<p>I thought it was fairly obvious to all that its not a legal right, I think the discussion is on the moral rights and obligations involved.</p>
<p>note, you explicitly mentioned moral laws and obligations</p>
<p>"No one has a right to higher education as per the law or any moral law or other convention that I am aware off. "</p>
<p>I do not think about it in right/privilage way. I would not allow my kids to escape college, period. I do not believe in loans either. We do not have them, I do not want kids to start life with having to repay loans. We paid for S. D. was good enough to get lots of Merit $$ and smart enough to go in-state. So, we promised to help her with Grad. School, since we did not pay UG tuition. We do not discuss financial side, except, I tell D. not to worry about it and go for the best in regard to Grad. School. I feel she took care of financing for her UG by working hard in her classes in HS as well as in college.</p>
<p>bump from the past.</p>
<p>I wanna use some hard figures.
My mother makes around $200k by herself. She recently married in fall 2009, and her husband probably makes something comparable plus or minus $50k.</p>
<p>He’s secretly been influencing her this entire year to think that a pretentious <em>Princeton</em> education isn’t worth a dime, even though she’s been with me through this process my entire life. Result? She made me apply to Auburn in the last few weeks. They can afford my education (my mom could, probably by herself); he’s out of his bloody mind.</p>
<p>I certainly have a right to college, <em>especially</em> when many of my college options (like HYP) are now so generous as to make it affordable to virtually anyone, including the poor wittle middle class gap traditionally left out. Most likely, they’ll say we can pay full freight. Yet, therefore we will be able to pay full freight.</p>
<p>I’ve worked too damn hard over the past four years, and they can’t just pull back on me now. Of course I’m not speaking in technicalities, sure they can do that (I mean, they’re leaning towards it), but it’s morally wrong.</p>
<p>College is not simply about getting a degree. You can “get a degree” online. If you want to have a sorry life, where “getting a degree,” “getting a job,” “making it through the day,” and “reaching retirement” are your only goals, then that’s pitiful.</p>
<p>In turn, I will definitely be paying for my children’s education, no matter where they want to go, provided they’ve earned it. </p>
<p>I’m sorry if I appear arrogant, but I’m not. I’ve worked hard for my stats, my grades, my EC performance, etc. I’ve slaved away at applications and essays since August, and my mother was literally with me then, too. She only started to speak up second thoughts in November.</p>
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<p>You have the RIGHT to apply to the colleges you choose. You do NOT have the right to assume you should get need based aid when your family clearly doesn’t qualify for it.</p>
<p>Even with ONLY your mom’s income of $200,000, you will not get need based aid from Princeton…or anywhere else that I can think of.</p>
<p>And Princeton and equivalent schools are NOT the only place where you can get a good college education. There are plenty of less expensive schools out there. AND if you REALLY have the credentials to be a competitive applicant for Princeton, you could have been a competitive applicant for merit aid at other schools (the deadlines for the most generous awards was in December so you may have missed this).</p>
<p>I’m sorry, but I’ll put it out there…your family has to make the decision about paying for your college costs. You may not like that but there it is. Your mom is married now and she and her spouse are RIGHT to discuss finances together. </p>
<p>And you do know that Princeton and those other generous schools will also consider the income and assets of your father (and his spouse if he has one).</p>
<p>I’ve not commented on the “right” vs “privilege” status in general; I’ve intended this for my specific case, given the details. In general, though, I believe if it is a right, provided that the student is motivated/hardworking and has earned the education, and the parents can afford (most of) the education.</p>
<p>keel…perhaps your mom realized late in the game (like in November) that full pay at Princeton was $52000 a year…or so. Many parents don’t realize those costs until they really delve deep into the college websites and such. That is over $200,000 for your four years in college. You need to understand that it’s a huge amount of money whether you can afford it…or not.</p>
<p>^^^ I understand that the spouse’s income is included. That’s why I mentioned him. He’s commented that he isn’t willing to contribute to my education; thus, he has no say in the finances to my education.</p>
<p>Yes, there are plenty of places to get a good education; maybe if I had been told this three years ago, I would feel different. But this is a case of, I’ve set my sights <em>and</em> my efforts towards the colleges I’ve chosen, and now a third-party (husband of mother) has begun to take that away (unjustfully).</p>
<p>
Harvard, for instance, says that a family of $180k will expect to pay $18k/year (about 10%). I can’t imagine that increasing that income by $20k would increase the expected contribution by $40k. I have reason to suspect we <em>would</em> have gotten some need-based aid, at least from Harvard.</p>
<p>No, you wouldn’t have.</p>
<p>
I have. I’ve applied to Emory Scholars, Vanderbilt Cornelius, a WashU scholarship, and U of Rochester for money purposes.</p>
<p>oldfort, as enlightening as that was, it wasn’t.</p>
<p>Care to explain?</p>
<p>I understand there is a good possibility I wouldn’t have gotten much aid, but there certainly was a chance with these new financial aid initiatives.</p>
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</p>
<p>Sorry but you are wrong. The upper limit for need based aid at Harvard is $180,000 UNLESS there is some extenuating circumstance like 2 kids in college at the same time or a family with 4 or 5 children. You would not receive need based aid at Harvard…or anywhere else with a family income of $200,000.</p>
<p>And re: your mom’s husband…his income contributes to your FAMILY expenses…thus freeing up some of your mom’s income. Are you trying to convince us that your mom’s husband doesn’t contribute to housing, utilities, cars, food, clothing, home maintenance, insurance…whatever…for at least your mom? If so, I don’t believe it.</p>
<p>I realize you are disappointed that you won’t get need based aid to support your Ivy and similar dreams. BUT really, that would have been the case with just your MOM’s income. So stop blaming your mom’s husband.</p>
<p>I know you are upset right now, but that’s how FA works, you either qualify or you do not. Based on your mom’s salary, you have missed the cut off. It is what it is.</p>
<p>
They try to keep their finances as separate as possible. That’s all I know.</p>
<p>For many families in the NE, it would be hard to afford full pay for more than one kid, if making less than 250k salary because of cost of living. Colleges are not in the business of making it affordable to everyone.</p>
<p>massapp…are you saying that a family with an income of $200,000 a year should receive NEED based aid? I’m sorry but I do not agree with you. That is the upper 5% of wage earners in this country. There surely is SOME college they can afford to send their kids to.</p>
<p>^^I live in the South. I will be the only child in college until my senior year, at which point my only sibling will be a freshman in college.</p>
<p>Based on the attitude that is coming through your posts maybe your mother wants you to understand you are not ENTITLED to all you think you are. The US Gov’t thinks you are entitled to a possible college education - that’s why they provide Pell Grants and Stafford Loans to people so they can afford low cost colleges. Since your family has income greater than the cutoff you are entitled to Stafford Loans. That and working would still allow you to attend CC. That is the extent of your entitlement. After that it is up to your mother’s good graces.</p>