<p>Agree…doesn’t matter whether this family is middle or upper class. With the income and assets they have, it is very unlikely they will qualify for need based aid at most schools.</p>
<p>If you feel middle class but have an income many percentile points above the median, what does that make the people who are genuinely in the middle? Statistically middle class but actually poor?</p>
<p>The colleges will not care whether the student feels middle class…or not. Fact is…they will use the numbers in their equations, not family feelings.</p>
<p>Because we are hijacking the OP’s thread w our bickering about what’s middle class, I started a separate thread on the topic:
<a href=“What’s the dividing line between MIDDLE CLASS and RICH? - Parent Cafe - College Confidential Forums”>What’s the dividing line between MIDDLE CLASS and RICH? - Parent Cafe - College Confidential Forums;
<p>I can tell you that my father was middle income. He proudly considered himself “upper middle income” since he the was over the mid point but well in the mid 50% of the household income . But our family seemed much better off than those of my peers, largely because of my mothers fantastic money management and housekeeping skills, and the priorities that my family had. </p>
<p>When I went off to college, whole other story. On my dorm floor, three of the girls came from downright wealthy family, and the rest were all very much uppermiddle or upper income levels, without any question. I believe my family was the second “poorest” on the floor. </p>
<p>Yet my roommate, whose parents were both full time CUNY professors, lived in a small apartment, not a house, but apartment in Queens, NY, shared a single bedroom with two brothers (she was female), and that apartment was about the size of my parents’ 4 bedroom house in Georgia. Yet I think my parents paid a quarter of what my roommates parents were paying for their apartment. </p>