The average salary at this high school has absolutely no bearing on college financial aid, as the OP is finding out.
Fact is, the family income is 5-6 times the national average.
This student is fortunate to have some affordable, excellent instate public universities for applications.
The reality is that this student will get no need based aid.
Maybe this student has the GPA and SAT of ACT scores to garner merit aid someplace. If money is an issue, the student should be looking for merit options.
@menloparkmom is absolutely right about the cars these kids drive. I honestly never drive my old car to school. I would get some pretty funny looks if i did.
My kids went to a catholic school in southern California, and there were many jags and Mercedes in the student parking lot. Many of the students were from very wealthy families. My daughter had to have a permission slip signed one day because an MTv crew was going to film some classes for the Quinceanera a girl was having filmed for a show. The actual party involved a party bus to somewhere in LA and then an all weekend event. Many of their friends lived in gated communities, had cooks and household help, big yachts and multiple cars. There is a lot of money in California.
It didn’t really matter. Most of the graduates went to UCs or CSUs. I think only 3 went to Berkeley, a handful more to UCLA, many OOS publics and probably about half the graduating class to top schools, full pay. Yes, some of them drove those expensive cars to those expensive schools.
It really wasn’t different than my public high school in the 70’s. Some drove their expensive sports cars, and some of us arrived to school in our big yellow limo provided by the school system. I thought it was a big deal if I got to drive my family station wagon once a month or so.
My kid drove an OLD OLD car to school and was grateful to have it. You should be happy you have a car at all to drive. First world problem that yours is old.
You are fortunate…you have college options. Hoping your applications were sent to some of those instate choices.
I think you’re options are to find a school that will give you merit for your stats or one that you can attend on the budget your parents gave you. I don’t know of any school that will give need based aid to families with $300k/year income unless their debt is for medical expenses.
Colleges don’t care that the cost of living is high or that your parents bought a $600k house. The cost of living in NYC is high too, but families survive on far less than $300k/year. If your parents had bought a less expensive house or downsized now, the mortgage would be less which would free up money for school.
A budget of $25k/year is pretty generous. Add the ~$5500/year student loan and ~$3k summer work earnings and you have a budget of ~$34k. I’m sure there are a lot of great schools you can attend with that budget. You can use the college search function or look for the thread that lists schools that cost $25k or less to find them.
@angiepie, if you have not already done so, meet with your counselor and talk honestly about your situation. At many private schools, parents are also invited to speak with the guidance/college counselor as well. Have yours done so? Look at matriculation lists for the past two years so that you can see where students from your school attended college and reach out to them to ask about their experiences in college. Try to keep your eyes on the road ahead and on the bigger picture. You may find that the UCs you are worried about attending are, in fact, dream schools.
I am wondering where this definition of frugal is found? $600,000 homes, high school students having an old and new car, $25,000 college budget, etc aren’t anywhere in the realm of frugal in my reality.
Homes in Hayward and Oakland go for half that, so an extra 20-30 miles away would have saved them ~$200k or more. Families don’t have to live in high cost of living areas. If they’re not willing to commute, or want to pay extra so they don’t have to, they won’t have the cash to spend on other things. I wouldn’t count on colleges making up the difference. If you want an expensive school, the cost may be a smaller home or a longer commute. If you choose an expensive home, it may come at the cost of attending a less expensive school.
Hey! We had one of those - sold it with 250,000+ miles on the clock. That thing was a tank, very reliable and extremely useful for hauling all kinds of stuff.
@ucbalumnus - The OP’s parents moved to Silicon Valley and bought a house 2 years ago.
OP - my kids half sister that attended Menlo drove a used Honda that her mom passed down. Anyhow, I hope you applied to a variety of schools - including CSU’s UC’s.