If you’re making $350k per year you’re not getting any federal or institutional aid (nor should you). You’re full pay. I’m having a tough time understanding this post. $2 million in assets and hefty 529’s and you feel you should receive aid?
With the exception of possible merit at GT…this family will be expected to pay the full cost of attendance. No discounts. Having $2 milllion in non-retirement assets and a salary of $360,000 means no financial aid…as it should.
Yes, I did not include room and board which are $14,830.
I don’t know where twin 2 will go. She is not discussing anything with us. I barely got list of colleges she is applying to.
None of my twins have one specific “dream” school. They seem to be OK with all schools on their list including Rutgers. Once we know where they are admitted then we will be discussing our options.
Which AP calculus class(es) did she take? Has she taken any multivariate? GT likes to see that. Not essential, but helpful.
AP calculus AB and BC. She is taking AP statistics. Our school only offers Calculus III Honors, but it is not an AP class.
I haven’t read all of this thread, but you will likely be full pay everywhere. The 529 alone will knock you out of need based aid. Your girls would qualify for a full ride at places like University of Alabama and Arizona State. It might be worth having them apply to have some “affordable” options. One of my friends with freshman twins has one daughter going to Baylor (where she got a very nice scholarship) and one to LSU. Her girls had high stats and they didn’t qualify for need based aid. If your daughters choose to join sororities, those can be expensive too.
The merit awards are almost full tuition (but they are a flat $26k or $35k, respectively, not “full tuition”). They aren’t “a full ride.”
Edited to add: Tuition at Alabama is $30,250 and it usually goes up 3-4%/year, so the gap between the $26,000 and the tuition goes up a little each year, so it’s not really full tuition anymore. Tuition at Arizona is $36,600, but it is locked in for at least 4 years, so the $35k scholarship will cover most of the tuition for all 4 years.
Thanks for the correction. However, those schools give lots of non need based merit aid compared to some of the other schools the poster is discussing. They want to attract high stats out of state students.
Yes, they definitely do. My son is at U of Alabama and my it is one of my daughter’s safety schools. Her other one is the University of Arizona.
I would just like to say that there are top kids going to schools with great merit, attending college within their families’ budget, and coming out very successful.
Top schools cost top money. That’s the predicament. I predict that the OP will pay whatever the price is once the acceptances come in.
@173 Wash U and Vanderbilt both offer highly competitive full tuition scholarships by separate application. So does Duke (Robertson), but requires a nomination from the student’s high school and has a Nov. 15 deadline. The idea that top schools don’t offer full tuition awards is not true, although admittedly they are very hard to get.
FWIW, any honors program at a reputable state university will attract its share of top students. That was the route I took - back in the day as a full ride NMF kid in NJ and my honors classmates were and continue to be remarkable people. This outcome could just as easily be had in Arizona, Alabama, South Carolina, Ohio, or Kentucky, just to name a few places that offer generous merit for high stats/NMF OOS students. While my parents were then willing to apply the money saved to graduate school, it was unnecessary, because I leveraged my Rutgers eduction to obtain full rides at two top 20 schools, including an Ivy.
In short, there are many top programs for top students that offer top outcomes and not all of them are ranked within the top 20.
I hope Twin 1 gets into GT, because that seems to fall into the category of what you are willing to pay, even at full OOS costs, and will meet her academic needs and your family’s desire for prestige. Of the schools you mentioned, UNC-Chapel Hill charges less for OOS than other top state schools and there is the possibility of merit as there is at Michigan, but very difficult to obtain. UW has the Purple & Gold for OOS (about 8-10K). Twin 1 might get up to 20K merit from Rice.
As for the other schools you list, @homerdog is correct - top schools will cost top dollar.
Best of luck to you and your twins…
Yeah, that sounds about right. Your assets basically put you at full pay. In other words, FAFSA is pretty much useless. You’re probably thinking, “Why couldn’t they be born at least 2 years apart?” 
In my humble opinion, there’s no bachelors degree worth $300,000, especially if you have twins. That’s more than medical school…each. To be honest, it’s a poor value. Take it from from a state employee dad who makes far less. I told my daughter, who starts high school next year, if she wants a fancy college, she needs to get a scholarship. Otherwise she goes to an in-state school. There’s no dearth of opportunities going to a state flagship school.
@BelknapPoint Well actually they are direct links to the schools with the calculator I used . The system is called myintuition.org. It was recommended on a college panel I went to. Actual comes up with different numbers for each school. Pretty good and it does change if you add in a large retirement. I know because I used real numbers and the numbers changed A LOT. And they also changed for having a lot of house equity ( whether it was counted or not).
The OP’s picture changes a lot since their salary was 350K due to large stock option grants. Taxes here are incredible. Having a 250K income in NJ with two kids in college isn’t going to be easy to take that much $ out of current income for spending. I think OP is going get little aid.
The OP has close to $2 million in non-retirement assets. Even if income drops to “only” $250, 000…there will be no need based aid.
Even if he drops to $150k, there won’t be aid with that savings.
So, I played around with this a little and it actually states this after the question on retirement plan assets;
"Note that the value of these plans is not included in any financial aid calculations. You may leave this answer blank. The purpose of asking is to distinguish between retirement savings and other savings that are not in a retirement account. We will ask for that information on the next screen. "
So, I don’t know why it would say that and then change the calculation by adding retirement assets?
With nothing entered for retirement, 250K income, 1.9 million in non-retirement assets, both Caltech and Stanford returned $0 in need based aid using that calculator.
A MyinTuition calculator may not be as accurate as a college’s own full-blown NPC. I went to the website of a meets full-need college that I am familiar with (no institutional merit aid), and their financial aid page offers both of these options to estimate a student’s cost after need-based aid is applied to costs, with the following statements:
*The college’s MyinTuition quick college cost estimator asks six basic financial questions and will provide your family with an estimated range of your student’s financial aid eligibility.
The college’s net price calculator is a more comprehensive tool that will provide your family with a single estimate of your student’s financial aid eligibility.*
My recommendation is, always use the school’s NPC, if there are multiple options available.
The MyinTuition estimator did ask about qualified retirement accounts, with this note:
What is the value of those retirement plans? Note that the value of these plans is not included in any financial aid calculations. You may leave this answer blank. The purpose of asking is to distinguish between retirement savings and other savings that are not in a retirement account. We will ask for that information on the next screen.
Have you used any MyinTuition estimator or NPC that explicitly stated that funds in qualified retirement accounts are included in need-based aid calculations? If so, for what school(s)?
Are you saying that when using a MyinTuition estimator for a school that does not factor primary home equity into need-based aid calculations your answer changed solely on the basis of the amount of home equity reported? That should be a huge red flag right there regarding the accuracy of the MyinTuition estimator for any particular school.
@mamaedefamilia- I don’t believe the Robertson has required a high school nomination in several (many) years.
I don’t think it requires a nomination…but it still isn’t something I would count on. Getting accepted to these schools is difficult enough.
This award isn’t just based on stats and test scores. The student I know who received the Robertson Scholarship took the school club that she developed (dealing with mental health issues in teens) to the national level.
The twins appear to be excellent students and the OP should be proud…(congrats!) but I am not seeing the ECs that it typically takes to win these extremely…extremely…competitive awards (unless I am missing something). I say this as somebody whose daughter was nominated for the Jefferson Scholars award and made it past the first round and on to the 2nd round of interviews (the 3rd and final was in Virginia). It’s hard to imagine what high school students are doing out there …until you see it for yourself…and we did.
Regardless…these students should get a few acceptances each. I wish them luck.