@thumper 1 “I want to know how a family who received NO need based aid from Yale…can’t “scrape together” the cost to attend. Their annual income has to exceed $200,000 a year.”
As strange as it may sound, this income range is one of the worst for affording a school like Yale. Let’s say that they make $200K with both spouses working, and have 3 children. They will pay about 25% total in taxes (fed + state + local + sales … would actually be higher than that in aggregate, but they have deductions). They have paid off all of their own student debt and are now saving 10% toward retirement. The $200K is now $130K. Their company (like mine), may only offer high deductible health plans and charge more each month for higher earners. They pay $1000/month for health insurance --that would be a high-deductible plan, so average another $500 month for out of pocket costs. That’s $18,000/yr for family health insurance/costs, so we are at $112K. They own a house with a $3500/month mortgage (could be much higher in this income bracket), so that’s another $42,000 a year. $70K left. They have 3 cars (the kids all share one old one), and a conservative cost of owning a car is $725/month. We’ll say the kids car is a junker, both of the parents’ cars have over 100K miles, and they do some work on them themselves, so they get that down to $1500 a month for all three – probably unrealistically low given they are paying insurance on 2 or 3 student drivers, but that’s another $18,000/year. We are now at $52K – already well below the $75K/year for Yale. And the family hasn’t yet gone on a vacation, given a cent to charity, or for that matter eaten. A two income family with 3 children probably is busy, and paying for lawncare, eating out more, and perhaps even biweekly house cleaning, because neither spouse is at home enough to avoid those expenses. Their kid got into Yale, so clearly they are funding some sports and EC activities, music lessons, etc. for each of their 3 kids. This is a very conservative family, with kids in public schools, and they can’t come close to “scraping together” $75K/year.
Don’t forget that this family hasn’t been making $200K for the past 18 years – that’s what they make now, and they probably were just barely getting by and saving nothing for several years when their family was young. If they saved carefully, lived frugally, invested wisely, and weren’t hugely impacted by the recession and housing bubble in 2009 (many of us sending our kids to college right now lost jobs and a lot of investment capital while our kids were growing up) , they might have $50K saved up in a college fund for each child. That would be very impressive. But of course all of this hard work and savings only reinforces the fact that they will qualify for no need-based aid anywhere. For this Yale student, that $50K wouldn’t even pay for a single year.
I know I’ve gone on too long, and I don’t mean to rant, but the bottom line is that in fact, I would flip your comment and say that I would be ASTOUNDED if ANY family earning $200K could pay $75/K year toward college for even a single child out of their income.
OP, if you are still reading this thread, your parents have done nothing wrong to end up here. The college economics are just stacked against them for you to be able to afford Yale. Even if they are willing to support your dreams and co-sign the loan, and would strongly recommend you consider a very good school with a large merit scholarship, which you likely can find if you can get into Yale. You will get a great education, can afford to go to a top 10 law school, and still end up in the same place you want in your career while having an amazing undergraduate experience.
