<p>Yeah but a family who makes say $200,000 is not easily able to afford Stanford or MIT, even though their aid offices say that anyone can afford it.</p>
<p>But even if a family that made 200 k a year had to pay full price, that would still leave them with 150 k a year, which is still more than enough to pay for the expenses of everyday living. Unless of course, said family needed all or most of that 200k for some reason, which seems unlikely.</p>
<p>Phead138, HYPS recognizes that people can't comfortably pay full-freight even if they are making 200k per year, especially in today's failing economy. Indeed Yale promises 30k in grants with their rule and H and P end up being as generous too. Stanford is not as generous but will still give at least 10k and up to 20k depending on the circumstances. I agree that this is a smaller issue than kids making less than 60k having their tuition covered but it's still pretty big. Hippo724, after taxes that 200k can easily become 130k, after 50k it becomes 80k. If you're living in a high priced area like most ppl making that kind of money, you may be left with very little after the necessaries and your mortgage are paid. Furthermore, some people still have loans to pay off. It isn't that simple usually. Indeed, you're expected to save to pay for college, not pay out of your income. However some people just had the fortune of making 200k just about 5 years ago. In that case they probably only have 1st and 2nd year tuition covered at most.</p>
<p>"Not many people know it. I would say out of the top 15 school, it may be the most unknown school of them all. Its kind of a hidden gem."</p>
<p>Haha. The people who matter know.</p>
<p>And there are taxes too. 200k quickly gets turned into 130k</p>
<p>Clearly, you missed out on that huge detail Swimguy112. A family with a 200K income could easily pay for a college tuition of 50K with 150K left over unless they have other assets to pay off such as a car loan, mortgage payments to pay down their home's principal value, and other stuff that needs addressing or that takes "priority" since important to their living style.</p>
<p>In your case, you have siblings going to college at the same time. Thats a different story all together.</p>
<p>^Well that's true, but I was talking more about people who have 200k to spare after taxes, which is what I figured Swimguy was talking about.</p>
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^ Ugh, the key is that finaid exists to help the poores and the needy.
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<p>Imagine that.</p>
<p>For what it's worth, Stanford's aid increasingly helps out middle-income students.</p>
<p>It's hard for me to figure out what your point is after that...</p>
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and if we all tried to go to somewhere like Stanford paying the full tuition, my family might find ourselves in serious trouble.
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<p>Financial aid is sticky. That would be taken into account. They'd also take into account many extenuating circumstances (such as medical bills, debts, etc.).</p>
<p>Nope, nope, and nope. HYPS have recognized that's faulty thinking. Most people making 200k can not easily pay 50k for college tuition.</p>
<p>don't schools like at your total assets when deciding on FA. I mean lets say someone makes 200k or less a year, but has 5+ million in assets, does that mean no to FA?</p>
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<p>Just keep in mind that a family with a gross income of $200K probably has something like $120K after federal (income, social security & medicare), state, and local taxes. Add to that more or less unavoidable expenses like a mortgage, homeowners insurance, health insurance, life insurance, transportation costs, utilities, and putting food on the table, and that $50K per year for college is going to take a huge bite out of what's left, force some hard choices---foregoing retirement savings, foregoing saving for the second kid's education, spending down savings, taking out a second mortgage or home equity line of credit. and so on. Sure, they've got it better than others making less. But if you think it's easy to do out of current income on $200K/year, you're sorely mistaken. Essentially in phasing out financial aid for people at this level, colleges are betting they've already saved out of past income at this or a similar level level; or that they have sufficiently good credit to borrow on their own, either through Plus loans or putting up home equity as collateral. Now at $300K it should be easy to pay for college out of current income, but for most people at $200K, I don't think so.</p>
<p>If the question about whether or not a family can or cannot afford a college education in absolute terms, its all entirely based upon the FAFSA report and your expected family contribution in absolute terms.</p>
<p>Whether your willing to sell your house or willing to refinance your home or do whatever proactive measure the government expects you to take is a different issue in it of itself. The issue of comfort or willingness to cough up the cash is the question I'm addressing. Finaid promises you to cover what you can afford, not how much you are willing to afford. Fine line for those who can't even afford it, there are some upper middle class ppl who are pandering for more to make their burden of spending their own nickels, dimes, and pennies less painful. lol Don't get it? :)</p>
<p>^ I'm not saying people who make $200K can't afford to send their kids to college. I'm just saying it's not as easy to do it out of current income as your previous post stated. Just correcting the record, that's all.</p>
<p>Well, to respond to the original prompt, I think that anyone who considers rankings should think about what the rankings are based on. I think Brown is a great school. It doesn't perform as well as some might like in rankings. So what? That doesn't mean that the reasons your mom, your hairdresser, and I like it are suddenly invalid.</p>
<p>Are Brown's departments frequently ranked at the very top? (No, but Brown is a lot more undergraduate-focused than, say, Harvard; I don't really care that Brown isn't #1 in a particular field as long as I have engaging, friendly professors and cool classmates and research opportunities if I so desire. Do Brown students make the most money after graduation? No, but a lot of them go into non-profit work; aren't hell-bent on medschoollawschoolbusinesschoolrawr. Are 500 Noble Laureates among Brown's professors? No, but I'd rather have someone who can teach than someone who wins fancy awards (a combination of the two would be great, too). etc. Do Brown students do very well for themselves when applying to jobs and grad schools? Yes, so I guess they must be doing something right (or is it just the ~<em>~</em>Ivy name~<em>~</em>? As long as it works out!).</p>
<p>People dislike Brown for a lot of reasons, and perhaps those reasons perfectly valid for the haters. (Does the fact that you can take classes at Brown S/NC make you deeply despise Brown? Well, okay, you'd better not apply!) But, for those who like Brown, those reasons aren't important - so what's the point of arguing it? Rankings only matter if you let them matter. Or if you have Asian parents.</p>
<p>But my point was that Brown is not WORTH 200K. Even if a family can easily pay it.</p>
<p>You are overestimated a family with a EFI of 200K's ability to pay for expensive colleges.</p>
<p>By the way, I just read this article in Money Magazine that talked about how private schools have raised their tuition at 4 times the rate of inflation over the last 30 years so that they can brag about their financial aid programs. The results are not all good: schools that try to keep their tuition down are suffereing.</p>
<p>Brown may not be worth 200K. No undergraduate institution is worth that much money, in my opinion. Others obviously disagree, and if the universities can get away with it (i.e., if students/parents without FA are willing to pay) then, well, they're getting away with it, aren't they? We're the suckers here. :</p>
<p>Hm. I mean, colleges are hiking up the prices at a rate to which they don't think parents will object to the extent that they'll pull their kids out of school. Meanwhile, more financial aid is offered to students who desperately need it. This is going to hurt some income brackets, yeah, but such is life. Financial aid office people aren't blind, though: if a huge number of upper-middle class students don't enroll because of cost issues (or similar), they'll change things up (I'm glad to see Harvard offering increased financial aid to even families who make more than 200K, for example).</p>
<p>Here I'll link you all to the article</p>
<p>College</a> tuition is far outpacing the cost of living - Aug. 20, 2008</p>
<p>I would never want to go to Brown for a host of reasons. But none of those reasons are "it's simply not a good school."</p>