There is a good old saying around here. “Don’t count other people’s money.”
You don’t know how or where the money for these “extras” is coming from. Maybe grandparents pay for the vacations. Maybe all the cars are leases. Maybe the families are in a LOT of debt…totally living beyond their means.
Consider YOUR situation only. If you feel stiffed, then quit your job immediately. Sell your home, and move into a small apartment with the whole family. Sell your car, and use public transportation. Give away any money in savings.
Sure, you MIGHT find your kid getting need based aid…but really there is no guarantee of that either. Only THE most generous colleges guarantee to meet full need for all. The rest just don’t.
There are tons of colleges that cost far less than $70,000 a year. There are lots of ways to make college more affordable. Look at schools that offer merit aid for your kid’s stats. Look at your public universities. Look at two years of a community college, with transfer to a four year to complete the bachelors.
But mostly…stop counting other people’s money…and look at your own situation only. You are fortunate to have the things you have and the lifestyle you have. Would you want to change that just to get need based aid?
It is really, truly amazing how much some people seem to know about broad swaths of people.
I barely know what my closest friends make and how much aid they got/are getting in college. 8->
I sit corrected. You are absolutely correct. That is what I get for posting at 5 AM with 3 hour sleep - horrific and silly grammatical errors.
As for the thread - I WISH my property taxes were $10K; they are closer to $16K. We make about 1/3 of what socalmom makes and we are both lawyers. Clearly, we did something really wrong!
However, I did have a tiny bit of good news for S17. My darling D, the one who I put through school with no student loans, has offered to help with his expenses in college. I hope not to take her up on the offer, but it’s nice to know that she feels grateful for what we were able to give her. By that, I mean she worked as an RA for 3 1/2 years, had a job to pay her sundries and earned academic and achievement scholarships, plus, she attended an instate school, which allowed us to cover all of her other expenses.
I do have savings but all of it is in retirement plans. My parents died in poverty and I refuse to do the same.
@socalmom007 Looks like we are in similar boat(minus 200K) and only 2 kids. We live near UCLA and it is very expensive. However the public schools are not that bad and you should consider putting them there. They make pick up some colorful words and learn some gang signs but success at any high school is all about parent involvement and you sound involved. All except your little one which I agree should stay in the private school. I think you should consider the University of Alabama for your D. My son received a full scholarship. All she needs is a 34 on the ACT. If not then I recommend CS-Long Beach or the lower end of UC’s like Santa Cruz, Riverside or Merced. @mom2collegekids also included some excellent choices.
Yes, we do have some good choices. I would love if she could get into CP SLO or one of the UC’s, we’re applying to lots of private schools too. We’ll figure it out, likely we’ll have to tap into our home equity which is really our only asset. My point was just because someone deems a certain level of income “enough to afford full price at any school” doesn’t mean that’s true. If we had fewer children, if we didn’t have multiple kids in college at the same time, if we didn’t have one with special needs requiring such expensive services, if we lived in a different area of the country and my husband wasn’t tether to an industry here, maybe we’d have more money, but… We don’t
@socalmom007 I hear you loud and clear! We are socal based and in your general income bracket and enjoy where we live but it is very expensive. Living here is a choice we make as well but I “personally” don’t agree with some who suggest that $200k+ in socal makes anyone flush enough to assume they should be able to afford full pay everywhere. There aren’t many people I know locally at that income level who can write a check for $300k for 4 years at USC as an example. Fortunately there are good options in state that are excellent and affordable (e.g. CalPoly Slo, UC’s, etc.). Merit Aid expands options even further OOS.
Unfortunately my daughter’s test scores aren’t that high! She’s taking the ACT again in two weeks and putting in 40 hrs of prep before then, so we’ll see. Her GPA will be about a 4.1 after fall grades go in.
I feel the OP and socalmom007. I was shocked at our EFC of $35K and the high all-in cost of our mediocre state colleges (20K-25K/average 4yr grad rate hovering around 50%+) available to our above average kid because Texas is a 10% state. Fall below that hard line and you’ve got UT Dallas and Texas Tech on the public side as the only decent options outside of the unattainable UTA and A&M College Station. Tough luck that he attended one the highest ranked public schools in the nation and has the chops to attend better than the state has on offer.
My property taxes have shot up to nearly $10K a year on our ancient, small Austin house in the last few years. Our property insurance rates have increased significantly as well. So has our employer sponsored health premiums. We have no car payments and rarely take vacations. Our 401K is maxed out in matching contributions and we slam another $1K a month into the college fund.
We carry zero debt, take home 70% of our gross (140K) income after taxes and have a sophomore following our rising senior. The EFC only drops by a few thousand once we have two in college.
Look at UA ACT/SAT for 2/3rd scholarship. If studying in Engineering/CS can qualify for $2500/year for 4 years if ACT is 30; a bit lower engineering/cs is $1500/year for 4 years.
(ACT 30/31 is 2/3rd scholarship for OOS student).
Interesting note for common market students as well in the Out of State Scholarship site at UA:
Can look at my other postings on CC for other UA/UAB/UAH information or can PM me. I use to work for UAH; one DD graduated from UAB (on scholarship, and graduated with honors, BSN); one DD is a junior in engineering at UA (on scholarships and taking advantage of an honors program too).
I absolutely do sympathize with trying to get the best education for your kids and feeling the ‘wolf at the door’. I can tell you it was a huge relief to us with DD1 graduating - her two days of various graduation activities and ceremonies was like a mini-vacation for H and I - felt like a boulder off our back.
Both Huntsville and Birmingham have decent airports. UA has student shuttle services and car share opportunities to B’ham and Atlanta airports for major school breaks.
It doesn’t matter. Even if your EFC was reduced to - say - $7-15k per year, you still wouldn’t get aid at 95% of colleges.
EFC is a rather meaningless number except for low income who qualify for (small) Pell Grants.
Some people think that having the EFC calculation changed to reduce their EFC would make college affordable. Likely it would not. Reducing EFC does NOT magically produce more money at colleges to be given away.
There’s also the CAP option at UT. Many students fail to clear the bar for reintegration into UT but it doesn’t mean your child will. It requires discipline to meet conditions but for good students it’s absolutely doable. Note however that capped students are limited as for major choices, and even students admitted under the 7-10% rule are ranked according to course rigor, GPA, and other factors when it comes to competitive majors and programs.
There’s another issue in Texas : state grants were replaced with state loans a while back, and no university meets need except Rice. Trinity, Austin, Southwestern, Baylor, Smu, Tcu, St Edwards, Texas Lutheran… All have different ways of calculating your need and none meets need, so they’ll only offer a good package to students they’re interested in (test scores above their 25% threshold will help.)
50% graduation in 5 years is actually excellent for a public university - I believe that the average is 38%.
Take heart though! Relatively nearby states such as Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, have excellent honors colleges at their flagships; asu Barrett, New Mexico Tech, the strong CSU’s (sdsu, cpp, cal poly slo, even Chico honors or for a more liberal arts inclined child Sonoma) offer excellent value. UAlabama has good scholarships as does Ole Miss. FSU will give you instate tuition for 3 years if you start at one of their campuses abroad.
Finally, private colleges such as the ones listed above but also Hendrix, Rhodes, Millsaps, Westminster (MO)… Try to be competitive price-wise so run the NPC’s on every single one - you’ll be surprised at the differences in net cost!
@mom2collegekids Thank you for the correction. That was his score and I mistakenly assumed that was the cutoff. A 32 is even better and a great opportunity. Thank you again for all that helpful info.
@socalmom007 good luck to your daughter on ACT. My son went from a 30 to 34 with the following strategy. Take a few practice exams(just from the local bookstore. don’t pay for overpriced class) Retake the exam portions that she has the worst score in. Make sure she gets good sleep. FYI even if she gets into UCLA, Berkeley, UC-San Diego they will not give any aid. Same with USC(don’t know if that is one of her choices) and we didn’t make the merit cutoff. Just have her get the loans. I feel like its worth it despite the debt.
Re: who is a 1 percenter, here’s an NY Times article on what family income is needed to be in the 1%…by county. Incredible range, from $97k to $2.2m per year. You’re never gonna guess where that high end is located
@thumper1 I agree with you. 50K is too much in loans. What in your opinion is the cutoff for getting loans? Even UCLA will cost north of 35K. Is that worth it? I know every situation is different(other kids in college, dream school for the student, etc) but I’m curious to see what loan amount seems reasonable for a 4 year education these days from yourself and others.
ACT test tutoring was a help for both DDs improving their scholarships with their improved ACT score. Lots of practice testing, working on test timing, look at what kind of questions were missed, finishing each test section, improving strong and weak scores. Recommend 1 on 1. Experienced test tutor can be a big help and also encouraging student.
In my opinion, no student should have more than the $27,000 in loans the student can borrow in Direct Loans. In other words…no private loans, no parent plus, no home equity, no borrowing from parent retirement accounts.
And yes, I know colleges cost a LOT more than that. But really, having huge debt upon graduation is not a good thing.
Students need to take options that are affordable. This could mean chasing merit awards. It could mean commuting from home to save money. It could mean starting at a community college. It could mean that parents are able to contribute out of current earnings and savings.
The reality is…there is NO crystal ball. The student might not get a job with sufficient earnings to be able to pay off higher debts.
