<p>I have been reading attentively some of the remarks made here and have become progresively more infuriated. My parents earn 44,000 $ together and my EFC was 3600$. My best fin aid package from an out of state school was 26000 thousand of which 6000 was in loans which leaves a sizable difference you do the math. I am horrified at some people here who make plus 100000 or whatever and are complaining about not being able to afford college. Moreover it makes me said that I cant REALISTICALLY afford an out of state school. Thank God I live in Michigan where U of M is a great public school. Everyone complains here well I dont have the money and whatno what about the people who truly cannot afford school? Let's be less selfish here. Or the post about hiding money so some rich ba......can pay less. INFURIATING. There are so many able people who want to go to college but cant even afford the books. I am lucky because at least four people plus I will be chipping into my college costs.</p>
<p>Amen! I have a friend who was complaining about FAFSA, and she said "My parents make a lot of money on paper, but we have a house and three cars (20 foot tvs, fancy vacations, etc.)" You know what? People who make a lot of money and spend it on luxaries should have enough money to put aside for college.</p>
<p>try living like I do, where sometimes our food budget is tight because everything that my parents have to pay for from their combined 44 k income and thats without taxes being taken away, you do the math.</p>
<p>so your parents dont earn triple digit incomes? i wasnt referring to you then</p>
<p>I decided to delete my messages because they contained too much personal information</p>
<p>you know sure there are situations that may not always be reflected but generally people who earn these triple digit salaries complain more than people who cant afford food</p>
<p><em>patpat</em> I hear you. </p>
<p>I suppose it would be insanely wrong of me to tell you to try to see it from their perspective and to remember that these people haven't lived your life and don't really know what it's like living with monetary constraints. Not that it takes the blame off of them or makes it anymore right, but just good courtesy to be compassionate and understanding of everyone. Debatedly, everyone deserves a chance to be heard, even those more financially sound than yourself.</p>
<p>This is also a good moment to say that what little fin aid you do get, you should be very grateful for. And working your butt off in college to show your gratitude. But of course, I know you are already thinking that.</p>
<p>please remember that the people here do not earn 100,000+, but rather their parents do. income alone does not gaurentee a student 4 free years of college. large famliy size, considerable debt, and other extenuating circumstances must be considered. please do not generalize by assuming that everyone who is upper-middle class can easily afford college. it is a burden for everyone, but it is an investment that will pay for itself over time.</p>
<p>look if parents cannot save money from their three digit income thats one thing but people who earn the three digit salary and try to hide money because they dont have savings due to their extravagent lifestyles is another thing. wake up and realize how many poor people cannot go to college at all because although they are intelligent enough but their families cannot even put food on the table. please take a different perspective before you start complaining I beg you</p>
<p>the cost of living is far higher in certain parts of the country, namely california. it has nothing to do with the "inability to save money".</p>
<p>Not to mention-all of those schools that the kids are trying to get into LOVE those ECs. The most impressive ECs are likely those that cost families $$$$$$$$$$$$$- ie: summer program at JHU,etc. But not for my kids. They are extremely fortunate that I am able to pay the outrageous fees involved in our marching band (which looks like a tiny footnote on a vitae). Should college admit boards consider annual income when they look at resumes? Those of of making less $ should have the bar lowered a bit when being considered for admit. Or should those of us in the lower middle class just stick to those low end schools that we may or may not be able to afford?</p>
<p>Making 100,000 in New York City is like making 45,000 in other parts of the country. In order to make the 100K most people have to live in more expensive areas and have higher costs of living. It is all relative. If the cost of living in NYC was lower, then wages would be lower as well. </p>
<p>So someone in the NYC areas pays 12,000 in property taxes on their 600K home and makes 100K. If expense were lower in the area then they would be making a lot less.</p>
<p>Refusing to help/advise people searching for financial aid based on their available money supply is bad, and it is irrelevant if you think they can afford college. There is no reason to devote a thread to the purpose of complaining about triple digit income kids who want more money. In the end, those making less will make up a part of the problem in financial aid (FAFS, etc.). This isnt always true of course, but there is no reason to complain. Like chelsea 2005 said, if you cant detail their lives, then you cant judge them.</p>
<p>again has anyone ever thought about the kids who truly are in dire need in fin aid? or kids who cant go to college because they cant pay? partly becAuse their parents are in my situation</p>
<p>The spirit of pp000441's protest is sound. Post #9 specifically mentions 'three digit incomes,' but the rest of the message goes into how it isn't a matter of not being able to live off of that, it's about knowing that you have it but looking for ways to 'hide' it or otherwise get around having to pay.</p>
<p>There is a very real danger for low-income individuals to not, under any circumstances, be able to afford college. Low-income in this sense applies to anyone who is living at or below the cost of living for their area (though the funders often don't consider that to the extent that they ought to; it's hard to get into the 'I live in an expensive neighborhood/suburb of this already expensive place'). </p>
<p>I think what pp000441 is complaining about is those individuals who do have the money to afford college but won't consider dipping into their vacation fund, or their home equity, or whatever, because that's for 'other things.' The fact of the matter is that paying for education requires sacrifices. It is more for some than for others, it's true -- and it especially hits the middle class folks who live comfortably above poverty, but not comfortably above the need for discretionary spending -- but there is a lower limit where those sacrifices go beyond giving up the yacht, taking a little out of retirement and so on, and dip into having to eat less, miss payments, get a second or third job, et cetera. It's that the lower limit exists and people are still complaining that the college is expecting them to sell their fourth car in order to pay tuition that is, at least to me, frustrating.</p>
<p>I do not think anyone is denying the fact that poor families need financial aid and should get most if not all of what they need. The problem comes in when people start saying that higher income families do not need it. Your parents make 44K a year and you have to pay 3600 per year up front, whereas my parents make 100K a year and have to pay 25K up front. My financial aid is lower than yours but I still need something otherwise I could not afford to go to the school I am currently attending. I don't have a yact, fancy car, or a vacation fund to give up to finance my education, so I too rely on fincnail aid but to a lesser degree.</p>
<p>
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the post about hiding money so some rich ba......can pay less
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</p>
<p>Part of the problem is the way that the thread you refer to is titled. I wish it had been titled as something like "Strategies to Maximize Financial Aid".</p>
<p>As a parent who will get no financial aid if my son goes to Duke where he has been offered admission. Let me just say that it rankles more than a little that just because we have been frugal and saved money through most of our working life, we will not qualify for any financial aid. If, on the other hand, we had gone on a spending spree and had no savings we would have qualified for some financial aid.</p>
<p>There are just a lot of inequities and arbitrary determinations in the way that financial aid is formulated. This is evidenced by posts that we have seen where some colleges offer quite a bit more in aid than others to the same individual.</p>
<p>My son will more than likely go to UVA - as opposed to Duke - but I assure you that if he had decided to go Duke - paying $44k a year - we would have had to make some major adjustments in our lifestyle, if we had not saved money.</p>
<p>undecided maybe I stated myself wrong but you are right as to what i wanted to say. Needless to say I have friends who parents are wealthy enough to pay most of their college costs however they have no desire in lowering their own standard of living.</p>
<p>my friends who make over $70,000 had EFC of 0 because their parents don't work for a company and therefore cheat on their tax incomes. THey all got in my dream school UCSD while I was close. If i was "low-income" like them i woulda gotten in. haha. i find that funny.</p>
<p>I thought Harvard will give you free education if you make less than $40K.</p>