<p>^ You have a very valid point. I suppose that begs the question: How much money or on what items is spending more than one needs to?</p>
<p>Latin, your OP made it sound like this was YOUR situation. Of not, then my comments are addressed to those who find themselves in this situation. Life is about choices…including financial ones.</p>
<p>Point being…be grateful for what you have…and don’t count other people’s money.</p>
<p>There are many ways to afford a college education. Four year residential college at $50k plus a year is not the only way to get a college degree.</p>
<p>The fact is going to an expensive sleep away college is a dream for many young people, just as having a fabulous wedding or amazing house is a dream for many older people. </p>
<p>Some people have the means from hard work, diligent savings or being hit by the money truck to make that dream come true. Some people are so highly desirable that others are willing to foot the bill (eg merit). MOST people have to come to terms with what is realistic and practicable. </p>
<p>Dreams are dreams. You have to live in reality.</p>
<p>No the scenario I described is not my situation. </p>
<p>College does not have to be $200k for it to be unaffordable for more affluent Americans. They might not have $10,000 left after paying for necessities like food, utilities, etc.</p>
<p>That was my point.</p>
<p>And some of you would say, well then those people should downsize since that situation would mean they cannot afford their current living status. But I do not think doing something like downsizing is so easy to do if you run out of money. Obviously, you would do whatever you could to keep yourself from getting a foreclosure or something, but I think it is naive to think that just getting up and moving one day is the easiest thing ever.</p>
<p>Latin, many students work full time, and take courses one or two at a time at a local community college. Then they finish their degrees by commuting to the nearest four year school, sometimes taking night and weekend classes part time.</p>
<p>If that is what you can afford, then that is what you do.</p>
<p>Others are excellent students and qualify for merit scholarships at four year schools (see thread stickie above).</p>
<p>“If that is what you can afford, then that is what you do.”</p>
<p>Makes sense, but then why doesn’t the government only give out money to those who literally do not have any money to send their kids to college (according to the FinAid calculations)? Why then does the government give money to people who do have some money to spend on college (based on the FinAid calc) if everyone should just go where they can afford?</p>
<p>The federa government does not “give money” to anyone but the lowest income families and then that amount just barely covers the costs of most community colleges or perhaps a college one can commute to. All the other the government “gives” is actually a “loan” and that loan is paid back with interest. K-12 public education is available to everyone. College is something people pay for. States fund colleges in different ways and some do not directly fund students.</p>
<p>Money is tight for affluent people? Yeah, if they decide to spend most of it. But plenty of people are just getting by and are not anywhere near affluent.</p>
<p>So when taxpayers are going to fund parts of some people’s college educations the funds will go to people who don’t have the choice to spend it on a new car or great vacation.</p>
<p>Lets try this one. </p>
<p>Resident A around NYC area, with average house cost around $1mill. To be able to afford $ 1mill home, Resident A would need to make around $265,000. After paying for mortgage, property tax and income taxes, Resident A would have $125,000 left.</p>
<p>Resident B living at another part of country where average house cost around $250,000. To be able to afford $250,000 home, Resident B would need to make around $51,000. After paying for mortgage, property tax and income taxes, that Resident B would have $25,000 left.</p>
<p>Who do you think could afford to pay more for college? Resident A or B? Other than housing, most of our living expenses are fairly comparable - car, insurance, food, so I would think on a relative basis Resident A would be able to pay more.</p>
<p>The maximum Pell Grant, which is the federally funded grant…is $5600 a year. This amount would only go to a student with a $0 EFC per FAFSA. Basically that would mean that income would need to be below $30,000 a year for a family of four…or so. </p>
<p>What money do you think the government is “giving” to students? And what do you think they have to do to qualify for this? Federally funded need based aid is awarded to very low income students only. And as I mentioned upstream, parent income is largely the driving force when determining federally funded need based aid.</p>
<p>I assumed that part of the cost of raising a child is sending her/him to college. So, I started saving money for that event when my children were born. Now we didn’t do a particularly good job of saving for some always rising vague dollar amount, so H and I purchased the state prepaid plan when D was four and locked in on the in-state tuition. Later I found a job and now work at a university that offers tuition benefits. We also put some money into the ordinary 529 accounts (but like I said, we weren’t good at this). Between the three, we can afford decent colleges for our children although not $50Ka year. The children know the cost limits and my eldest is now looking within these limits. </p>
<p>So, you can discuss the lack of understanding colleges have about family finances and how some affluent families may actually be somehow less able to afford college than solidly middle class to lower class families, or you can get creative. </p>
<p>Lastly, you don’t have to spend $50Ka year on college. It’s okay to say “no, we can’t afford the tuition” to your child.</p>
<p>When I said why is the government giving out money, I didn’t mean it like it just hands it out. I don’t envision the government just rolling out the dough or anything like that. I also realize federal aid is limited.</p>
<p>@SlackerMomMD: I don’t have a child; I am the child. </p>
<p>I was just curious about the whole FinAid stuff, but I didn’t realize how stupid I would feel after the responses. </p>
<p>So I guess I’ll ask another question that might be extremely obvious to you CCers: how do you know if you can afford tuition if you don’t know how much money each school is going to give you?</p>
<ol>
<li> You save as much as you can.</li>
<li> When the time comes, you find safeties and matches based on the kid’s grades and accomplishments, family’s financial situation, and online calculators. (What each school is going to give you isn’t random. You can get a rough estimate online.)</li>
<li> Once acceptances are in, the kid goes where the family can afford.</li>
</ol>
<p>Latin4Life, please don’t feel stupid. It’s not easy at all, and you are asking questions which most do not even do. When i went off to college, I had no idea how things worked in terms of financial aid. I could not figure out how my aid packages worked out the way they did and had no idea that there was much difference between financial and merit money which was why I was getting more from some schools than others.</p>
<p>Basically, our federal financial aid comes down to the PELL grant that gives up to $5600. That is for a zero EFC on the FAFSA., and decreases until it disappears at around the $5-6K EFC range. In addition to that, those whose college costs as determined by the official Cost of Attendance that college report, warrent ti, can also borrow Direct loans, some of it subsidized if there is need. A freshman can borrow up to $5500 with up to $3500 of it subsidized. Those who have no need as defined by FAFSA can still borrow that amount but without interest subsidies. </p>
<p>That’s it for anything guaranteed by the governmet to the student. So what that pretty much covers are the local state school, including community college for pretty much anyone who has such schools within commuting range. The amounts are not enough to pay for going away to school without getting other money.</p>
<p>Some states have college funds too. But most of the rest of the money comes from the colleges themselves, and none guarantee to meet full need as defined by the FAFSA. Schools look at other factors as well such as value of home, business, non custodial parents, money in sibling accounts, really anything they please when it comes to their own money. Very few schools gurantee to meet full need even as they define it themselves. </p>
<p>As a rule, the more you stand out as in the applicant, accepted student pool, particularly in terms of test scores, the better your chances for merit money and more financial aid as even schools that do not meet a large portion of most students’ need will often meet need for the students they most want. You also check out the financial aid websites of schools you have in mind to see what scholarships they have and if you meet the criteria for any of them. You check the common data and see what percent of the students get full need met, what the average need grant is and what per cent get merit money. To get a good shot at the merit, you need to be well within per cent in terms of being one of the top kids at that school. </p>
<p>In many ways, it’s like a craps game in tersm of knowing how much money each school is going to give to you. You can run the NPC for each school you are considering and get some idea, but bear in mind those are averages.</p>
<p>What I advise people to do is to find a few schools you know will accept you and that you know you can afford. Those are the most important schools on your list as that is where you are most likely going to go. The rest are lottery tickets. SOme more likely than others. And you pick schools with varying degrees of likelihood. Some you might feel the chances are very small, but go ahead and give it a try as long as you understand the odds. If your family EFC is very high, as well as what the NPC says your family is expected to pay for a school, and that school offers very little or no merit money, you know you are not likely to be able to afford the school, if the cost is more than your parents say they will pay. That is the crucial thing—how much are your parents willing to pay for what options.</p>
<p>Latin, each college has a Net Price Calculator on their website. These are not perfect, but they will give you a good estimate of the aid you will receive. You might want to pick a college you like, and try it. You will need accurate income and asset info to complete it. Keep in mind that you will need to do,this for,each college as their formulas for awarding institutional need based aid vary.</p>
<p>Many folks are using these NPCs now to help at least estimate affordability.</p>
<p>My son knew that it was highly likely that he would get accepted to our state schools, some local Catholic schools, all well within what we were willing to pay. If he commuted, he could pretty much go to most of the private schools in the area as what we, as parents were willing to pay, was close to the cost of those schools, and he had some savings, intended to work summers and a bit during the year, and also knew he had those Direct student loans available. He was lucky enough to get scholarhsips to the local schools which would have made them the least expensive optons as he could go to one of them tuition free as the award made it less expensive than even community college with a zero tuition cost. This is a school that has been very good to kids at his school, though he did not expect to get as much as he did from them. Your Guidance counselor could probably tell where kids from your school with your test scores and grades have been getting some scholarships. </p>
<p>He also got a little merit money from some other private schools that made them doable, though on the high side. Out of state publics were also doable in our budget, though it meant he would have to come up with some money too. Those private schools that offered no money went off the table immediately as they were not affordable.</p>
<p>His cousin who qualified for financial aid had similar options. Some schools offered enough aid to make it doable, some not enough, and some were generous. He decided to his second choice school because they offered more than his first choice and it was also less expensive to get there. Added bonus is that the school has inexpensive off campus student ghetto which allowed him to cut room and board costs drastically after freshman year, and had a lot of part time job possibilities. His first choice school really did not have either of those features, and really required a flight to get there. So the $4k a year differential in price was stretched to more like $6500 a year which means $26K over 4 years. So far it’s working out. </p>
<p>Many families split the cost 70/30 or 65/35 or whatever between student and parent. And then each part is split between savings, current income and loans, which amounts to past, present and future earnings. What have you saved for college? Start saving NOW. What can you earn summers and in a part time job? A student can borrow $5500 freshman year, as noted. What do your parents have saved. How can they (and you ) scrimp and cut costs that can go towards school? Those are years that we’ve kept an old car, cut back and gotten rid of vacations, and discretionary spending and our spending as been focused on college . Even parents who can’t come up with a dime, are contributing to the cost by giving the kid some squares (food) and a cot if the kid commutes from home. That’s about $10K a year right there in room and board values at a lot of schools. And then parents have to figure out what they can borrow, and that really is determined by what they have saved and what they can pay now. If they haven’t saved a cent, can’t scrape up any money out of current income, then they really should not borrow as paying it back will be even more difficult as they are going to be older and other priorities come up. Stinks worth than rotting fish to have to pay for something long gone, and that’s school loans make you do. Student is off doing other things, and the bills for school go on, sometimes for 25 long years. But responsible borrowing that can level out the cost over a longer period of time can relieve the burden.</p>
<p>And how was anyone 18 years ago supposed to know that college was going to cost them $200k per kid???</p>
<p>What do low & middle income people do?
They go to a school they can afford.</p>
<p>Thanks! Good to know!</p>
<p>I’ve (and so have my parents) been saving money since
as long as I can remember for college, I just do not know exactly how much is all saved up. That does not mean it is a lot though. And we’ve been cutting out luxuries like cars and vacations, as you noted you do. I keep telling my parents not to let me apply to any schools they cannot afford to send me to (I honestly have no idea what their finances are like; they are kind of secretive about it) because getting accepted to a school I ant afford to go to would be worse than getting denied. They keep telling me they have to see how much aid I will get from each school. I know I will at least be able to go to one school I am applying to because it is an academic and financial safety, but the rest are kind of up in the air. I should be able to get significant merit aid from other safeties but my match and reach schools are up in the air.</p>
<p>Thanks! Good to know!</p>
<p>I’ve (and so have my parents) been saving money since
as long as I can remember for college, I just do not know exactly how much is all saved up. That does not mean it is a lot though. And we’ve been cutting out luxuries like cars and vacations, as you noted you do. I keep telling my parents not to let me apply to any schools they cannot afford to send me to (I honestly have no idea what their finances are like; they are kind of secretive about it) because getting accepted to a school I cant afford to go to would be worse than getting denied. They keep telling me they have to see how much aid I will get from each school. I know I will at least be able to go to one school I am applying to because it is an academic and financial safety, but the rest are kind of up in the air. I should be able to get significant merit aid from other safeties but my match and reach schools are completely up in the air.</p>
<p>^ why did that post twice??? Sorry. Btw that post was directed at cptofthehouse</p>