time graduated debt free and never looked back.</p>
<p>Thanks for replies. We actually have been saving for both kids since they were quite young. The crash of 2008 did wipe out quite a lot and we practically had to start over. Given that, we have saved about $50K for each child. </p>
<p>We also are a single income family, with low-to-middle income. Chose to sacrifice second income to have one parent at home. </p>
<p>We don’t ever assume that college should be free. Realize that both will most likely end up at state university, and know that it will be just fine. (Both of us parents are products of state educations.)</p>
<p>Just curious, really, about how it can happen. D was accepted at one private, but we have always told her that it really isn’t an option unless the financial aid was equivalent to state school costs.</p>
<p>We saved about half the cost of a pricey private college education for both of our kids. Our best move was when we had a pre-tax day care accounts when they were little. Money withheld from paycheck, we paid daycare bills, then submitted receipts. When the checks arrived, every one of them went into the 529 accounts. That is a pile of money for each kid over 5 years of daycare, and it is invested early with time to grow. We lived in a small house with a paid off mortgage in those years (did not trade up until kids were older).</p>
<p>We also made a very good stock investment when oldest was about a year old – scraped together $3,000 to buy 100 shares (because you couldn’t buy odd lots) of something my dad recommended. The darned thing grew to about $40K by the time D1 went to college. Thanks to my dad for the suggestion we buy that stock!!</p>
<p>Oldest D headed off the college the year H and I got divorced. She went to an LAC that gave her $15K a year in merit aid. She covered her own spending money, books, and unpaid summer internship expenses. I covered the rest out of my paycheck (no help from ex-H at all).</p>
<p>D2 heads off this fall. Again, about 50% is saved. She has some nice merit offers from some of her schools, but for a variety of reasons will probably attend a close-to-full price school. Ex-H has agreed to help some this time around. She is NMF, so will probably get a couple thousand a year off at her top choice schools, and she will cover her own books/spending money. I will (again) cover the rest out of my paycheck and some non-college savings I have if needed. Some schools have offered her some need based aid this year (D1 never got any except work study one year), but not counting on that every year.</p>
<p>I also drive used cars, take inexpensive vacations, cook/eat in a lot (and don’t go out often for expensive meals), hate to shop for clothes, clean my own house and mow my own lawn, don’t have a smart phone (about to splurge and turn on texting for me and D2, though), don’t have cable, and use the library to satisfy my reading addiction. As I am an independent consultant, we keep our ongoing expenses low so there are no issues if I end up without a client for a while, which happens sometimes.</p>
<p>We financed two private college educations, one graduate in 2007 and another in 2010. Both d’s had merit scholarships that helped a bit. We had 529 plans and saved from the time both d’s were born. DH is a conservative investor and a saver. I was a stay-at-home mom from time older d was 18 months old until second d was in second grade when I went back to work full-time. Although we missed the second income during those years in terms of income for future social security and 401K, it worked out fine as we had no child care costs, I had no commuting or business wardrobe costs and I have no regrets. Older d finished grad school where she had partial tuition reimbursement for most of her two years. The rest including living costs was paid for by father to daughter no-interest loan rather than having her take out student loan. She hasn’t begun to pay back yet… and we are not pushing her to do so. She finally has good position with benefits and we are encouraging her to begin to save. Both d’s also have inherited IRA from my late mother so they do receive their portion of the annual distribution but it does not amount to that much money, although the total amount of the IRA does continue to grow.</p>
<p>And if you look at the percentage of Pell eligible students at those pricey privates, you see a pretty low number. So really, top colleges aren’t shelling out as much as you would think for those zero EFC kids. And it makes sense. The competition is so fierce for those meets full need schools it stands to reason that lots of middle class kids (defined as those real close to the national household average income on the low 50s) just don’t have the resources to buy the products and services (private schools, SAT test prep tutoring, the travel required to get a national EC rank) that would make them competitive. So how do middle income families afford private college? Most don’t, at least not in the top tier. Period. Sorry to be blunt. </p>
<p>However, there are some nice colleges that aren’t in the top tier where the price isn’t 50k and merit money can be found for the 3.5. There are also in-state public options that won’t come anywhere close to 50k. Our kids can get an education, maybe just not at the schools we’re so fond of discussing on cc!</p>