<p>I am not so sure one has to make 200k since not all Ivies are equal and some of them cut you off at 80-100k for FA. </p>
<p>MiamiDAP has a point when you consider Ivies only started getting generous starting around 2007. So there are people who are in med schools or recently graduated who have accumulated debts from attending Ivies since the FA pretty much stopped under 100k for them even at the top schools.</p>
<p>I attended a presentation at Harvard 2 years ago where there were 4 presenters, 3 students and one RM (residence master or whatever they are called). The current students were pretty happy and two out of three mentioned Harvard was cheaper for them than their State school and they would have no loans. The RM said Harvard was not so generous for her and she had large student loans after graduation. She was doing some thing in grad school while her husband pursued a Ph.D.</p>
<p>^^^ I was being somewhat ironic. We are in the donut hole, Oldfort describes. Now sending our second to an Ivy, full freight, no loans. Yikes!</p>
<p>It can be done. We actually saved the bulk of the funds while not in the donut hole, significantly below that income. It is feasible if you see saving for your kids’ college as part of the deal from the get go. Just depends on what you’re willing to sacrifice.</p>
<p>We knew so many parents who were assuming their kids would get the proverbial “free ride” sports scholarships. We always assumed we’d pay.</p>
<p>I think most parents who could afford to send their kids to private schools in NJ (NE) are not in the donut hole category. Their high school tuitions are very compatible to college tuitions.</p>
<p>^ We sent our younger one two years to a private hs in NJ because we were in a furnished apartment with our stuff in storage while looking for a home the first 8 months in the state and had no idea which town we’d settle in. She had to go somewhere and we couldn’t stay in the corporate sponsored apartment for two years and we didn’t want her to have to transition two high schools within two years.</p>
<p>Yes, we were in the Donut Hole. And yes, it can all be done. It’s just about prioritizing.</p>
<p>Not saying it’s the smart way to go but it is do-able.</p>
<p>Even rentals in NJ are expensive…my guess storage is no bargain either. We also assumed our kids would not get need based aid…we were both working with decent enough salaries…and didn’t assume we would be full pay, we EXPECTED to be full pays. That we were able to pay expensive private school college tuition costs for each kid for four years, we feel we were a LOT more solvent than those in the “donut hole”. To me, the “donut hole” means that the money just isn’t really there.</p>
<p>Sewhappy, people who have the kinds of jobs where their employer transfers them and will put them up for that length of time typically are making more than donut hole salaries.</p>
<p>^ DH’s company put us up for three months while our home in another state was marketed. We were paying that mortgage. </p>
<p>My larger point is that Ivy schools and many other high-reputation private schools have large endowments and offer a great deal of financial aid and their students generally emerge at graduation with less student debt than at other institutions that may offer lower tuition. This is one of the factors that drives the selectivity of these institutions – affordability if your family income is not too high. And it is a very gnarly issue for upper income (but not “rich”) families with high achieving kids to have to sort through.</p>
<p>When our kids attended college, BOTH parents were employed. That certainly helped pay the bills. No one should be complaining about college costs in a situation where the parents are married and one spouse is not employed. </p>
<p>If you are sending your second kiddo to an Ivy…and are full pay…your annual income exceeds $150,000 a year (at some schools it would be $180,000) as these schools provide SOME need based aid for students in this income range. If your student didn’t qualify for need based aid at one of these highly endowed schools, your family income is mighty high and if you live where the cost of living is high, that is also your choice.</p>
<p>MOST students do not have the good fortune to be competitive applicants for these schools…and of those who apply, about NINETY PERCENT do not get accepted. Banking on the generous aid these schools offer is a gamble for the vast majority of college applicants.</p>
<p>Don’t the CSS schools consider both earned (salary/earnings) and unearned (investments) income? SO shouldnt the “donut hole” include more than just gross salary of the employed income earner?</p>
<p>Agree with Thumper. The debt load of Ivy grads can be surprisingly lower than public or grads of private lesser endowed schools because of need based FA:</p>
<p>Sewhappy…I’m not sure we are agreeing. The %age of students who are able to apply and be accepted to the very competitive schools, AND receive their generous aid is VERY VERY low. VERY. </p>
<p>I would not bank on this as a strategy for paying college costs.</p>
<p>thumper, I don’t think you followed the discussion at the point in the thread I responded to. The point was made that it was dumb for kids accepted to an Ivy to go to an Ivy because they would pile on a lot of debt prior to graduate school. I am merely making the point that if you get into an Ivy and are low income you are quite likely to get FA.</p>
<p>And FWIW, both my kids did get into Ivies (H,P) and neither qualified for FA and both were also offered merit elsewhere. I have a pretty good inkling of how hard it is to get accepted at the extremely selective schools.</p>
<p>Obviously Rice is also a pretty expensive school and for whatever reason your child got an extremely generous amount of assistance. That being said, if one if going on to grad school their undergrad can be done almost anywhere as long as they thrive and do extremely well.</p>
<p>If “grad school” means PhD program, then the undergraduate school needs to have a worthy major and courses that will prepare for PhD study in the student’s major.</p>
<p>If it means professional school like medical, law, or business school, then the criteria for choosing a school differs, although that typically allows for a broader choice of schools than if the goal were a PhD program in a particular major.</p>
<p>My two cents: a college counselor friend of mine, considered one of the best in the business, explained it to me quite well. </p>
<p>You do not want to attend an Ivy League school and graduate in the bottom half of your class. </p>
<p>It is much better to graduate in at least the top quarter of your class from a lower ranked school. </p>
<p>Where you go to graduate school really matters. If you look at the background of Fortune 500 CEOs, there are some undergraduate institutions on the list that few people recognize. But their graduate schools are always well known.</p>