<p>This is a really helpful thread, even for those of us who don’t aren’t Hispanic but find ourselves in the upper-middle class conundrum. I spent the weekend running our numbers on the financial calculators at several colleges. You can save your financial info on College Board (we used our 2010 tax return and the questions guide you to what line on the tax return to look at…) and found that you can manipulate the numbers (for example: how much cash do you have in checking/savings accounts). It sounds like you may need to talk to a financial planner/CPA to get a handle on how to move money and assets around to improve your standing. I would also suggest that you change your travel plans. I completely agree that if your family is not in a position to pay full freight, why torture your daughter with the beautiful campuses at Yale or Darmouth? Work on getting your finances together and if you think it’s a remote possibility, take her for a visit when she’s accepted. As parents we have a responsibility to keep our kids’ dreams in check. Tailor your visit to look at different types/sizes/setting of schools. LAC vs. large university vs. rural vs. urban settings. As I write this, I realize I will have to follow my own advice with my sophomore daughter. And more importantly, I think it will be very valuable to her to understand that parents do the best they can, there are SO many great colleges that an Ivy is not critical to their ultimate success.</p>
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<p>This is true. D2 is a college fr this year and D1 graduated from college last spring, I think I have seen it get more competitive just in these last 4 yrs, at least for Hispanic applicants.</p>
<p>Please visit the Hispanic Students forum (under College Admissions, Speciality Topics), the Resources thread has good information; as a jr, your D may be particularly interested in the Summer Programs and Fly-in Diversity weekend opportunities.</p>
<p>Also, see post #2 on this thread and the links in it for some discussion of what factors affect college admissions within the Hispanic pool of candidates:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/hispanic-students/1229462-does-being-hispanic-have-any-impact-all.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/hispanic-students/1229462-does-being-hispanic-have-any-impact-all.html</a></p>
<p>OP, as others have said, you can aim hi, if you can afford to pay full freight, but your D MUST have a safety that meets all of the conditions that sybbie laid out. When it comes to the most selective colleges, and by that I mean any college with an acceptance rate below 20%, NO one, not your college counselor, not Naviance , nor your D’s GC can accurately predict where your D will be accepted. And remember, THEY wont have to face any consequences if their predictions dont pan out. You and your D will.
So make sure she ALSO applies to colleges where she will likely be accepted and that you can afford.</p>
<p>And as far as this is concerned:
she has worked “way to hard” to go …</p>
<p>the most selective colleges dont CARE how much a student wants to go there or if a student thinks she deserves to go to…
They have thousands of other applicants to choose from. They are in the drivers seat. so she really needs to understand that acceptance at almost any top college these days is a privilege, not a right or something that she is “owed”
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<p>For student with good stats, there are colleges and universities that are ready and willing to throw significant amounts of money at them. Pop over to the Financial Aid Forum, and scroll down a bit, and you will hit on several threads that discuss merit-based scholarships.</p>
<p>As several others have written, the single most important thing for you to do, is to get your head straight about your budget for your daughter’s education. Then, you need to tell her what that figure is. If all you can pay out of savings, current income, student savings, student earnings, student loans you are wiling for her to take on, and parent loans that you are wiling to take on is X, then X it is. If she wants College A which costs X + Z, well then she has to come up with Z or College A is a no-go.</p>
<p>Lots of parents are in your situation, and cannot readily afford the college/university that they would like to send their children to. If your daughter finds that finances play a bigger part in her college application process than she had expected, she will not be alone. Do her the favor of letting her know now how big a factor this will be.</p>
<p>you should be able to save 10% of your income for Jr, sr high sch. + recognition that you have a problem early in 2012 and should account for 2011 + 4 yrs of college. For miminum of 7 Yrs of savings, or minimally $140,000. against a COA of ~$240,000.</p>
<p>easy.</p>
<p>One of my nieces parents paid full sticker price at her Ivy (minus some small outside scholarships). I’d estimate their income at about $150K in salary but they have a lot of assets. They’re looking at funding med school next.</p>
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<p>If they started making that kind of money long ago rather than 2-3 year ago.</p>
<p>also forego the 10% 401k contribution for 6 years for an additional , $120,000.</p>
<p>so $140,000 + $ 120,000= $260,000 against COA of $240,000. plus your dd. an get a deferred, direct Stafford for another $22,000, to be used as spring flings.</p>
<p>67
we never made anywhere close to what he’s making. Our investment was making the investments in the kid and for his college. Perhaps its time if he sold a rental, afterall the rental is just another investment.</p>
<p>I agree… selling a rental is a good idea if they own it outright… but most of the time those things are mortgaged.</p>
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<p>You have a much different interpretation of middle class than most. Based on your income and assets, you are quickly approaching the one percenter class. (Watch out for the Occupy types! lol)</p>
<p>But the short answer, is likely no financial aid from any need-based-only school.</p>
<p>Chicago still has merit scholarships listed – these are different from the Odyssey scholarships, which are need-based. Is there something more recent?</p>
<p><a href=“https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/costs/merit.shtml[/url]”>https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/costs/merit.shtml</a></p>
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<p>Unless one finishes in the top ten at Intel, an Intel STS finalist gets $6,000 (1,000 SF plus 5,000 for finalist) and a great laptop. This is great, but don’t think you’ll get a boatload of $$.</p>
<p>Siemens Regional Finalist (top 30 in the US) gets $1,000.</p>
<p>These awards do help if the colleges your D applies to gives merit awards, but they do not guarantee admissions to tippy-top schools, nor do they guarantee a big scholarship. Also be aware that at most schools, merit awards will offset a significant chunk, if not all, of any FA eligibility.</p>
<p>When you have two kids in college, you might get a little bit of FA. Depends on your rental property income. If you own your own business, PROFILE can be brutal in adding back business expenses and counting them as income. </p>
<p>Also keep in mind that any contributions you make to your 401(k) or medical spending account are added back in and considered as a resource for college expenses. You are not expected to borrow or liquidate your 401(k) – rather, the FA methodology expects that you will reduce/suspend 401(k) contributions while your kids are in college and use that $$ instead to pay for college expenses.</p>
<p>From my experience, most colleges will expect you to sell any properties other than your primary residence to pay for college. Perhaps it would be different if the properties are owned by a corporation from which you derive income. The assumption is also–probably–that you have saved towards your child’s education and it is not ALL coming out of current earnings.</p>
<p>OP, Average SAT score at Tufts is 2200+. No merit awards. OTOH, we have been pleased with the FA, though I assume we will go to full pay in the fall when we only have one in college.</p>
<p>Consolation – at one point tokenadult posted a link to a College Board document that explained their FA methodology. Basically, they expected 1/3 from savings, 1/3 from current income, and 1/3 from future income (i.e., loans).</p>
<p>OP –
You should also know there are two different methodologies to calculating financial need – FAFSA (federal method) and CSS/PROFILE. FAFSA is fairly by the numbers and calculates one’s eligibility for federal aid (i.e., Pell grants, Perkins loans, work/study, subsidized Stafford). PROFILE looks at a broader range of family assets (home equity, business expenses, etc) and often comes up with a larger figure than FAFSA. The number you get after running figures through the calculator is your expected cohntribution for one school year.</p>
<p>Also keep in mind that colleges do not care if you have a big mortgage on your house or lots of credit card bills – they consider those lifestyle decisions. OTOH, if you have significant medical expenses or are supporting other family members (i.e, elderly parents or sibling with significant learning challenges requiring specialized resources), the FA folks at schools that accept the CSS/PROFILE can made professional judgment accommodations. You’ll need to document them and include it in the CSS/PROFILE.</p>
<p>This thread got me curious about the term “middle class”. There seem to be varying definitions, but they do seem below $200,000.
[What</a> Is an Average Middle Class Salary Range? | eHow.com](<a href=“http://www.ehow.com/about_5212740_average-middle-class-salary-range_.html]What”>http://www.ehow.com/about_5212740_average-middle-class-salary-range_.html)</p>
<p>I’m not doubting that families with $200,000 incomes would have trouble paying $50K/year. Especially if multiple children. Especially in these times of job uncertainty. My point is that top income families shouldn’t get too excited when they read about financial aid improvements targeted to help “middle class” families.</p>
<p>Nice article. I tend to believe that the middle-three quintiles does a good job in a broad sense. The middle-three quintiles ends far below $200,000.</p>
<p>I thought if you get accepted to Harvard or Yale the expected contribution from parents would be about 10%, so it is not exactly correct that OP would be full pay at those institutions?</p>
<p>ttparent, that 10% policy is only for families within a certain income range who also have “normal” assets. The OP has income beyond that range as well as assets that are not “normal”. The OP is correct to assume that their family will be full pay.</p>
<p>All of the colleges and universities now have Net Price Calculators on their websites. While some are more accurate than others, it is not difficult to get a decent idea of what ant given institution is likely to cost.</p>
<p>So if the 200k already include the rental income and the properties that they own are heavily mortgaged and not much equity then still the 10% may apply?</p>