I've seen this discussion quite a bit. It seems that where the parents went to college has the most influence on the outcome.
I'll say. We were determined to do better for our kid.
Isn't there a new simplified FAFSA for 2010? Have you seen it? I did a prelim FAFSA a few months ago and our EFC was almost $90K (more than our taxable income!), so we're not expecting any financial aid. If the stock market is good in the next few years, then that will also be helpful with Plan B.
Having just finished my first FAFSA, I can't tell you how much better it makes me feel to know that it's "simplified". Bring 'em on.
Even before we got the results I was thankful for the NROTC scholarship. But what we're most thankful for (or that our kid should be thankful for) is 16 years of steady saving and aggressive equity investing during the world's greatest bull market, including buying Berkshire Hathaway at $2200/share and selling at $4700.
Now there's something I had not considered--another reason/benefit to retire early--make ourselves elligible for more need-based aid. Brilliant!
Our kid's only asset is her Roth IRA, and that didn't appear to help her case. And although you're retired on savings that have to last you the rest of your life, anything outside an IRA and a personal residence is fair game. The FAFSA doesn't seem to look beyond four years.
So that's where it stands now. I think my daughter should help pay for her own university education like I did. My wife still thinks otherwise. I have told my daughter that she is clever enough to figure out a way to pay for college just like I did.
After the 40,000 variations we've read on this thread over the years, I'm in the camp of offering a kid a full ride at Local U and letting them put skin in the game for anything more expensive.
But the most important thing is to load them with enough fuel to achieve escape velocity, and for some that may require more funding or even a year or two of parental supervision at home before they start dorm life.
I'd suggest that parents should start earlier and spend more money on the search & prep. Seeing colleges after 9th grade helped her clarify her thinking (and her commitment) and let her take driver's ed the summer after 10th grade. We still had time left over for a couple college tours that fall, and the summer after 11th grade she'd narrowed down her list and was able to attend programs at her favorite choices. Notre Dame wanted $1750 for three weeks, but after getting to know her and seeing her projects it was made awfully clear to her that they'd be saving her a seat. USNA was $750 for one week and worth every penny for her to learn that she'd seen enough.
Our kid took two PSATs, two SAT prep classes, and three SATs before she felt she'd nailed it. Sure, it was close to a thousand dollars in fees... to get into a school that charges $42K/year... but she also nailed a $32K/year scholarship.
We parents were confused about "early action" and "early decision". Our kid was solidly in the middle of the pack of the freshman demographics for the schools she wanted, so she chose early decision to get the 10-15% boost to her chances. ED also tends to cripple a parent's opportunity to negotiate on financial assistance, but we were pretty confident that NROTC would come through.
I don't remember the rules on early action.
Another good thing about ED was the 1 Nov deadline. The high school's counselor and the recommendation letters were hard enough to handle without having to stand in line among 500 other seniors. I can't imagine how nasty our holidays would have been with a 1 Jan deadline.
I was under the impression that corporate/charitable scholarship applications had similar deadlines, but last week I realized that most of the deadlines were 15 November. Eh, she'll be ready next year!
