@thumper1 I know one student on here whose total college cost per year is about 7k a year. That is for a private LAC with funding from the private LAC. He is an Hispanic first generation college student whose family makes less than 20k a year. They are living below the poverty line. Those are the kind of people who are getting whopping aid (NOT Federal aid) to attend college.
Yes…the BIG aid is actually institutional aid…be that merit or need based. Let’s just say…the max $5900 Pell, plus to $5500 freshman Direct Loan…won’t pay for a student to attend a residential four year college. That student needs additional funds from someplace!
We’re also on the Thumper Family plan, but add to that that we also chose to only have one child at least in part due to financial considerations, and my in-laws (who otherwise would not be financially self-sufficient, and who previously lived with their other child) have lived in our starter house with us for 15 years (in the bedroom that would have been occupied by an opposite-sex child, so another reason to have stopped at one). Cheap term life insurance, with the terms ending when the mortgage was originally scheduled to be paid off, when DD was scheduled to graduate high school, and when she was likely to graduate college, so that if one of us died untimely, insurance would replace that person’s financial contribution. Both of us went back to school part-time at night, to community college and then the local directional public, paying as we went.
Not saying that’s the right choice for anyone but us; we’ve been lucky a lot. But if you want to know who can afford their EFC, we can, and making the cheaper choice over and over again is mostly what I attribute it to. And even for us, OOS publics without guaranteed big merit could never have been on the list, because they aren’t affordable.
Do I seriously have to justify myself to an online forum? Silliness! So so so uncool.
I did not join the discussion to get harassed for my life’s choices, I joined to gain understanding into the whole process.
Thank you so much to those of you who are helping me “get it”.
thank you.
How much over the years have you spent on private K-12 tuition? That money could have instead been put in 529 accounts for your children, and grown very nicely tax-free to pay for part of the EFC.
Your choice.
Edited to add: nobody is harassing you. Basic financial aid concepts are being explained. Part of the expectation is that some of the college expenses will be paid for with savings. If you spend the money that could be saved on something else, it should be no surprise that when college time comes the budget is stretched too thin.
OP- hugs to you. It is always a shock when you look at the actual numbers on the page for your eldest. Not the numbers that you hear about on the news- “college costs a quarter of a million dollars” which you tune out. Not the numbers that the guidance counselors talk about at college night. But YOUR numbers. What it would cost for YOU and your family.
Now that the shock is (hopefully) wearing off, you can start to move towards a plan for your kid. The goal is to maximize your kids educational opportunities in a way that does not put your entire family at risk financially. That may mean community college, commuting, taking a year off to work and rethink the college application strategy, figuring out if your current retirement/life insurance plan is adequate or inadequate, etc. Lots of families end up using the terror and shock they feel when they look at the actual financial aid packages to move towards a healthier financial footing.
I don’t know the details of your work life, finances, health, age, if there are grandparents in the picture who want to help, etc. But nobody comes to your house and vacuums out your bank account- you (and your spouse and kid) need to figure out how to balance your financial health with the cost of various college options.
Second hug. You can do this.
Oh lordy,
Who said I paid tuition for “all those years” ?
Why do you not assume I was a struggling single parent on a free ride for parish aid at a catholic school, living in an apt until recently.
WHY assume there was ever any money to put away at all?
I’m not giving my back story. I said, here are my PRESENT bills, here is my ACCUMULATED debt, and here is our PRESENT (not historic) income.
Hey, guess what, I lived overseas in a third world nation with a tiny income … doing volunteer work for a faith based organization… what money was I supposed to put away? Its almost funny.
I understand the FAFSA is for loan eligibility. I also understand schools use it when figuring out need based scholarships and etc. I understand that many merit scholarships have a need component. So , this EFC figure is pretty useless in certain circumstances? It simply does not reflect need based on real life.
Again, so many kids will huge huge debts after graduation. The whole system is broken.
I think I am done with CC.
You are not a friendly bunch.