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The issue here is that perfect price discrimination doesn't actually seem fair to the vast majority of "normal" people. I was the youngest child of old parents,

The issue here is that perfect price discrimination doesn't actually seem fair to the vast majority of "normal" people. I was the youngest child of old parents, so we looked fabulously wealthy to the FAFSA. In reality, my parents were only mildly better prepared for retirement, which they were entering, than the average local government employee (both of their careers). This meant that my family paid full cost for flagship state university, despite much much wealthier people paying less. Similarly, my out-of-state friends were given "scholarships" that put them down to in-state tuition rates, but no lower. People do not generally pay the "full" price of these things[0]. [0] https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/18/private-colleges-costs-35830-on-averagebut-students-may-pay-less.html https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/18/private-colleges-costs-35830...

non-entity 7y ago
I didn't go to school after HS, however at the time of my graduation, my parents had a large amount of dependants, was suffering the wrath or two mortgage payments and another monthly rent payment. Flash forward a few years later, he no longer has the mortgages, many of those dependants are now adults out on there own and he makes pretty good money. I wish I would have gone before, because from the calculations I've done, being under 24, I won't get hardly any aid, and school is now a financially impossibility (or financial suicide).
- learc83 7y ago
  School isn't financial suicide if you to an affordable state school and take out public loans unless you plan on getting a degree that will add no earning power. And even then, if you don't make much, you will qualify for income based repayment, which means you will never have to pay back more than 10% of your disposable income (any income over 1.5x the federal poverty limit). If you want to go even cheaper, try community college for the firs 2 years.
  - non-entity 7y ago
    But if I'm only receiving a couple thousand in aid, that's still a lot of money that has to resort to loans (from what I understand public loans are limited in the amount you can take no?) Community college would be much cheaper yes, but if you're a working adult,you'll likely only have a handful of times you can take classes, dragging it out more than 2 years.
    - dsfyu404ed 7y ago
      Community colleges tend to make classes more available after normal work hours specifically because their customers have lives.
    - learc83 7y ago
      For a dependent student it's $5,500 for the first year, which is more than enough to pay for community college. And it goes up significantly each year and way up once you are considered independent it goes up even more (lifetime max of $57k which is more than enough to pay for tuition and fees at most state schools). Also the dependent student caps don't count if your parents can't qualify for a PLUS loan. >Community college would be much cheaper yes, but if you're a working adult,you'll likely only have a handful of times you can take classes, dragging it out more than 2 years. As another poster pointed out community colleges tend to have plenty of classes available. And during the first few years when you take intro classes you'll likely have no problem finding classes at any time, and most states have online classes available for intro subjects. Additional if you go for something like and engineering or CS degree you can do coops and internships where you'd earn a good bit more than most people can make working in their early 20s (while getting course credit and relevant experience).
ryandrake 7y ago
FAFSA is a terrible price discriminator, and unsurprisingly primarily screws the middle class and kids with special circumstances. You have: 1. Kids with legit wealthy parents from whom they are estranged and get no support. 2. Kids with moderately high income parents but also a lot of mandatory expenses like medical bills, other kids to support, etc. 3. Kids with middle class parents who are too poor to pay for College, but too rich for financial aid [1] [2]. These are the people who either end up not going to college or graduating with crippling debt. The poor who qualify for sufficient student aid end up fine, and the rich, well, always end up fine. 1: https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertfarrington/2014/06/17/too-poor-for-college-too-rich-for-financial-aid/#197891d96922 https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertfarrington/2014/06/17/too... 2: https://money.cnn.com/2016/04/28/pf/college/college-financial-aid/index.html https://money.cnn.com/2016/04/28/pf/college/college-financia...
- alasdair_ 7y ago
  My personal hatred is that if the parents divorce and both are extremely poor, the kid can get financial aid, but then if one parent remarries someone with money, all that aid can get pulled from future years. The income of a step parent (who has never had a legal obligation to ever provide support) should not be considered by FAFSA, at least not for the first X years of marriage.

non-entity 7y ago

I didn't go to school after HS, however at the time of my graduation, my parents had a large amount of dependants, was suffering the wrath or two mortgage payments and another monthly rent payment. Flash forward a few years later, he no longer has the mortgages, many of those dependants are now adults out on there own and he makes pretty good money. I wish I would have gone before, because from the calculations I've done, being under 24, I won't get hardly any aid, and school is now a financially impossibility (or financial suicide).

learc83 7y ago
School isn't financial suicide if you to an affordable state school and take out public loans unless you plan on getting a degree that will add no earning power. And even then, if you don't make much, you will qualify for income based repayment, which means you will never have to pay back more than 10% of your disposable income (any income over 1.5x the federal poverty limit). If you want to go even cheaper, try community college for the firs 2 years.
- non-entity 7y ago
  But if I'm only receiving a couple thousand in aid, that's still a lot of money that has to resort to loans (from what I understand public loans are limited in the amount you can take no?) Community college would be much cheaper yes, but if you're a working adult,you'll likely only have a handful of times you can take classes, dragging it out more than 2 years.
  - dsfyu404ed 7y ago
    Community colleges tend to make classes more available after normal work hours specifically because their customers have lives.
  - learc83 7y ago
    For a dependent student it's $5,500 for the first year, which is more than enough to pay for community college. And it goes up significantly each year and way up once you are considered independent it goes up even more (lifetime max of $57k which is more than enough to pay for tuition and fees at most state schools). Also the dependent student caps don't count if your parents can't qualify for a PLUS loan. >Community college would be much cheaper yes, but if you're a working adult,you'll likely only have a handful of times you can take classes, dragging it out more than 2 years. As another poster pointed out community colleges tend to have plenty of classes available. And during the first few years when you take intro classes you'll likely have no problem finding classes at any time, and most states have online classes available for intro subjects. Additional if you go for something like and engineering or CS degree you can do coops and internships where you'd earn a good bit more than most people can make working in their early 20s (while getting course credit and relevant experience).

ryandrake 7y ago

FAFSA is a terrible price discriminator, and unsurprisingly primarily screws the middle class and kids with special circumstances. You have: 1. Kids with legit wealthy parents from whom they are estranged and get no support. 2. Kids with moderately high income parents but also a lot of mandatory expenses like medical bills, other kids to support, etc. 3. Kids with middle class parents who are too poor to pay for College, but too rich for financial aid [1] [2]. These are the people who either end up not going to college or graduating with crippling debt. The poor who qualify for sufficient student aid end up fine, and the rich, well, always end up fine. 1: https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertfarrington/2014/06/17/too-poor-for-college-too-rich-for-financial-aid/#197891d96922 https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertfarrington/2014/06/17/too... 2: https://money.cnn.com/2016/04/28/pf/college/college-financial-aid/index.html https://money.cnn.com/2016/04/28/pf/college/college-financia...

alasdair_ 7y ago
My personal hatred is that if the parents divorce and both are extremely poor, the kid can get financial aid, but then if one parent remarries someone with money, all that aid can get pulled from future years. The income of a step parent (who has never had a legal obligation to ever provide support) should not be considered by FAFSA, at least not for the first X years of marriage.