<p>Well ya a $175K house is average for Olympia, housing isn't bad in some parts of country- that is what my brothers 5 bedroom house in a gated development with a country club is worth outside of Chicago in Indiana, but take that same $175K to a big city like Seattle or Sanfrancisco and you would be lucky to get running water :(</p>
<p>weenie:
[quote]
I have to say though, looking back on it, I wish we hadn't filled out ANY financial aid stuff. According to the calculator, it looked like we were not going to qualify for any aid (and we didn't), and it did not seem to matter one bit for merit based decisions. I feel like all we did was give away confidential information for nothing in return.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Some of the schools do say that even for merit aid, you must file the FAFSA. I'm not sure why they require that, if the awards are not based on need, but they have you over a barrel if that's their policy.</p>
<p>Quite a few decades ago, when I was going to be a freshman at what is now Rhodes College in Memphis, my dad took a look at the financial aid forms and almost exploded in rage. He said flat out he was not going to share his 1040 info. with that college; it was none of their business. I replied that we would not get any financial aid if he didn't fill out the forms.</p>
<p>His response: He'd simply pay for my college tuition and r/b himself. And he did.</p>
<p>At that time, [late 60s-early 70s] the yearly tuition figure and the r/b for a year were pretty much equal, about $1300 each. The tuition was just about the same amount as a round-trip airplane ticket to Spain from the U.S., with a side trip to Majorca. I remember, because I was shocked when my parents took a vacation and I realized that the cost of their tickets would have put me through school for an entire year. My parents were middle class, not wealthy. They saved up their money, and they certainly didn't take foreign vacations every year.</p>
<p>Tuition & r/b at Rhodes today is just under $31,000. If I were attending now, I think even my dad might have to bite the bullet and fill out those forms.</p>
<p>when my dad died in what would have been my senior year of high school- he left me $1000. Since college wasn't in the picture ( I was already working mostly full time) I bought an almost new car instead
( plus work clothes and enough left over to throw a really good party ;) )</p>
<p>From what I paid for my last car- methinks tuition has increased faster than car prices</p>
<p>"Well ya a $175K house is average for Olympia, housing isn't bad in some parts of country- that is what my brothers 5 bedroom house in a gated development with a country club is worth outside of Chicago in Indiana, but take that same $175K to a big city like Seattle or Sanfrancisco and you would be lucky to get running water."</p>
<p>Yup. But you could get a home equity loan on running water. (and a big tax deduction, and savings would look smaller, and....;))</p>
<p>"We told my d. at the outset that she could go anywhere she wanted - provided the (private) college gave her pretty close to full tuition."</p>
<p>We told our S pretty much the same thing and were amoung those publicly chided by our school's guidance counselor who said it wasn't fair. Now that we're expected to pay 1/3 of our before tax income to cover his college, I probably ought to go back and see what she had in mind when she said that. I think I missed something.</p>
<p>(Actually, I'm not quite sure what she said. I was scrunching down in my chair from the second I heard, "If you told your child he could only go to MIT if he got a full ride...".)</p>
<p>Did she offer to pay? or just co-sign on the loans? ;) (Since when does "fairness" have anything to do with it?)</p>
<p>Yeah Strick, it easy for others to spend your money.</p>