<p>I saw a lot of rich or upper middle-class students applying for scholarships and financial aid and colleges give them the dough! Is that fair? If someone can afford college, why don't comply by some personal honor code and give others a chance to afford college. I am not complaining, it is just they talk going abroad to Europe with family and flash fancy gadgets and getting large aids all in the same breath.
You see it in CC, you see in schools, etc. Me, I skipped meals just to save money for sending those SAT reports.
And why do some college give out money unfairly? I see the lower middle-class saying they got really bad aid with the same schools giving high aid to the rich! I am not naming names but this is so weird. Maybe those kids' applications were more polished?</p>
<p>Just because a family can afford paying for college does not mean they should not get help with it. There are plenty of other things families have to pay for aside from tuition at a school.</p>
<p>It seems as if Financial Aid only helps the lower-class. I'm not getting any financial aid, nor have I received any scholarship money yet. One of my friends, on the other hand, is getting somewhere around $40,000 a year with aid and scholarships for college because the parents don't make a lot of money. So basically, they can go for nearly free, when I would probably have to pay that $40k a year and then probably end up in the same situation as them. I don't see how it can be unfair at all.</p>
<p>Of course it's fair. Those family's with higher incomes worked hard for years so that their children would have the opportunity to go to a good 4 year university and receive a quality education. They should get the same financial aid opportunities as families with lower incomes IMO. College is very expensive and even upper-middle class families have to give up alot in order to afford it. Especially if those families have multiple children and college will only be more expensive 5+ years from now. I'm the oldest child from an upper-middle class family with 4 kids and if none of us are able to get finanical aid, my parents likely will not be able to afford for the younger kids to go to college.</p>
<p>I guess I am ranting. I am sorry since I understand some of you genuinely need aids. But what about those who don't need it and apply anyway?
I am just fed up with my own situation and some people I know. i.e. When someone hears I don't hv a dad, n my mom is too sick to work, the reaction I get is work for a couple of years before u can afford college or go to a state school. It is like I should not be thinking on the same level as others of good schools, colleges I love. And even the one public school I got so far, which I didn't like, is not meeting my need (I filed all the forms properly, avoiding any future questions).
And my father did work hard for years till he died.
People hear about me, and tell me not to hv illusions about getting into good colleges which hurts.</p>
<p>^^^^
If someone truly does not need aid, they will not get it even if they apply for it.</p>
<p>I am talking about scholarships as well :). Guess it just got on my nerve today when students bragging about 30000-40000 a year they got this week and then talk about costly cell phones they hv, i-phones, spending months overseas. Too much of tht on CC lately too. I just felt it a bit unfair.</p>
<p>SkyGirl, I'm sorry you're having to deal with this. It sucks. As a fellow person-of-limited-means, both as a kid and as an adult, I do know exactly how you're feeling. Really.</p>
<p>However, sometimes steely pragmatism is the order of the day. You can waste a lot of creative and productive energy fretting what other people are doing, getting, etc. You need to turn that energy toward yourself. You may not get to immediately realize a dream, but you can develop do-able dreams for yourself and make them happen over time.</p>
<p>I know it hurts, but hurt is also a reaction you choose to have. My daughter will be going to a state school, and she's just fine with that. She knows her education will be what she makes of it. My son got lucky and was accepted to a very generous private, but my daughter doesn't feel anything about that but happy for him. You can choose which way you want to go with this. Interestingly, she is probably the greater talent and intellect of the two... not to take anything away from my wonderful son.</p>
<p>Personally, knowing both my kids so completely, the small private is the best situation for my son, and the larger bustling public with its more diverse and eclectic population is a much better fit for my daughter. However, were they to switch places, I know they would succeed just well in the other's place.</p>
<p>I do totally get what you're feeling, though. And it's true that there is much unfairness in the world when you're a kid and are born into certain circumstances while your friends and peers had the luck to be born into different ones. But, take heart and move your attention to what will make you stronger.</p>
<p>And yeah ;)</p>
<p>I know what you mean about the Europe travelling, gadget collecting people who always seem to need more money. lol.</p>
<p>My kids don't have ipods, cellphones, cars, they don't even have drivers licenses because we can't afford the insurance. No flat screen tvs here, and only one 16 year old subcompact economy car. No vacations. We don't eat out. But you know what, life is good. It's not what you have, it's what you do. So, move ahead. It's your life.</p>
<p>rentof2,
I know u are right :). I am satisfied with my "austere" lifestyle too and never felt envious of those who have all. The only thing tht matters a lot for me is college, and I kind of had a crummy Saturday thinking about that. Never mind I will bounce back.</p>
<p>SkyGirl --</p>
<p>We're in a tough place financially right now, too, and I understand your frustration. Did you know you can get a fee waiver for the SAT I & II from your local guidance counselor (even if you homeschool or go to private school) and if you use a fee waiver, you get 4 free score reports in addition to the regular 4. It also gives you 4 free application fee waivers, too. This was such a blessing to us this year - and I'm sure not enough folks know about it. </p>
<p>I really recommend applying where you want to go and just seeing what turns up. Sometimes top schools want economic diversity, too, so will give you a hand. Also, if you are not a senior yet, you can apply free through Questbridge to some top schools.</p>
<p>Also, I want to gently mention that you can't always tell what's going on from looking at the outside. </p>
<p>We have friends in a terrible situation financially. They live in a gorgeous house (which they've had on the market for months and months without a nibble), drive a BMW (which is years old and won't sell for what it would take to buy something more modest) and all have cell phones (they had just signed a new contract before the job loss and it would cost more to break the contract than keep the phones). They <em>look</em> rich, but they've spent all their savings, cashed out their 401k's and are in desperate straits financially. It will take them a long time even after a new job to pay off all the debts from this nearly longterm job loss. Sometimes appearances really are deceiving.</p>
<p>SkyGirl:
You have to grow up a little. I believe that you are poor due to n fault of your own. And that some people are rich for generations and have tons of spare money. But these are not rules, these are exceptions. The rule in this country is:
1. Money are usually a reward for hard work. 12-14 hours a day without a day are a norm in some professions at particular career steps.
2. A majority of upper middle class families are those where mom is working full time. Being a housewife is not a job, it's a choice. Working mothers manage to do laundry and clean the house on weekends, you know. [and everyone would have a different opinion on how long children are "babies", and how many kids you need to have to be unable to work, and how much working mother should support those who prefer not to work].
3. A lot of high-income families have one or two kids. Some made this choice because they knew that raising kids is expensive.<br>
4. Cheap education is available to adults. At community colleges on weekends, for example. So lack of education is not an excuse, it's a choice.
5. A lot of families with high income have special circumstances that force them to work. And FAFSA does not always consider these circumstances. Like support of elderly parents (if they are not living with you FAFSA does not care about their existence). Or high likelyhood of disability (there are problems that run in the families that people would not tell you about). Or high chance of unemployment at 60 (it goes far beyond sports, trust me). Or just a late start (doctors graduate 200K in debt being more than 30 ears old), by the time they send their kids to college they frequently do not have savings. Overall, it's a bad idea to count other peoples' money.</p>
<p>Skygirl,</p>
<p>Lots of college's agree with your viewpoint, particularly those that give no merit aid. And many others consider being in the merit aid business a necessary evil. </p>
<p>Some colleges, however, have discovered that they can leverage their financial aid money to enroll a higher-paying class or to move up in the college rankings. If you want some insight into these practices, and want to find out how many college officials agree with you that there is something morally wrong about many of these practices, here's a good introduction to some of the issues from an old Atlantic Monthly article.</p>
<p>The</a> Atlantic Online | November 2005 | The Best Class Money Can Buy | Matthew Quirk</p>
<p>Here it is in a nutshell:</p>
<p>
[quote]
Financial-aid leveraging is the enrollment manager's secret weapon. It has become highly sophisticated since it was first developed, in the 1980s, but the underlying logic remains simple: targeting financial aid will further the interests of a school, typically by bringing in more net revenue or higher-scoring students. Take a $20,000 scholarship—the full tuition for a needy student at some schools. Break it into four scholarships of $5,000 each for wealthier students who would probably go elsewhere without the discounts but will pay the outstanding tuition if they can be lured to your school. Over four years the school will reap an extra $240,000, which can be used to buy more rich students—or gifted students who will improve the school's profile and thus its desirability and revenue.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>
[quote]
I am talking about scholarships as well . Guess it just got on my nerve today when students bragging about 30000-40000 a year they got this week and then talk about costly cell phones they hv, i-phones, spending months overseas. Too much of tht on CC lately too. I just felt it a bit unfair.
[/quote]
I'm sorry if they earned scholarships that you didn't.</p>
<p>It seems as if you have a distorted sense of what people do and do not "deserve."</p>
<p>I had the idea that most scholarships are need-based, meaning that need is one of the criteria. The few scholarships that are not need based are more about awarding achievement than about helping someone go to college.</p>
<p>No one is guaranteed the right to a college education, especially one paid for by someone else. It is a priviledge. You'll do far better in life and in school if you can learn that.</p>
<p>Skygirl, more often that not the middle class is hurt by financial aid, not helped. A lot of the time they don't get sufficient aid and have to take out loans exactly because they're in the middle. They're not poor enough to get significant financial aid, but they're not rich enough to easily afford tens of thousands of dollars a year. I wouldn't classify my family as rich (we're a fairly typical middle class family), but I got no financial aid at all from BC, which costs $52,000/yr. Sure, according to BC we have the means to take out $52,000 in loans, but that's ridiculous, especially when I have a brother in college already and 2 siblings younger than me that will also go to college.</p>
<p>Also, if the rich families you talk about are really as rich as you think they are, they won't get significant aid at colleges that have mainly need-based aid. That's the whole point of need-based financial aid.</p>
<p>this is called fair: everyone pays the same sticker price. Rich people shouldn't be punished by having to pay for more, and poor people don't deserve the extra aid. That is called fair. All aid should be determined by merit. That is called fair.</p>
<p>JohnC613: That definitely isn't fair. If you can afford to pay the sticker price, why shouldn't you pay it? Poor people DO deserve aid because in many cases, they can't afford college without it. Merit aid isn't a fair way to decide who gets aid because the rich have many more opportunities to build resumes that will win them merit aid. They can pay for test prep, club sports, music lessons, travel, and children of rich families usually don't have to work unless they want to. Children from poor families generally don't have money for any of these things, and they may even have to work to support/take care of their family and not have time for impressive ECs. So how is it fair that the advantaged rich kid with every opportunity gets merit aid over a poor kid who may have had to work much harder but doesn't have the impressive stats or ECs to show for it?</p>
<p>In Georgia, everyone who finishes a college prep high school course with a 3.0 has free tuition to one of the state schools as long as they maintain a 3.0 in college. The 3.0 and college prep course are not required for tech school. This has great payoff and is giving us an educated work force. That said, I see nothing wrong with those I love entering the merit scholarship lottery for out-of-state or private schools.</p>