<p>this (only child is a high school senior) and I was shocked by our FAFSA EFC (40K), especially as H had checked out a few NPCs which suggested we’d have to pay around 15K, which we could manage. D is a top student and did apply RD to a few Ivies and near-Ivies, but I suspect she’ll end up at the Honors College at our state flagship, which fortunately seems to have a lot to recommend</p>
<p>=============</p>
<p>If your H was using the NPCs of Harvard, Stanford, Yale and/or Princeton, then it’s likely you would have gotten a MUCH lower “family contribution” than FAFSA EFC, since those 4 schools give SUPER AID, so their estimates do not represent most schools, not even other elites. HYPS often only expects about 10% for families with incomes up to about $160k. If you only have one child I don’t know if that comes into play.</p>
<p>It may well come to pass that parents will dig in their heels and say “No,we won’t pay for dream school private, you can go to in-state public.” Certainly that is happening to some families across the country. </p>
<p>Many may already be starting to feel that a college education is not necessary!
Sometimes I think the colleges have killed the goose that laid the golden egg, they have kept getting greedier and greedier! That bubble may burst sooner or later! (like on those cartoons we watched when we were kids, a big balloon getting bigger and bigger) </p>
<p>What really gets me is they publish that what they charge won’t educate your child for one year, so please give to the Parents Fund or whatever fund!! They waste so much money, too like having their seal/logo on everything you touch on campus! Ridiculous!</p>
<p>I’m of two minds about this – are the colleges killing the golden goose through greed, or is the goose demanding an arms-race in infrastructure/amenities to lure/retain our snowflakes and are colleges just trying to stay “competitive” in order to attract students and feed into the expansion-manifest-destiny?</p>
<p>It may well come to pass that parents will dig in their heels and say “No,we won’t pay for dream school private, you can go to in-state public.” Certainly that is happening to some families across the country. </p>
<p>===============</p>
<p>Well, this could likely happen…as more families divorce (or parents never married to begin with), you’re going to find more and more kids faced with unaffordable “family contributions” when schools look at both parents’ incomes and one or both sides can’t/won’t pay their fair share…which often happens in those situations. As lives become more complicated, work histories get disrupted, family finances get messed up, more and more people aren’t going to be able to pay their “family contributions”.</p>
Already happened once in my house, and will happen again unless some major merit aid comes our way.</p>
<p>In-state public wasn’t/isn’t the only option left, but the full-pay privates were pulled off the table. I’m not taking on the debt, and I wouldn’t let the kids take it on either.</p>
<p>Has nothing to do with a complicated family situation, we just decided the value wasn’t there.</p>