Author Topic: College Calculator  (Read 2695 times)

Yankuba

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College Calculator
« on: April 19, 2017, 11:04:39 AM »
The NYT ran an op-ed about college costs and financial aid. There's a new online calculator that lets you plug in your financials and select a college and see how much financial aid you get.

The op-ed is here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/opinion/college-cheaper-than-you-think.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region

The calculator is here:

http://myintuition.org/

I entered my financial information and was on the hook for 100% of college costs if my kids went to college this year. However, I entered my financial information for when I am FIRE and I only have to pay half of college costs. The rule of thumb is to retire after your house is paid off and you funded college accounts but for big earners it may make sense to retire before your kids go to college.

Cranky

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Re: College Calculator
« Reply #1 on: April 19, 2017, 11:10:59 AM »
When you say 100% vs. 50%, are you talking about your EFC?

Bear in mind that what you'll be offered is probably loans, rather than grants, depending on the college and how much they want your kid.

Yankuba

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Re: College Calculator
« Reply #2 on: April 19, 2017, 11:23:35 AM »
When you say 100% vs. 50%, are you talking about your EFC?

Bear in mind that what you'll be offered is probably loans, rather than grants, depending on the college and how much they want your kid.

The website gave my child scholarship money and zero loans. This was under FIRE. Under my current situation my family gets nothing.


madamwitty

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Re: College Calculator
« Reply #3 on: April 19, 2017, 06:30:47 PM »
For those who didn't click through to the calculator, there is a list of specific colleges which presumably have provided information about their financial aid methodologies. You go through inputs & calculation for a specific college with a "high", "low", and "best" estimate broken down into EFC, work study, student loan, and scholarship.

The specific colleges included are:

Amherst College
Bowdoin
Carleton
Colorado College
Columbia University
Dartmouth
Mount Holyoke
Pomona College
Rice
University of Virginia
Vassar
Washington and Lee University
Wellesley
Wesleyan University
Williams

Interesting calculator. I only did one run through, a calculation for Columbia assuming I am already FIREs. It came out with a small estimated EFC (probably based on home equity), some work study, and lots of scholarship - no loans.

Cranky

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Re: College Calculator
« Reply #4 on: April 20, 2017, 05:24:26 AM »
I've actually sent a kid to one of those colleges! I have to point out that they are all pretty selective, so your kid will have to be a terrific student, to begin with. It was not expensive, relatively speaking - there really is a lot of scholarship money available, and they are looking for economic diversity.

They do require you to file the other f/a application, the one that isn't FAFSA, and they do ask a lot about non-income assets.

MrsPete

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Re: College Calculator
« Reply #5 on: April 20, 2017, 04:46:11 PM »
The website gave my child scholarship money and zero loans. This was under FIRE. Under my current situation my family gets nothing.
I picked a $60,000 school at random.  The calculator said they'd expect parents to pay almost half ... the student to have a work-study job and a loan ... and they assume she'd earn a scholarship, even though they don't know about her academics. 

I'm not thinking much of this calculator.  The point, of course, is to encourage students to apply to their school. 

I have to point out that they are all pretty selective, so your kid will have to be a terrific student
Yes, the average high school student will not be accepted to these schools!

Ellen

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Re: College Calculator
« Reply #6 on: April 20, 2017, 08:15:48 PM »
Not to mention the fact that these schools educate … um, maybe 1% of college students? The NYT's obsession with colleges that educate 5% of the population is … interesting.