As they should- in my opinion.
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Just curious – are they buying a unit for you or for them? Are they following you to college?
What if your parents buy a rental and you hate the school and transfer after a year?
Do they want to be landlords? Lots of hassle unless they let someone else manage the property. Plus a lot of off-campus housing is run by corporations nowadays.
I think you’ve been given good advice. Pick your schools based on fit and go from there. Good luck.
Plus any top schools will have a residency requirement…
ummmm. yes. yep. donations can change lives. just saying . . . we have friends whose close relative donated in the nine figures . . . and the kids got in. (and they were never in my kids’ gifted classes at school! 
) however - they are doing GREAT!
Yes- but likely not a donation made in June before senior year. These things take time to percolate…
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Thanks for the advice everyone. If I’m being frank I did not know that $840k was top 1%… I’m pretty broke compared to my friends. While I do have a profile that’s competitive for the UC’s (instate) and some privates (I did a chanceme here) I was just floating the idea of a full-pay hook in my head. I did not expect to see 45 responses! I appreciate all the advice
Either you live in Beverly Hills or you don’t have a good grasp of your folk’s finances…
Broke…I don’t think so…unless you mean $84,000 and not $840K.
Good luck.
Beverly Hills’ median household income is about $101k.
If $84k is “broke”, then 59% of US households are “broke”.
If $840k is “broke”, then the pay levels of new UCB L&S CS and EECS graduates these days are about 1/7 of “broke”.
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I’m being tongue in cheek. You don’t have to be so literal.
And the median is much lower than the average - $192K.
Wow, as it turns out, maybe I should live there!!
On the other hand, the average value of a home with a mortgage is over $2 mil…guess I’m shut out!!
Just don’t fill out a request for financial aid and the school will know you can full pay. If you really want to be obvious about it, don’t fill out the request for financial aid but send them an FAFSA with your parents income in it anyway.
I think signaling full pay will help you if you are right on the cusp, but it is not as big a bump as you might hope. I say this not because schools do not pay attention to who can full pay, because in my experience (and that of many of my friends and colleagues) the schools absolutely pay attention to socio-economic status even at allegedly “need blind” schools. Rather, there are a lot of privileged kids out there who are able to full pay, and they have all kinds of advantages that you likely have: lots of great ECs, guidance counselors that are well connected to the T50 universities, and inflated grades from wealthy suburban and prep schools.
Privilege matters when applying to college.
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My experience as a full pay parent this cycle:
I honestly think it didn’t provide any kind of boost.
We weren’t trying to highlight our favorable financial situation to colleges - we simply didn’t ask for aid because we knew we didn’t qualify for any.
@John_Stewart2 - there are far more full pay families at the tippy top colleges than you might think. And your being full pay means nothing to need blind schools like MIT, Caltech, Columbia, etc. Some people have said in the past that OOS full pay is attractive to state schools. But that is likely not true anymore at the top 20 CS schools (UCs, GT, UMich, UMD) because they get tons of full pay applicants to their CS program these days.
So - like others said, focus on fit and what’s right for you. Your full pay is unlikely to move the needle much at the top ranked schools.
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Mostly agree with @DadOfJerseyGirl . Anecdotally, however, Full Pay status seems to lubricate the admission wheel with waitlisted kids, especially at places like Tufts (private, need-aware, not T20, and without a massive endowment). I suspect this happens frequently even at top 20s, also. Perhaps less important at MIT and Caltech, but present. Need-blind doesn’t mean need-blind from the waitlist. And they place thousands of kids on the waitlist for a reason - so that they can choose exactly who they want/need to hit their numbers
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Caltech actually practices the most extreme form of need-blindness for its applicants: the deadline for submission of financial aid applications is after the applicants have received their notices of acceptance (For its EA applicants, it’s nearly a month after their acceptances).
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Yes, need blind may not be applicable for waitlist offers.
But again, at the tippy top schools they have so many full pay kids waitlisted that it’s likely not an advantage. At Tufts and other similar schools, yes full-pay likely gives you a bump.
Of course, being on the waitlist is disadvantageous to begin with.
- Many waitlist decisions are “soft rejections” with no possibility of admission.
- Even if a waitlist decision comes with a possibility of admission, chance of admission depends on:
- College underyields overall.
- College underyields students similar to you.
Define top schools? If you are going by conventional USNWR T50 rankings then these schools are my picks:
Wake Forest
Northeastern
Tulane
Boston College
If you have strong stats then I would add Hopkins, Tufts and G’town to those.
Just my opinion. Best to consult a good private college counselor but I bet I am pretty close.
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I live an area where the average family income is upwards of $1.5M so that’s why
Thanks for all the help. I will take into consideration all the schools listed in this thread
I think the error of your thread is that you said - you’re rich (well you said upper middle) - but you never said - this is my GPA or ACT or activities or anything about your accomplishments…and then desires.
If you shared that, you’d get a much better list of schools.
You could be Bill Gates kids - but if you apply to the schools that were mentioned and you’re not qualified, you’re not getting in. And each school is different - in size, feel, stature, etc.
You’re better to lay out your credentials and desires and then ask for a list to consider. And simply note for cost - that you are full-pay, not seeking merit.