Getting financial aid is a common way for students and parents to afford college. This article will share how to get financial aid making multiple six figures a year.
That's right. Even if your family makes multiple six figures a year, you can still get financial aid. That said, not financial aid is created equal. Ideally, you want free money, or grants not loans.
Despite earning a six-figure household income, many parents struggle to pay for their children's education without going into debt. In many big cities, it now requires earning about $300,000 a year to live a middle-class lifestyle. It sounds kind of nuts, but inflation has really made the cost of living more expensive for everyone.
Let's discuss how a family can qualify for tuition assistance despite making $300,000, $400,000, or even $500,000 a year. We can then have a moral discussion about the topic in the comments section!
Wealthy Six-Figure Households And Financial Aid
I was talking to a parent of four who used to send his kids to a private grade school K-8 about the makeup of families who pay $35,000+/year in tuition per child.
I cherished my time growing up in Africa and Asia up until middle school. And enjoyed my experience attending a public high school in Virginia. To have my son attend a homogenous school where everybody looks the same and comes from similar economic backgrounds would be a shame.
The dad mentioned the school tried to diversify its student body through financial aid. When I asked how the school determined which families got financial aid, he said something surprising.
“Households qualify for financial aid if they don't make at least $100,000 a year per child.“
In other words, if you have four children, you qualify for financial aid if you make $390,000 a year. Financial aid consists of low interest rate loans, but mostly free grant money. I thought this was a high threshold because $390,000 is right around the top 1% income level in the country.
Nobody needs to send their kids to private school given every child can go to public school for free. Further, I'm not sure if too many folks decide to have four children if they can't afford to raise them. Sure, one or two children may be unplanned. But having four is definitely intentional.
The dad and mom could not afford to continue paying $120,000+ a year in after-tax tuition for their kids. So, they moved their family to the suburbs to attend free public school. Ah hah, at least they decided to take action instead of complain why life was so hard making $500,000 a year!
Financial Aid While Making $500,000 A Year
Despite finding a solution, the dad seemed a little bitter about not being able to get financial aid for his kids because he asked me the following,
“Is it better to provide financial assistance to underrepresented minorities and lower income households whose kids have a much higher probability of dropping out after several years at the school because they don't have enough parental support? Or is it more worthwhile to help families like mine who make just over $100,000 a kid, but whose kids will likely graduate from school?“
His argument was that social engineering in private school wasn't working. Just like how the lottery system for public schools in San Francisco is arbitrary and a waste of property tax dollars. In San Francisco, living in a neighborhood where you want your kids to go to school gives you no edge.
Graduation Rates Are Important
Part of every private school's wish list is for as many of its students as possible to graduate so the school can score higher marks when rated. The higher the marks, the greater the school´s demand, prestige, and tuition revenue. Further, the more successful the graduate, the higher the donation rate, which over time has grown in importance.
I still believe trying to diversify the student body to better reflect the makeup of the city is a more worthwhile goal than trying to help families who make just over $100,000 a kid, but who all look the same.
The real world is diverse. If you spend your entire life in an un-diverse bubble, don’t know how to connect with other people and only speak one language, you will have a tougher time getting ahead.
Before taking out the pitchforks, let's take a look at why this $500,000/year family could no longer afford sending their four kids to private school. A recent divorce might also have something to do with it.
Budget Breakdown For A $500,000 Household
Based on a 36% effective tax rate, the couple needs to earn $203,125 a year just to cover the cost of private school tuition for four kids. What I haven't included are the additional givings every family is pressured to offer each year.
Although a $1,700,000 home sounds like a lot, the median home price in San Francisco is $1,500,000. With a six person household, you need at least four bedrooms and preferably three bathrooms. The median house size in San Francisco is closer to three bedrooms, two bathrooms.
Not Many Expenses To Cut
I've gone through the budget in detail. And there is very little left to cut, except for contributing less to their respective 401ks, taking one less vacation a year, and donating less than 2% of their gross income to charity. Expensive cities are expensive!
Even if they donated $0 to charity and spent $0 on vacation, they'd still be $3,620 a year in the hole without lowering their 401k pre-tax contributions.
The problem with this family is that they are not accumulating any liquid savings to pay for any emergency expenses. With six people in the household, something always comes up. In other words, this family was scraping by on $500,000 a year. And now has $130,000+ of breathing room by sending their kids to public school.
If this family is ~$23,620 in the hole each year on a $500,000 household income, then a family making only $390,000 a year is certainly going to be hemorrhaging money if they send their four kids to private school. Let's take a look at their budget.
Why A $390,000 Household Qualifies For Financial Aid
As you can see from the chart above, even after lowering the student loan debt, donating less to charity, spending less on vacations, and lowering their effective tax rate by 4%, this household is $70,440 in the red every year. From a school administrator's point of view, financial aid is warranted.
Kids Are As Expensive As You Want Them To Be
A quality education is becoming the biggest contention point between the rich and poor. I know many ultra wealthy parents who donate heavily to every level of education to increase their child's chances of getting in. And then there is a whole swath of multiple six figure income parents who feel downright middle class because they can't get any assistance.
The great thing about the internet is that it makes knowledge accumulation free. And when something can be obtained for free, the value of anything that requires payment declines.
For those who like to plan, it's good to realize the $100,000 income per child threshold for financial aid is becoming more common among private grade school and universities today.
If you're making $199,000 a year and have two kids, it might not be worth the extra hours and stress to make $50,000 more. And if you have kids under five, it's probably best to spend as much time with them as possible anyway.
At the same time, if you're making $380,000 a year and are considering adopting a fourth child, knowing you'll be eligible for tuition assistance may make helping a little one easier.
Related Posts About Financial Aid:
Recommended 529 Plan Amounts By Age
The Different Ways To Pay For College
How To Game The College Financial Aid System
Achieve Financial Freedom Through Real Estate
If you are fortunate enough to make multiple six figures a year, you should do your best to invest your savings into income-producing assets. I recommend investing in real estate, my favorite way to achieving financial freedom.
Real estate is a tangible asset that is less volatile, provides utility, and generates income. By the time I was 30, I had bought two properties in San Francisco and one property in Lake Tahoe. These properties now generate a significant amount of mostly passive income.
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How To Get Financial Aid Making Multiple Six Figures is a Financial Samurai original post. Make sure if you get financial aid, you get grants. A grant is free money. A loan needs to be paid back with interest.
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When you say less than $100k per child – what is the child’s age? Or is it as long as the child is your dependent?
The age when you are applying for financial aid.
I read this extremely long article and I have yet to find out how large income families pays for their kids college tuition. Or aid or loans or grants. What am I missing ??? All I read was different scenarios.
It definitely takes patience to read my articles to the end. But if you can, I think you’ll find the solutions.
The solution here is to earn below a certain income limit per child and then apply for financial aid.
Related: Recommended 529 Amounts By Age
Hi, this article is uncannily close to my current situation! And I’ve just applied for financial aid for the first time which feels embarrassing but necessary, especially facing potential future layoffs.
I am confused on one major point: how are these families qualifying for aid? I see their net income after expenses is negative but I don’t think they’d be fortunate enough to receive aid, as most schools would expect them to further reduce spending or perhaps split children into a mix or public and private schools.
I have a friend who did exactly this: make hundreds of thousands and have 2 kids in private school for literally free. They built a new house 3 x $$ of their previous house. The previous house was 2 yrs old when they sold it (which was also custom built). Their previous home had 4 bedrooms 3 baths. Their new home has more than 5 beds. They sold their previous house for the simple reason of taking on more debt.
They just bought a new vehicle. They vacation more than 4 times a year. Those are just the big ticket items. Their day-to-day spending habits will make you roll your eyes as well.
On the other end, we send 2 kids to private school WITHOUT a dime from financial aid. We are frugal and live in a home that we can afford to pay for. Our car is old, but we do not need to upgrade as we take the bus everywhere (it’s more convenient). We take one vacation every year.
So what’s wrong with this picture? We are simply stupid for not upgrading to a $5M home in Medina WA. Does anyone else feel the same way?
Sounds pretty smart to me if they can get away with it.
Couldn’t agree more!!!
Why on earth should I live frugally and responsibly while others are playing the system? They’re brilliant, and I am finally just catching on.
After much debate with myself, and tons of reading – I did decide to send my daughter to a private HS. Its not easy to have an additional $20K/year expense for parents of 2 kids, living in a city, and checking the price of each food item they buy.
Financial aid MUST be based on merit. If a poorer (as in parents making $100K in SFO) kid proves to be meritorious, then by all means s/he should be given extra aid over a more meritorious kid but whose parents make $150K in the same city.
A balance.
Of need, and merit.
Without merit based aid, a lot of parents of excellent hard working kids, are treated very unfairly in this system.
I grew up attending both private and public schools in SF. I started out in private school but once my younger brother(I’m the oldest of 3 with my sister being the middle) was going to start kindergarten, my parents did not want to pay tuition for all three of us and decided to transfer us to a public school when I was starting the 5th grade. I went back to private school when I started high school because the public school I was being sent to was rated really low at that time.
Since I have gone through both, what can I say is private school should set their own rules for financial aid. If they know that the same set of parents have two or more of their kids going to their school, they should provide an income threshold for them to qualify for financial aid. Also because private schools all have different tuition rates so it’s all independent.
Public schools are great but you need students that are focused on wanting to learn in order for the school to be great. And that depends on the school themselves and if they want to push their students to strive to the best of their abilities.
Brilliant Post Sam! Our family of 3 has this in our futures as there are several private schools in our area with tuition at roughly $25k/yr with many well to do families receiving aid. Our plan is to scale back and be in the $150-$200k/yr range thus reducing our tuition bill by 1/3 to 1/2! The schools actually post a grid that shows fin aid per income level. Luckily they don’t count total liquid assets at this level, so we are just playing the game!! This way we can summer/winter and spend more time together as a family.
Also, what we’ve found is that “Acceptance” into these schools is a more challenging issue than most families financial concerns about tuition prices. For example, I’ve seen these schools value “Legacies, High contributing families, sibling students and staff students” more highly than underrepresented and underprivileged minorities. This is coming from a well to do minority family who routinely witnesses the actual recruitment of “Legacies, High contributing families, etc.” versus the minority crowd. Gotta pay the bills! The only thing I’ve noticed is that some schools seem somewhat relieved to know that we are not planning for financial aid initially so maybe we are a better “social class” fit. Also in terms of increased diversity, I was told by several heads of school that it’s the request of the incoming white “Millennial” crowd!
But fear not, increased diversity usually indicates 1 or 2 underrepresented minorities per class of 20 kids with two supervising teachers. So, while diversity isn’t everyone’s “thing” it’s such a small addition, what’s the big deal??
For example, ONCE a YEAR you see someone who was just recently a victim of a severe beat down through no fault of their own. Wouldn’t you give them a hand up? How about if you knew another beat down was around the corner for this person, would you then give them a hand up and direct them in the other direction? I understand some people would walk past and others would give a hand.
That’s no different than what some minorities and others deal with on a daily basis only because they were born with the “skin color ” or “sexual preference” issue which puts them in a path of vary biases from all levels (peers, judicial system, education, etc.). My only ask is that “Some” people can be sensitive to this situation. Also, if you’re “FOR” aid for lower income then by default you’re probably “FOR” diversity as well! This is just based on stats and systemic oppression that has depressed the progress of many minorities (aka Jim Crow laws, post war benefits that went to “White ONLY” veterans, redlined communities that affected wealth accumulation, criminal justice, etc.). Am I wrong?
Actually, in the present society you are completely wrong. We’re it 20-30 years ago I would say you’ve definitely hit the nail on the head for the privileged rich crowd being targeted for recruitment into these high end schools, but that has completely changed now due to people’s efforts to change those in charge over time. The problem is those change agents, who initially had good intentions, have now gone entirely too far and the shoe is now on the other foot! Everything you’re claiming here is the polar opposite of what is truly happening now, but you’ve listened to the propaganda for sooooooo long that you can’t even open your eyes to see that the change you had hoped for happened, and is now done! Those schools that you’re claiming make more money off privileged children now receive more federal dollars for diversifying and underprivileged children than they do from straight paying people! Also, minorities need to stop mixing gay and trans issues in with racial issues, because you are doing no service to the religious private schools out there where a lot of parents like to send there kids to try and stave off the drug infestation of public schools. Religious schools have to abide by Gods law, and not the governments, and that means not catering to a 16 year old boy that has decided he wants to wear a dress and look like a girl! The rules have always been that those kids will be removed, period! I have watched the world change drastically in my 49 years on this earth, but I’ve also seen an entire generation of people grow up without the racial overtones that I did. I remember one of my sons coming up to me when he was 5 years old and telling me he was playing with “that brown boy” at the skating rink because he didn’t even know to call him black! That would be because race is not something talked about in our house, ever! I never taught my 3 boys the racist terms I was taught in the 70’s, as I’m sure millions of other white households have done in modern times! Can you say the same for black households? Or are they still taught at a young age that whites are keeping them down, or whites are evil, or whites hate them? I have close black friends, and they’ve told me how they were brought up, so you can’t fool me into believing you weren’t brought up that way. I’ve said enough here, and could continue, but I’m sure you’ve already labeled me a racist even though that’s far from reality. True racism is the hatred of another solely based on their skin color. Most claims of racism come no where near that definition. I just tell the truth unlike a lot of the white guilt people out there these days.
Achieving a doctorate/professional degree that allows me to work 3 days/week without call or weekends has offered me great balance, although the trade-off did stymy advancement professionally. I agree with the other parents in that teenagers need you constantly, just less obviously. They learn to “check in” in different ways as they mature. Knowing my husband and I are consistently here for them has paid off in spades. We are a blended family of five children, and my husband is an airline pilot who travels 50% of the time. I have had to learn to go with the flow. You cannot plan for everything–in fact, the older children resent it if you try. Be yourself, enjoy your unusual financial flexibility, and enjoy the ride!
Like someone said! There are some factors that should be considered for a family earning $500, 000 a year. LIKE
•Where they live: are they living in an expensive or low expensive environment.
•Cost of expenses: are things in such area extremely cheap or expensive.
This should be considered before giving financial aid and Hey! It still shouldn’t be higher than those earning less than $500,000 monthly.
Sam, nice analysis!
I see it as one big algorithm:
Financial aid = f(academic merit, parental income normalized to COL, legacy assistance)
The less your parent(s) make, and/or the less legacy assistance you get, the more aid you get.
The more you’ve achieved academically, the more aid you get.
I’m not keen on looking at the balance sheet. Just because one’s parents choose to take on more debt shouldn’t make you more likely to get financial aid. Perhaps a more elaborate algorithm for extenuating circumstances like health expenses, temporary job loss, etc.
I don’t think the government should do more for families who choose to have lots of kids.
Every time I read a post on your site about people making couple hundred thousands dollars a year living in a city with high costs of living, I ask myself: how in the world they manage to spend so much money for such an average life? In my country – Poland – you can live a life so nice or even better with a fraction of a fraction of such an income. I used to be jealous of Americans and your income and living in the USA, but the more I get to know to your reality the more grateful I am for being Polish.
Indeed. Living in expensive cities require expensive incomes.
The key is to make your money, and then relocate to a lower cost area for a better life. Maybe we’ll come to Poland during the summers!
You forget that living in or near a WORLD CLASS CITY is in itself a luxury. It is a luxurious choice and comes with a high price because of its benefits. Two competent parents can easily move and live more simply. They do not have to live in San Francisco in a 1.7 million dollar house. That is and always will be a choice. Full stop. No sympathy from me when you can walk to great coffee shops and restaurants and stores, and have access to world class cultural events and amenities within minutes. I’ve lived in Manhattan and know the benefits — it is absolutely a luxury and should be treated as such. Jobs do not only exist in one place — maybe the best one in the field, but talented people have no problem finding decent jobs in less expensive areas, and possibly saving more when all is said and done (esp like CA vs TX tax).
Additionally, 4 kids in private school at once at 32k is pretty steep — what kind of school district is this 1.7 million dollar house in? Most districts I know (east coast) correspond with housing prices, i.e. public schools are better where houses cost more and more property tax to said school, plus parent involvement etc. Why would a family of 6 buy a house that costs 1.7 million in a crappy district when they have school aged kids? That just doesn’t seem reasonable when that annually costs them over $200k pretax for private. Shifted over as a mortgage payment, they could afford approx 5mil house in a great district (public). I can’t imagine such capable parents could make such a silly decision when most upper middle or upper class people absolutely congregate in good school districts via expensive housing.
Also, no designer threads and a reasonable car is fine, but 1.7k a month on food for 6 is ridiculous unless they eat out all the time. If the kids are in school, they likely either eat free (private schools provide lunch), or pay around $3 or pack a lunch, also under <$3 a day. A family of 6 would shop at Costco (they'd have room to store in their 1.7million dollar home, and the actual need to buy in bulk), and Costco has a plurality of high income shoppers with excellent quality. Most well to do people I know shop there without shame. Even with mostly organic and lots of frozen convenience foods, you can't get to 1.7k a month without multiple $100 bottles of wine or $250 date nights. Food cost per person ($10 is reasonable for adults who eat out some and eat well), but generally trends down with more people. I've moved from the San Diego area about 6 months ago, and I remember California produce being as cheap as it gets, and Costco meats remaining the same as everywhere else in the country. Any family with 4 kids will have a range of ages, and all private schools I know of cover lunch in tuition.
The funny thing is, even if you put zero dollars for food cost a month, it’s not going to make that big of a difference in their budget. Go to focus on the biggest ticket items. But the fact is, everybody needs to eat, so the cost will never be zero.
I am the father in a family of 6 in Denver, Colorado and I track our grocery shopping expenses monthly (with the small note that we include any beer/wine in this category, too). Let me state that these figures are pretty spot on, and we spend that much OUTSIDE of any restaurant dining. In 2017 we have spent average of $1826/month on food/bevs from grocery stores. That includes shopping at Walmart, Sams Club, and King Soopers. My wife loves to cook and we do entertain on occasion which surely boots the total some months (Like thanksgiving).
Cool. Thanks for the confirmation. Not sure why anybody would debate the food expenses who DON’T have a family of 6 to provide for.
Spot on with the estimate. We are a family of 4 in Seattle proper and it’s very similar (interpolated for 4 instead of 6).
That is untrue. My kids attend private school and pay for their own lunch. Every private school in our city of 300,000 do not provide lunch. Have you ever raised teenage boys? They eat A LOT. One teenage boy can go through a gallon of milk in 1-2 days. If the other three kids are also teenage boys, that’s over 10 gallons of milk a week. And that’s just milk–nothing fancy like smoothies or probiotic drinks.
I went to public school and my husband went to public school and we were pretty happy with our education. We are thinking about moving to Hawaii and we’ve been chatting to locals, locals with children who grew up in Oahu etc. Most of the people we talked to recommended private school (specifically Punahou) for high school (or after grade 9) because they said the public high schools are not as good here.
If you end up in HNL, maybe our sons will be classmates in 14 years ;)
Heard it’s very hard to get in! Saving a good idea might be to apply, see if you get in and then move. Don’t move first!
I think the biggest flaw with today’s Higher Education System is the idea that parents are responsible for putting their son or daughter through four years at university. I disagree completely! With few exceptions, at age 18 we possess most of the rights and responsibilities of an adult. This includes making the decision to invest in higher education. I chose to invest in a four year college degree which cost me about 80k all said and done. My return on investment is a starting salary of 80k, which in the Midwest isn’t bad. As a parent, its still import to support and guide your child, but financially they need to be let go.
Before college, I had no concept of money. It took until two years ago when I had 60k of debt racked up staring me in the face. Comparing it to my intern hourly wages, I instantly learned to respect money. I learned the importance of saving (in this case paying off debt). I learned that life is hard and needed to step up my game (high school tactics no longer work). I grew an appreciation for the little things in life. But most of all, I learned what I value most in life: a strong work ethic.
I know I’m in the minority advocating to pay for my own college, but it pays dividends. With regards to financial aid, if a school wants to charge you 70k a year (cough** University of Chicago), laugh and walk away. Thats a big waist of money. A 20k a year school is just as good because the end product is you, not the university. You define your own path and can make as much or as little out of it as you want.
I Like that. The end product is you and not the University.
I’m thinking two years of college in the future is good enough. There’s so much for the information and a faster consumption of information now thanks to the Internet, do we really need to spend four years of college and be 22 years old to get a job?
Sam, I completely agree. An associates degree is the biggest bang for your buck. Two years time and 10k investment (community college) for a starting salary of 50k. Thats 5x returns out the gate! Right now we’re having trouble finding people with this level of education in a technical skill set at my company. Everyone is under the impression that you need a full four year university degree to be successful in life. While that may be true for some professions, there is so much opportunity with just an associates degree.
This is just my opinion, but I think today’s universities are making themselves uncompetitive in post graduate education. Why would a company spend thousands of dollars for one employee to take a single class? My company has purchased licenses for online education platforms like Lynda.com. It costs less, the courses are focused on the specific information we need, and we can take them at any time.
While not a large line item, the “food for six (date night every two weeks)” really struck me as excessive for its context.
They’re spending circa $860 per meal on these date nights?
Spending $1700 a month for six people including date nights seems reasonable to me. Less than $10/day per person. But maybe that’s why Americans are so overweight. How much do you spend a month on food? Do you have a very low BMI?
Sam, I’m sure that my family of 6 spends well over 1K per month on food (we eat a lot of fresh tuna, etc).
However, this particular line item was specifically for nights OUT, once per each two weeks. NOT monthly food for the household.
And it comes out to ~ $860 per each of those biweekly meals.
Finally, WTF does my BMI have to do with anything in the context of why this family is (apparently) spending $700 a meal every two weeks?
I frankly can’t understand why you would ask that question in this context.
But if it REALLY DOES matter to you, it’s right about 20.
Thanks.
But you have seriously crossed a line here.
Sorry for offending you with the BMI question. It was a joke because it’s hard to live off less than $10 a day now for food.
I’m not sure why we are arguing about the amount. It says “Food for SIX” in the first column, and $1,717/month in the last column. Further, there is no other row for the Food line item. We don’t need to debate the meaning of what Food for Six (date night every 2 weeks) means because I created the chart. And I’m telling you $1,717/month is total food expenditure for six, including the mom and dad going out twice a week for date nights.
You are the first person to think the food for six only means money spent on dates twice a week. But since you have, it is my fault it is not clear, because my intention is to leave no reader behind. Therefore, I will include the word “includes” in (includes date night every 2 weeks) to make it more clear.
I really commend you for taking the time to explain a clearly obvious description of how much they spend on food total, even after you explained in your previous comment that the $1,700+ was for food for six people. You have the patience of a monk and it’s obvious you care.
I see why some bloggers can get very frustrated and just ignore all commenters. I also see why some teachers hate their jobs because some kids may have learning disabilities, don’t pay attention, or are simply slow. And if you try to provide a hint or ask them anything, they get offended.
Thanks. You really got to love what you do to last. But at the same time, you’ve got to focus on the most important things to make sure time and effort is optimized.
What I’ve learned is that what may seem obvious to one, may not seem obvious to another. So if I can’t get a basic message across, then I am failing as a writer. There is a reason why newspapers, for example, try to write in sixth grade English.
I am confused about how the education system works in the US so I don’t really understand the problem that this person has.
Where I live you get 3 types of scolarships:
1. you are smart so the state will invest in you to go to college.
2. you are poor but still good enough to get into highschool (highschools have entrance exams here) – the state will invest in you (you get scholarships for highschool and college and free accomodation).
3. you are part of one particular minority with traditional poor results in school because of historical reasons, so the state will give your parents incentives to keep you in school past 8th grade.
It all boils down to this: if you’re good we want you to learn more, because you’ll produce more taxes in the future. If you’re poor we want you to have the same chances as everyone else, but only if you have the same qualifications as everybody else. If you’re part of a poor performing minority, we will try to ensure that your parents poor education record do not impact your shot at getting a better life. The last is one area where we’re not exactly doing great, but we’re trying at least.
If you’re rich enought to go to a private school, then you’re on your own as far our society is concerned.
You’ve left us in suspense. Where do you come from?
Eastern Europe. Not the best place, but comunists did some things right. And many wrong things :)
Very interesting read. Unbelievable the problems we have in America to worry about. I can’t give a fair opinion on this yet as someone who does not have kids. I think that the greatest education a parent can give to their kid is to being a shining example of a human being.
I went to school in a terrible school district and got kicked out for half a year….yet somehow I figured out how to live. I flew half way across the world living on my own dime at 18 and then came back to the states and went to school and graduated with honors. I certainly didn’t attend a top tier school and no doubt it hurt my job prospects but this is America! One of my finance professors was a great guy from India. He told us his friend called him and said he had to get to America because the streets were paved with gold.
If you are willing to work hard you can make it out of any situation…no doubt about it though a fantastic education propels you ahead of the herd, but you can’t teach street smarts or character.
My 2 cents.
Is it better to be a top student in a public school or a medium student in a private school?
If you are smart in public you will be in the advanced/ap classes and not around morons.
You will be towards the top of your class and get into a good school. There you will be around other smart kids and be motivated to get a good job.
I’ve always believed it’s better to be the top student in a mediocre school. Yale can’t except everybody from Phillips Academy Exeter.
My kids are Puerto Rican….second most under represented group in higher education behind native Americans. Best believe we’ll be checking the box. Granted we make >> 100k per child but the point is diversity. Diversity man. You can’t be against diversity. It’s for the kids. And the future. And the environment. I used to be against affirmative action and alternative diversity requirements but I now see the light. People try to use logic and a sense of fairness but then I just call them a racist.
What’s good for the goose.
Very cool. Didn’t know Puerto Ricans are that rare. I enjoyed my time in PR and have a couple PR friends I hit with. One actually donated $10 million after the hurricane! Sadly, I don’t know any Native Americans.
Not sure if you will get financial aid making over $100K/child, but you can try.
Dynx,
I’m floored by your comments.
“People try to use logic and a sense of fairness but then I just call them a racist.
What’s good for the goose.”
Fairness *is* treating the goose the same as the gander, to use your words. Ya see the problem there?
Diversity is great, diversity of experiences, thought and opinion are absolutely wonderful. Forced diversity is not true diversity, it’s a quota. Before ya rant on me… ex hiring manager, team had black, chinese, white, british, indian, male, female, hispanic, canadian, hebrew. We hired based on talent not citizenship, sex or the color of your skin. When it came layoff time, same thing, low performers had to go, did not matter what they looked like. I asked to be laid off to save one of my team members jobs and was denied.
Would you have offered your job so another human could keep theirs?
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” – MLK
Let’s judge by character, integrity and yes talent, not physical attributes.
EV driver:
I hear you. That would be fantastic but that’s not the world we live in.
If hiring and firing and educational opportunities were out there based on ability alone I’d be happy with that.
They are not.
So you take the advantages you have. Minority status is a plus. I’m going to take that plus. Some other kid can write a personal statement about how hard it is to grow up poor. Good for him/her.
When I said “what’s good for the goose” I was referring to a society as a whole that looks at non-related factors when filing out educational opportunities and aid. If the prevailing judgement is that performance alone doesn’t make someone the “best for the job” then who am I to argue?
Good grief! Living in the US is defiantly very pricy, just looking over your spending plan, the amount you spend on health care a month is madness!
Thankfully we have the NHS in the UK.
That’s surprising to hear on his qualifying for financial aid making multiple six figures. Goes to show how beneficial it is to truly know the details of what actually qualifies for the schools you want your kids to go to. I wouldn’t have guessed that at all before reading this post. I’m also pro diversity and hope more private schools open their doors to a wider pool of kids through scholarships and financial aid.
WOW! Sounds a lot like our situation here in NJ. Combined income approximately $350,000. 2 in college and 1 in high school. Lost our home to foreclosure and had a car repossessed. This is without private schools, a rare vacation and no retirement funds. Biggest money eaters in our house are medical insurance (no job coverage), rent, car insurance on 4 cars, cell phones, 3 car payments and 2 student loans (still paying ours off). We live paycheck to paycheck with no savings, no assets, nothing! We are forever in the red and do not receive financial aid other than the government loans my 2 college ones needed.
What do you guys do for a living?
Few thoughts…
1. The school can do whatever they want to. Perhaps the person is a former president or CEO of a major corporation so the school offers them an incentive to attend.
2. $500K is a lot of money so that guy has some pretty big balls to even ask for financial aid. I don’t have much empathy for him regardless of how many kids he has. Can’t say I blame him for trying though.
3. I don’t agree with making low income AND minority the proposed criteria for financial aid. It seems like just low income would be the criteria. I don’t think we should unfairly give special treatment to anyone based on their race.
I just got our fafsa back and I knew we wouldn’t qualify, but any merit aid requires you to fill out this form (why?). I guess if they run out of merit aid, they base it on income! Well, we make over 200k, so we are responsible for 85k a year and no subsidized loans. Basically, it’s going to hurt us to even let them know how much we make. We did not come from money, but my husband is a type A who is very energetic. What gets me is how much we give up – there are a lot of things that are truly subsidized that we never qualify for (medical – we pay 18k year, education, legal, tax relief – capped state and property tax, AMT, etc). That basically lowers our standard of living quite a bit. Of course, we still have a little more leeway than some, but is there something wrong with enjoying your own salary?
I fully expected to see an article about how to fool the FAFSA or other need based calculator using some sketchy accounting treatments when i saw this hit my inbox at 2:30am. Glad i took the time to understand it. It was a well balanced article that made me a little more sympathetic to the plight of the SF rat race. Still, hard to conjure up TOO much sympathy for this scenario. I think the overwhelming takeaway is that we all want our kids to have better than we did, we all face financial pressures, and the grass isn’t always greener. Nice article Sam.
I actually never thought about going that angle with this article. Most six-figure income earners make their money from W-2 income, therefore, it’s hard to manipulate. Besides, it seems too shady.
I am fascinated about the last bastion where the wealthy cherish the most: education.
I wonder why the richest schools continue to pander to the richest families when they don’t need more money. Academia does not pay very well, so you would think that they would be more pro helping lower income households and underrepresented minorities get an education.
I also want people to just know what to expect when it comes to financial aid and work. The rat race is a killer. Hopefully people can find a better balance.
Thanks for reading
Per your theory on why the wealthy still cherish education; I believe its a uniquely American attitude – we value the individual innovator, the single man/woman that controls their own destiny. Thus elite colleges are one way those born into wealth can draw a rationalization between their good fortune(hitting the genetic lottery) and their direct efforts. “I went to Harvard, I earned my spot!”. This attitude cuts the other way; nothing like the shame of never having to lift a finger and having everything given to you to embarrass you amongst the 99%. Some elite rich can care less, but most people have a need to prove themselves.
I disagree that it’s a uniquely American attitude. People from other countries, especially those from developing countries may value education just as much if not more. Because they know that it is their best chance to get ahead and have a better life than their parents. I am one of those people and know of many others.
Absolutely, but this half baked theory of mine is specific to why the wealthy elite value elite education. Education and hard work are great equalizers, but if you’re already ahead you really don’t need an equalizer. My point was only that the wealthy elite still seem to greatly value the “equalizers” that they don’t need. There’s a rational disconnect there. In the US you also see it here when billionaires run for public office. Why, when you’ve attained so much, would you choose to become a bureaucrat is beyond my understanding. It goes to show that POWER is a currency that can’t always be bought – similar to elite education – a currency that cannot be bought.
Eh, who am i kidding, with enough money it can all be bought.
Anyway, I wish all people well. I firmly believe that real change occurs from the Bottom up, not top down. I also don’t believe we should give up on people. We need to be more creative in the approach to these problems. Both sides.