<p>I know I said I wouldnt post anymore but this is just blatantly false
“The OP’s family is not upper-middle class. They are most decidedly upper class.”
^please make sure you’re right before you say stuff like this. you’ll see that the official cutoffs for upper class are close to 1 mil. our income is definitely within upper middle class. dont think my parents dont work for their money like you. its not like we’ve got tons of cash just stocked up and I’m complaining because I want to say the cash for some luxuries or something. We’ve only been making this much VERY RECENTLY. in fact last year our income was 190k. only this year when my mom became an attorney did we start making this much</p>
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<p>Then again, she may, and I would bet that, since she knows the gentleman and you don’t, she does.</p>
<p>Your posts remind me of someone who posted on another board I was on years ago. I don’t know why it is that your posts remind me so much of his, but they do. Maybe it’s the unkind aggressiveness, or the sneering, or both, but it’s uncanny, the similarities. </p>
<p>Anyway, he boosted of his income, his lifestyle, and so on. Some years later, it came out – posted by he himself – that he’d actually had to declare bankruptcy because of gambling debts. His income was nowhere near what he had claimed it to be, and his lifestyle was not what he’d made it out to be.</p>
<p>Please do not think that I am suggesting you are he, as he has since died. I’m just struck by how similar in tone your posts are to his. Uncanny, just absolutely uncanny.</p>
<p>~~~</p>
<p>mjmg1291, I’m sure others will be along with suggestions, but the first thing I think you should do is talk to your guidance counselor about the situation. Are you considered homeless? That’s something your GC can tell you.</p>
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<p>That’s still nearly 4x the average…</p>
<p>OHHHHHHH MUYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY GOOOOODDD!! How did yuo survive with only 190k??? That’s almost poverty!!! You POOR POOR child. <em>sob</em></p>
<p>Wow. I finally got full-time employment and my husband and I might break 90K next year. I feel wealthy. I can’t imagine 190K in my wildest dreams. We have been living on 50 (and that’s with the hubby working 70 hour/wk). Can’t turn on the heat till November. Sorry to not be empathetic, but come on.</p>
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<p>I don’t equate wealth to being fortunate. I would MUCH rather live on ~20k a year, like I do, and be happy and not put others down than be like you who calls people who makes less than his family lazy and stupid. I consider myself the fortunate one in this situation. It honestly makes me feel bad for you that you have such a low opinion of people.</p>
<p>When you said your income recently became $250K, I falsely thought that the vast majority of that income was your mom’s newfound job income. I didn’t know that prior to that time your family income was $190K. </p>
<p>I DO believe that you have many college options out there that will be affordable to your family. You just need to talk to them about what they can and will pay.</p>
<p>In a recent post, you indicated that they would do “anything” to help you if you got accepted at an Ivy League school.</p>
<p>That being said…can this thread please end.</p>
<p>mjmg1291 can you start a post of your own?? I’m sure you will get some great advice but right now a lot of knowledgable people are so sick of this thread that they aren’t posting to help you out. Go to the Main Financial Aid Forum page and click on start a thread…</p>
<p>“Maybe it’s the unkind aggressiveness, or the sneering, or both, but it’s uncanny, the similarities.”
It is true that I don’t suffer fools well. I find the OPs sense of entitlement less offensive than the posters on this thread whose opinion is that “I have reasons why I’m an underachiever so my family is more entitled to your family’s tax dollars than you are”.</p>
<p>I think we have beat this subject to death. I’ll let you have the last word (insult) and move on to other issues. Good luck everyone, I hope you and yours get into the college(s) of your choice and the financial aid that you deserve.</p>
<p>aglages, you have posted on CC as the father, and also as the student, but primarly as the dad. Check your own house before insulting others, and be glad posters wouldn’t insult your D as you have insulted people on this thread. CC can be harsh, but you sir are over the top rude.</p>
<p>aglages, the OP’s question was about financial aid from private institutions. I fail to see how tax dollars come into the question.</p>
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<p>When did anyone make an excuse about being an underachiever because of their family?</p>
<p>Sorry OP…anyone who has been around this forum for awhile learns to keep some kinds of “good fortune” to themselves. I’m only on page two, so I may have missed something, but I think those of you who are suggesting he is here to say he “deserves” need based aid, are exaggerating. I believe the question was “is anyone else in this position”. So far, few if any in these position have responded. Perhaps they are afraid…</p>
<p>Yes, I agree with ebeeeee: Mjmg1291, please start your own thread. You have a REAL problem. I think a lot of folks on this forum will be able to assist you with great advice.</p>
<p>Shrinkrap, according to the OP, she deserves to go to HYP, and is protesting their financial aid policies for excluding needs-based aid for an income of $250K.</p>
<p>Stupefy…I’ll come to your aid.</p>
<p>I NOW have a “high” income. Not the level you’re speaking of, but…it FEELS like a lot. Yet, it’s VERY new. I’ve been near the poverty level most of my life. I’ve raised my daughter alone since day one…when her… um… “sperm donor” (?) decided he couldn’t handle the responsibility. I stood in line at the Welfare office crying. I lived in people’s basements. It’s been REALLY hard. But NOW my FAFSA will FINALLY say I’m making some money. Mind you, I’m in big debt and have never been able to save for college or retirement or anything. Well, we have a TINY bit saved…enough for that “rainy day” (such as the water heater that burst 2 weeks ago). I’m also self employed. So what LOOKS like profit/income…is spent the next year in my having to pay about 40% of it back in estimated taxes for that year. My income is NOT what it appears. So I DO feel your parents’ pain. Sometimes it’s NOT what it seems to be. For my child, she’s lucky to be a National Merit semi finalist (and I hope finalist). However, as you can imagine, the schools that give great aid for that - are not really the type school that type of child really WANTS to attend. But…at least its an education. Mine is setting her sights on working like a maniac at a free/cheap undergrad school…in order to maybe get a scholarship for grad school OR get into a better one, and maybe by then I’ll have a bit more money. But…frankly…she’s also looking at expensive schools too. Because, now that I DO have some income (but I don’t know how long it will last, I’ll lose my business if my cancer returns)…and now that your parents know what they’ll have to pay…at least we can hopefully both get LOANS. Since we didn’t plan in the past. We’ll have to pay in the future. Good luck to you.</p>
<p>I think that’s the difference between a child and seasoned adult. We may think we “deserve” to have a big house because we’ve work so hard, but we would never say it. D1 thought she deserved to go to HYPS, just like so many high performing seniors. She cried about how unfair it was she gave up partying all through high school, how she walked such a straight line so she wouldn’t have any blemish on her record, how she turned down hanging out with her friends because she was studying. She thought it was so unfair some kids were able to get into those schools because they had certain advantages (athlete, legacy, URM…). So no, I don’t see OP felt it was an entitlement. I see it as a very natural feeling to having - you work hard for a goal, you want to reach that goal. As adults, we know the world doesn’t always work that way. It is unfair. But many of us also learn over time to be thankful of what we have.</p>
<p>As far as how much the parents are making, my sense is that they are not living beyond their means. I bet you that’s why OP does not feel like they are upper middle class. The parents are probably putting away as much money as possible to try to pay for their kids’ tuitions. I don’t blame OP’s sense injustice in that at those top tier schools people making 180,000 only needs to pay 18,000 and people making 200,000+ have to pay 50,000. It doesn’t make sense to me either, but it is what it is.</p>
<p>No, I am not into slamming high schoolers on this forum.</p>
<p>If OP can get into HYP, then she does deserve to go.</p>
<p>No admitted student should be shut out because of their parent’s bad financial situation. Especially by schools who have $billions in assets. Of course, that is not the way things work.</p>
<p>I think the bigger reason that people had an issue with the OP is that she felt entitled to go to HYPS because of her stats. MANY people have stats like hers and get rejected all the time. She felt that she deserved to go and shouldn’t “settle” for a school like Penn State.</p>
<p>I think that Penn State Schreyer Honors College would be a good fit for the OP. It’s really tough to get in. On my Naviance HS scattergraph, I see numerous kids who got denied admission and had a 4.3+ GPA and 2100+ on the SAT. I also live in Pennsylvania like the OP.</p>
<p>I think that the OP would have a much more valid rant if she complained about athletic scholarships for kids with bad grades in HS, and that these kids were draining financial aid money from studious kids like herself.</p>