Thanks guys for your inputs-
@thumper1 : I did double-check everything and they were all accurate. Having sold off my primary home at a loss, I am currently renting. If each of those colleges offer us 60% of the current parental contributions, I’ll thank them and work with it! So, keeping my fingers crossed.
@Thorsmom66 : For my first child- I used up most of my salaries and all my savings and so did not try to borrow since I knew it would be a disaster since my credit is a mess. My kids were high flyers in High school and have always prepped their minds to go to Ivy League colleges only; that’s all they applied into and so, that’s all they got admitted into. I guess we were hoping for some kind of scholarships to help us out seeing that they are so smart! Unfortunately, despite our best efforts- still no scholarships!
You would need to subtract your family contribution from that offer, unless that computes to be $0.
Using up your savings and salary, selling your house, messing up your credit, all to pay for college spells financial disaster. Please do not repeat. It’s not worth it. Find affordable options. A gap year is needed here plus planning.
Ivy League schools do not give academic scholarships. They award financial aid based on need alone. If this was not made clear to you, it should have been. Regardless of how outstanding your kids are (and they must be spectacular students), that doesn’t change the fact that the Ivy League only gives $$ based on need, not on academic performance. Since you have sold your home and run through your savings I’m not sure how you will be able to keep financing child #1 let alone paying for your second child - especially since you have indicated you won’t be able to take out significant loans (which you shouldn’t do anyway). You should not encourage your son to take out extravagant loans either (which you would need to co-sign since he is limited to around $5k per year). The most sensible route would be for your second child to take a gap year and apply to some schools you/he can afford. With his qualifications, there will be many, many merit opportunities open to him at some very good schools.
Thank you all for your advice.
I’m writing the appeal and after I send, I’ll update you all when I hear back from them.
Thank you all again.
@Mixedfeelings101 said that they recently sold their house. I am wondering if that is affecting the financial aid offer, because home equity is a protected asset but I think that the proceeds from a home sale are not. If that is the situation, then the financial aid office might be willing to make an allowance for this situation, if it is brought to their attention.
You can also call the financial aid office and ask to speak to a financial aid officer about your situation, in addition to/before filing an appeal. We did that, and it was very helpful.
@MMRose - Thank you so much; I will have my son incorporate the home sale loss on his appeal letter; and I guess we have to delay sending it to them until we have a chat with them before we proceed. Thank you again.
You’re welcome! I hope it works.
Also, I just sent you a DM.
No coffee yet this morning, so bear with me…I understand you’re appealing, but unless my math is way off pre-coffee you will need to cash-flow $76-77k/year (assuming they each take the maximum federal student loans) [$74k/year x 60% × 2 - $5.5k-7.5k ea/year for student loans] for the next 3 years and $67k [$74k - student loan] the 4th year, IF you win a 60% each decision. At best, that’s still around $300k in the next 4 years if there are no tuition/fee increases. You’ll owe $77k next month, or $7.7k/month over the next 10 months + fees, if they allow you to do a payment plan. Obviously we don’t know or need to know your income level, but for the vast majority of Americans those are some crushing amounts to cash-flow. Just “food for thought” for future readers.
An update guys-
- My 1st kids college increased this year’s total cost from 76K to 80K but cut that in half due to his brother starting next month…Yeah!!!
- My 2nd kid’s college didn’t even bother responding to his appeal- so we will call them today. The bursar’s office just now sent him his fall invoice for 40K (so 80K for this year).
So, we are happy about the first kid’s college finally doing something.
Thank you everyone who has weighed in on my issues. @MMRose - you’re awesome; got your DM. Thank you again.
So glad things are looking up, and glad I was able to be helpful. I just sent you another DM, in case you are not getting automatic notifications of them.
@MMRose - Yes, things are looking up; I am happy about that.
Thank you for the DM and thank you for letting me know you sent it - I wouldn’t have known otherwise because I do not get automatic alerts when I get messages. I only find out when I log in here.
I’m glad it was helpful.
There should be a setting so that you are alerted when people respond to your posts.
@CC_Mike , can you help with how to set up CC so that the poster is automatically alerted to when there is a response?
Here’s a post to help set up email notifications when you are away from CC:
Thank you!
Got it. Thank you so much.
Guys- I had promised an update regarding my situation after the appeal process.
Here is that update:
The college took an unusual amount of time to get back to me. I believe it took them almost 4 months to respond to me (and that was after a second email to them inquiring about the appeal we had submitted well over 2 months prior).
And of course- they denied us!
I guess my only option now is to sit my son down (when he comes home for Thanksgiving) and ask him how he feels about switching to his older brother’s college instead. For some reason, he wasn’t interested in applying there in the first place; and I guess he was also turned off by the fact he was required to write two essays at the time!
Has anyone’s kid had to switch from one Ivy league to another?
If so, would you mind sharing your experience?
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
So…
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Did your second child enroll at this Ivy that you could not afford?
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Will this student be able to switch to his brother’s Ivy? Did they give you sufficient need based aid to make this affordable?
Usually when you enroll in one college, you also decline the enrollment offers at others. Would the admission offer and aid even still be applicable at the brother’s college?
So sorry to hear your news. I hope that things work out for you.