<p>Given my son's Act Score of 35 there is a chance he could get accepted into some really good schools, like Harvard, Dartmouth, Amherst, Williams, Wesleyan, Middlebury. We come from an underpopulated Western State.</p>
<p>All of these schools are need based, and do not offer financial aid for merit or academics, is my understanding. ( i think).</p>
<p>If a preliminary EFC showed me on one of the Dartmouth website, that I am expected to contribute 28,000 per year, given our combined gross income of 122000 (which in all honesty to me doesnt put us in the rich house, but apparently the school thinks we are) and I know I cannot afford that, since we are in no way rich... should we just not even apply to these need based schools? Why do these schools not take into account that with 2 people working and making about 60,000 a year, that is no way a rich couple? or even close to an upper middle class couple?</p>
<p>Or, should we still apply to a few of these schools anyway? Does anyone think If I take a promotion and raise our Gross Income to 152,000 a year that it would be a huge mistake because with 3 kids that need to go to college, and my first becoming a senior this year, I will just be expected to fork out so much more for college that it isn't even worth the extra 30000 in salary? </p>
<p>Do any 2 working family couples ever decide that for quality of life purposes and the way these EFC's work, that one person should just stay home and stop working?
I know it sounds crazy- doesnt it!!</p>
<p>I realize that after reading this, I should probably just set site on the schools that do offer merit aid, and not the ones listed above. However, any feedback would be great.</p>
<p>Your $120,000 a year income would likely yield an EFC of what you got for Dartmouth. The reality is that is your family income…whether two people earn it…or one does. Dartmouth (and most of the others on your list) also use the CSS Profile for dispersal of their institutional aid. The FAFSA EFC is really used to compute eligibility for federally funded need based aid only. With an income in your family’s range, you would be eligible for a Stafford loan only.</p>
<p>If your son has the stats to be accepted to these top schools, he also has the stats to be accepted somewhere where he might garner some significant MERIT aid which could end up being more generous that need based aid. Coming from an “underrepresented western state” could actually help him with admissions. I’m not sure what that does for financial aid purposes.</p>
<p>There are many fine colleges out there where your son might garner merit aid that would reduce your out of pocket expenses to an amount your family CAN pay.</p>
<p>RE: one person staying home…we were in the same financial situation as you. We both continued working while the kids were in college. <em>I</em> didn’t want to lose my seniority at my job or risk not being able to find one WHEN I wanted to return to the job market…good decision on my part…given the economy.</p>
<p>Also, my income was used to pay the college costs. Look at it this way…if you really can LIVE on one income of $60K per year to pay your bills…you have that second one to meet your family contribution for college. We were happy that we could do this…hope you are too.</p>
<p>Incidentally, in most cases, Harvard only requires 10% of family income to be paid if the family makes $180,000 or less (unless you’ve got 12 sports cars in your driveway). Not sure about the other Ivy League schools, but I hear several are similar.</p>
<p>OP…your son’s outstanding ACT score is only one piece of the “admissions” pie. Hopefully he has a GPA with an aggressive courseload to match that ACT score. </p>
<p>Some of the Ivies (and equivalents) have very generous need based aid policies. BUT the trick is to first get accepted. Many fine applicants are amongst the 90% of applicants who do not get accepted at these schools each year.</p>
<p>SO…cast a WIDER net than just these tippy top schools for both the money reasons…and for acceptances as well.</p>
<p>Your son has an excellent ACT score. If everything else is great too…he could well be in the running for some nice merit aid at places that offer that.</p>
<p>I don’t want to comment on anyone’s personal situation, and I’m not trying to justify EFC calculations which definitely benefit some and penalize others. But you do have to realize that with a family income of 120k+, you are at least in the upper 20% of US wage earners:</p>
<p>I agree with other posters, that if the rest of his application is excellent, your S should be in the running for merit scholarships. D is a pretty generous school for need based FA, only HYPS are going to offer substantially better FA.</p>
<p>The OP posted this…if this is from the D’mouth online calculator and the figures the OP put in are accurate, it is likely that this is at least in the ballpark for what D’mouth will expect the family to contribute. There is also a student contribution that I believe D’mouth requires. Any need based aid will not cover these amounts (except IF the student gets work study this can usually be applied to the student contribution…however with an EFC in the almost $30K range…W-S is not a definite).</p>
<p>You just need to decide how much you are willing to pay. With a high stats kid you have options. Many in your position (over 100 grand a year) but a A-/B+ kid are not as fortunate as you and will end up paying $20,000 a year for college education for each child. You are fortunate both for your income levels and your son’s apptitude. At that income level and with two paychecks you’ve undoubtedly done some decent savings so dropping off one income is not going to garner you $ for $ savings because your assets/savings unless totally in 401Ks or IRAs is going to count. Do your research and run the financial aid calculators for the FAFSA only schools and the FAFSA + Profile schools (you can also find a few colleges that have on-line calculators particular to their school to get an idea of how different schools will view your situation.) so you somewhat have an idea of what you will be expected to pay out of pocket. Then go find a couple schools you can afford without merit or scholarships, a couple of schools for your great student that will garner scholarships and merit and sure, take a crack at some of the private selective east coast schools. In the spring you’ll be able to sit down and compare costs and make a decision with your son.</p>
<p>Good advice given. Yes, that is what you are expected to pay. I don’t understand why you think turning down a promotion is the financially smart thing to do. You don’t appear to be on the cusp of any break points for need eligibility. If you get a $30K income increase, you’ll probably pay more in taxes as a result, and yes, you’ll get a higher expected parental contribuiton. But you’ll still net out more money. And you’ll have more money to put towards college. If you hold your spending at current levels, take into account the savings of having a child out of the house and not having to feed him, having him use the hot water, utilities, in general, drain the gas from your car, extra laundry to be done, etc, etc, you are going to have extra money to pay the College costs. You’ll also be putting yourself at a higher set point for future raises and promotions in the upcoming years. Your kid is hopefully not going to be in college forever, so when s/he is out, you can really enjoy that windfall. It’s just for the next four years, you have to put those amounts toward college if s/he goes to an expensive school that does not give merit money. </p>
<p>I know how you feel I have 5 kids and they are spaced an average of 3.5 years apart so,do your math on how long we are doing the college budget. We’re going to be hitting retirement about the time our kids are done, and we may have loans to pay as well. So this is truly where we have chosen, and I use the word “chosen” because it was our choice,</p>
<p>You are definitely upper middle class. Most upper middle class families can not afford the top schools.</p>
<p>As others have said, HYPS by far have the best need based aid. If he can get into one of those, you’ll probably be able to swing it. Otherwise merit aid or your state schools are what it come down to for most.</p>
<p>I agree with those who say you have to consider you will be in the work force after your kids graduate from college, and taking yourself off track in tenuous times would probably not be the best idea.</p>
<p>Merit aid at a private school that OFFERS merit aid might also be a choice. HYPS and all of the Ivies and equivalents do not offer merit aid. </p>
<p>If this student has the stats to be a strong candidate for the Ivies, he has the potential to garner some significant merit aid at other schools. Here are some choices where that 35 ACT would help…Washington and Lee (they have a full ride scholarship there), UVA (another one with LIMITED scholarships), U of South Carolina (McNair), Robertson Scholarship (UNC or is it Duke?). There are others.</p>
<p>Agreed. I know two kids whose best financial aid/merit package offer was from NYU. Yes, sttingy ol’ NYU. The school really wanted them, and was willing to pay for them. They were accepted to some ivies as well, but the need calculated and offered to them from those schools was less because ivies give need only money and NYU can and does sweeten the need numbers with some merit. Kids who are ivy material can and often do get some of the juicy, high ticket scholarships from other schools. In fact, many of those kids offered the top awards at a number of colleges were also accepted to ivy league schools, and these kids sometimes decline those offers to go to schools like Vanderbilt, BC, Pitt, NYU, GW that come up with better aid/need packages.</p>
<p>^^Yes chances are you and your husband are highly intelligent and fortunately produced a highly intelligent student. Take the time to do the research on costs and the ins and outs of merit aid at the very same time you’re looking at the college fit criteria that your son is interested in: small, medium, large, rural, urban, selectivity. The time you spend doing “your” reserach will mitigate the costs and will clearly point out the value of that over a knee jerk reaction like quitting one job (unless that clearly points to a benefit of some sort). We have three to educate with overlap years where two will be in college. I thank my lucky stars (as does my husband) for all the reading and research I did the year before our first started applying and realized our EFC was going to be higher than I had hoped and I wasn’t working with a high stats kid…just a good solid one.</p>
<p>The 10 percent figure quoted by BillyMc is correct for Harvard, according to the letter we got some time back. However, if my memory serves me, that is for tuition, so there would be another $10K+ for room and board. So, although that would lower the OP’s numbers some, it would still be more than $20K.</p>
<p>You are expected to pay for college out of savings, current income and loans. $28,000 per year does not seem unreasonable on your income. You should have at least $28K saved for college, your son can take $28K in unsubsidized Stafford loans, you can take $28K in parent loans, and you should be able to pay $28k out of current income.</p>
This statement makes no sense. Public schools are supported by their state constituents and the IS tuition is supposed to be affordable. Why should public’s make it that way for OOS students whose families don’t contribute to the college’s support? Presumably you have a perfectly good IS college option which will be affordable for you.</p>
<p>BTW, UVA meets full need for students, even OOS.</p>
<p>Move to one of those states so you’ll have instate tuition. As noted…the taxpayers in THOSE states support higher education in THOSE states and therefore get the lower tuition costs. If you are OOS, your costs are substantially higher…and I happen to agree with this.</p>
<p>And brace yourself, while not HYPS, Dartmouth has much better aid than the vast majority of private colleges. If they want $28K, most privates will want significantly more.</p>