NYT: Wake Up, Sheeple! College Still Cheap!

<p>And, they use Amherst as its prime example:

[quote]
Full-price students tend to come from families making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Most of those families have done quite nicely in recent decades, and they can afford Amherst. For everyone else, Amherst has cut its price.
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/06/upshot/amherst-college-and-financial-aid.html?rref=upshot&_r=0#%5B/quote%5D"&gt;http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/06/upshot/amherst-college-and-financial-aid.html?rref=upshot&_r=0#

[/quote]
</a></p>

<p>Is this true? Or, has Leonhardt drunk the purple kool-aid? Any parents making $150K a year care to weigh in?</p>

<p>That was the strong message communicated to prospective students and their parents during Amherst’s info. session back in 2005 when S was visiting schools. The problem for most students remains gaining admission to one of the elite privates with great FA. </p>

<p>I think it’s true. If you don’t, then you can always quit your job or change your job to a more lower paying one so your kids can get more financial aid.</p>

<p>I think it’s true, but parents making $150K would be in that mushy middle – too much for FA but not enough, perhaps, to want to commit a third of their salary to kid’s college cost. </p>

<p>$150K is a bad income for fin aid. All but a handful of the richest colleges won’t be able to provide enough fin aid. However, in-state options should be affordable if you saved up.</p>

<p>150 ish absolutely is the unsweet spot. We are right there full pay for states or pay a third to privates.</p>

<p>Seems to me that the full pay parents are really taking it in the chin to attend a school like this. I am one of those parents who will never qualify for financial aid at any college, but it would hurt too much to have my kids attend a school like Amherst at full pay. I work hard, and I think we are entitled to vacations and to eat out and all the other things an upper middle class lifestyle brings. And I would resent that my kids would have to pay twice as much as the average kid going to Amherst, so this school would not even be on my radar. And I suspect lots of parents out there are in the same boat as I am. Too wealthy to qualify for financial aid, Too poor to easily meet these, what I consider, unconscionable costs of attendance at so many of these private colleges these days. </p>

<p>Shocking, the NYT is full of it.</p>

<p>My kids would be full-pay where ever they go, but I was a fin aid kid at an Ivy-equivalent. So no resentment from me. However, I believe that only a handful of schools are worth full-pay for at current prices (including Amherst). About half the country lives in a state where there’s a good public option (in at least some fields). Plus, if a kid is good enough to get in to an Ivy/Ivy-equivalent/top LAC, chances are good that they can get significant merit money from schools where they still will receive a lot of opportunity to succeed (respected LAC/private or honors college).</p>

<p>The one private that my daughter wanted to attend thought we should pay about 40% of our take home pay. We have two kids in college and one still in HS. We are a bit south of that $150k mark with two parents working 60+ hour weeks.</p>

<p>And please avoid the term “sheeple.” Hate it’s direct disrespect. </p>

<p>We’re slightly north of the 150s and I’d say it’s accurate. The kids each got a decent chunk of merit money (about 20%) and even with the crash, we’ve been able to save about 1.5 years worth of tuition for both kids. Obviously we’d love to get some need based aid, but I think we’ll be able to get them through their undergrads with just enough debt that they have a stake in the game.</p>

<p>"work hard, and I think we are entitled to vacations and to eat out and all the other things an upper middle class lifestyle brings. "</p>

<p>An elite college is a luxury good. Not all upper middle class can afford all the luxury goods they might want. </p>

<p>Letsbefrank…fitting name. I’ll be frank, I find post #6 to be a tad bit rude. </p>

<p>How is it rude @GA2012MOM…why should parents have to sacrifice their own interests and hobbies completely for their kids? Someone who gets into Amherst would do just as well at their state flagship for a fraction of the cost unless he/she is aiming for Wall Street.</p>

<p>The lives of adults shouldn’t revolve around their kids entirely.</p>

<p>"An elite college is a luxury good. Not all upper middle class can afford all the luxury goods they might want. " Completely agree. Going to a school like Amherst is a luxury and not anything close to a necessity, thus the reason it would not be on my radar.</p>

<p>“why should parents have to sacrifice their own interests and hobbies completely for their kids?” Exactly . . some parents of course do it for the bragging rights, but most who struggle to send their kids to schools like Amherst feel some sort of obligation to their children to ensure they get “elite” educations. I suppose if my kids were brilliant scholars . . I might feel differently, but they are simply typical, bright teenagers whose lives will turn out just as well . . . or not . .if they attend a good State school. </p>

<p>I am not willing to sacrifice my own financial security and the little things that make life so important . . by paying hundreds of thousands of dollars per child for them to attend a school like Amherst. I like driving a BMW. I like taking a European and Alaskan cruise now and then. I like Ski vacations in the West and going to the National Parks. The kids come with us and so they benefit to. The kids get reasonably priced dance lessons, figure skating lessons, etc. They are enjoying an upper middle class life style. My wife and I would not be willing to give that up for them OR ourselves, just so they get to attend an elite name school where the education is likely no different than they would get at a much lower cost by going to a good State School. Cost of attendance at Amherst a QUARTER OF A MILLION DOLLARS of after tax money. Two kids and double that amount. Preposterous. Think about how hard and long most of us have to work to accumulate that kind of money. And you feel some sort of obligation to give it to a college because it is considered “elite” whatever that means in reality? The Kids will get by with State educations and they will be happy about it.</p>

<p>And by the way, well into middle age, I am also not willing to either cosign or take out debt just to send my kids to an “elite” undergraduate. If they were going to med school and the payoff would likely be there, that would be a different situation. To each their own.</p>

<p>For those students who have parents who are able, according to Amherst’s fin aid calculators, to pay a given amount, and whose parents cannot or will not; that’s an issue whether such student can get accepted to Amherst or such schools. There aren’t that many schools that guarantee to meet full need, and those that do come up with their own definitions of need. Where I see a lot of issues is with kids from divorced families. If the NCP refuses to pay and has the means, that’s the end of many choices for that kid. Not that the parents have to be split for that to happen. Parent won’t pay when the numbers say he can, no aid forthcoming. </p>

<p>If you’re upper-middle class already, a good state school or LAC/honors/whatever where your kid can get merit money will likely be just as good as an Ivy/equivalent. They already know the mores of people who have succeeded in our society and know where there’s opportunity and how to take advantage of them. The difference between an elite school and some other school (keeping in mind that many of the very poor wouldn’t realize what opportunities exist) would be greater for a lower-class or immigrant kid who may have the mind and fiber to be a great consultant or trader or whatever but not even think about becoming one.</p>

<p>Through an online forum, I got to mentoring an Asian-American HS kid. Her parents owned a Chinese restaurant and weren’t educated and didn’t speak English well (her mother misplaced her fin aid forms she was suppose to fill out at one point because she didn’t think it was important) but she was very smart and an athlete. Dartmouth and a directional school recruited her for the sport (as well as others, and she got an admit to the UChicago as well). I tried to convince her of the merits of Dartmouth (which would have been pretty much free for her through fin aid), but she said she disliked the kids there and wanted to be a nurse, anyway, so there was no reason to go there. She liked UChicago more, but they didn’t offer nursing while the directional had nursing and competed in her sport at a higher level. So she went there on an athletic scholarship instead. I can’t help but wonder how her life would have change if she had gone to Dartmouth or the U of C instead, however.</p>

<p>@letsbefrank…you obviously have made your choices. Good for you. From what you say, it doesn’t sound as if your kids would be likely to get into Amherst, and would be perfectly well served by a decent state flagship. What is your state? Where do you see them going?</p>

<p>I must say, I find the term “sheeple” extremely unpleasant.</p>

<p>“I am not willing to sacrifice my own financial security and the little things that make life so important . . by paying hundreds of thousands of dollars per child for them to attend a school like Amherst. I like driving a BMW. I like taking a European and Alaskan cruise now and then.”</p>

<p>So don’t! You don’t need to justify to anyone on here how you spend your money. Methinks you’re protesting too much. I happen to value other luxury goods, an elite education being one of them. That’s cool. We don’t all have to like the same things.</p>