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> Obviously $80k is still an obscene amount of money, but I don't really have an issue with kids of millionaires + billionaires having to pay that much to atten

> Obviously $80k is still an obscene amount of money, but I don't really have an issue with kids of millionaires + billionaires having to pay that much to attend. There is a huge gap in between, that isn't addressed in your comment. 80k/year is still expensive to someone whose parents make 100k.

hedora 4y ago
I think it’s pretty easy to demonstrate you need financial support when your after tax pay for the whole family is less than the annual tuition cost.
- LigmaYC 4y ago
  Depends on BUs decision, they might be one of those universities who believe parents should've been saving up for their childs education for 18 years and would still happily charge you the full amount.
  - jefftk 4y ago
    That's not how and of the "100% financial need meet" institutions work. It's all based on what they calculate your family can pay based off of current income and assets.
    - LigmaYC 4y ago
      View my calculator results in the parent comment
    - pclmulqdq 4y ago
      The "and assets" part of the equation is the bad part. If you have $100k annual income and a $1 million house plus $100k in a college savings plan, they're giving you the full sticker price. Never mind that you're several hundred thousand short, you have assets.
      - tzs 4y ago
        I tried this in BU's quick cost estimator: 2 parent 1 child household, $100k income, $1 million house with no mortgage, $100k in savings. Results: $44700 need-based scholarship, $29400 parent/student contribution, $3500 student loan, $2000 student work-study. Going back and changing it to not have a house changes the need-based scholarship to $54600 and drops the parent/student contribution to $19500, leaving the rest unchanged. Restoring the million dollar house but taking away the $100k savings makes the scholarship $49600 and the parent/student contribution $24500. Finally, getting rid of both house and savings, leaving just the $100k income makes the scholarship $59500 and the parent/student contribution $14600. So...it looks like having $100k in savings adds about $5000 to your expected contribution, and having a $1 million mortgage free house adds about $10k to your expected contribution. I also tried it with $100k in a retirement account, and that changed nothing. $100k in non-retirement account investments was the same as $100k in savings. It looks like you are going to have to have a lot more in income and/or non-retirement assets to actually get anywhere near full sticker price.
        LigmaYC 4y ago
        I have around 200k in investments and 50k in cheque account, resulting in 70k per year fee. Even though that would completely wipe out my savings without paying the full amount...
        jefftk 4y ago
        Two things: * If you have a net worth of $250k and they calculate you can pay $70k for the first year, estimating full payment as $70k * 4 ($280k) isn't right. Your net worth will be lower next year, and they'll consider that. * Their goal is to charge you the most you are able to pay, and someone with $250k in savings is able to pay $70k. I think this is all a bad system, for the same reason that a 100% marginal tax rate is a bad idea, but it's not quite as nuts as you're suggesting.
        LigmaYC 4y ago
        >Your net worth will be lower next year, and they'll consider that I was just giving an example to demonstrate how bad their calculator pricing was (280k fees < 250k savings without selling house) if you wanted to make it more realistic I would also take into account that my investments grow too. >Their goal is to charge you the most you are able to pay, and someone with $250k in savings is able to pay $70k. Seems pretty bad to me. Wouldn't pay 7k/year for BU, much less 70k.
- LigmaYC 4y ago
  You can try it out yourself, in my case the tuition dropped from $79k to $70k. Which is still expensive for a family that makes $100k. https://npc.collegeboard.org/app/bu?sessionId=N5uYUvK7OuteM4iwHMAJ https://npc.collegeboard.org/app/bu?sessionId=N5uYUvK7OuteM4...
  - 1123581321 4y ago
    Seems off. I used a higher income with sibling and it estimated $13k family contribution via IM formula. That was close to BU’s own calculator, which suggested a $17k combination of loans and family contributions, forgiving roughly $60k via needs. FM estimated twice IM which I take to mean BU uses IM.
    - LigmaYC 4y ago
      What is IM formula? I am using BUs own calculator.
      - 1123581321 4y ago
        Your link asks if you want Federal or Institutional Method when calculating expected family contribution (FM vs IM) or to run both methods. I don’t know why a school would choose one or the other, just noting the similar result from IM. Boston seems to have two calculators going. This is the one I found in Tuition & Aid, that provides institution-specific results. https://app.myintuitionapp.org/institution/2fc48230-f626-4d2e-a602-63d8dbd1db45/costestimator https://app.myintuitionapp.org/institution/2fc48230-f626-4d2...
        LigmaYC 4y ago
        Oh right, thanks.
PragmaticPulp 4y ago
> There is a huge gap in between, that isn't addressed in your comment. 80k/year is still expensive to someone whose parents make 100k. If someone's parents make $100K/year then they aren't going to pay anywhere near that $80K/year figure. The average annual expenses (tuition + living expenses) at Boston University is closer to $30K ( https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/school/?164988-Boston-University https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/school/?164988-Boston-Univer... ). US college tuition pricing is extremely weird because very few people actually pay full price. They put a big number on it so they can justify charging high amounts to wealthy parents (hence the millionaires and billionaires comment above) but then give everyone else "discounts" to bring it back toward lower numbers. Note that their $30K/year is still a whopping 50% higher than the national average.
- LigmaYC 4y ago
  >If someone's parents make $100K/year then they aren't going to pay anywhere near that $80K/year figure. In my case, using the calculator estimate dropped it from $79k to $70k. And this is just an estimate, I doubt I would even receive 9k from the needs based scholarship. https://npc.collegeboard.org/app/bu?sessionId=N5uYUvK7OuteM4 https://npc.collegeboard.org/app/bu?sessionId=N5uYUvK7OuteM4

hedora 4y ago

I think it’s pretty easy to demonstrate you need financial support when your after tax pay for the whole family is less than the annual tuition cost.

LigmaYC 4y ago
Depends on BUs decision, they might be one of those universities who believe parents should've been saving up for their childs education for 18 years and would still happily charge you the full amount.
- jefftk 4y ago
  That's not how and of the "100% financial need meet" institutions work. It's all based on what they calculate your family can pay based off of current income and assets.
  - LigmaYC 4y ago
    View my calculator results in the parent comment
  - pclmulqdq 4y ago
    The "and assets" part of the equation is the bad part. If you have $100k annual income and a $1 million house plus $100k in a college savings plan, they're giving you the full sticker price. Never mind that you're several hundred thousand short, you have assets.
    - tzs 4y ago
      I tried this in BU's quick cost estimator: 2 parent 1 child household, $100k income, $1 million house with no mortgage, $100k in savings. Results: $44700 need-based scholarship, $29400 parent/student contribution, $3500 student loan, $2000 student work-study. Going back and changing it to not have a house changes the need-based scholarship to $54600 and drops the parent/student contribution to $19500, leaving the rest unchanged. Restoring the million dollar house but taking away the $100k savings makes the scholarship $49600 and the parent/student contribution $24500. Finally, getting rid of both house and savings, leaving just the $100k income makes the scholarship $59500 and the parent/student contribution $14600. So...it looks like having $100k in savings adds about $5000 to your expected contribution, and having a $1 million mortgage free house adds about $10k to your expected contribution. I also tried it with $100k in a retirement account, and that changed nothing. $100k in non-retirement account investments was the same as $100k in savings. It looks like you are going to have to have a lot more in income and/or non-retirement assets to actually get anywhere near full sticker price.
      - LigmaYC 4y ago
        I have around 200k in investments and 50k in cheque account, resulting in 70k per year fee. Even though that would completely wipe out my savings without paying the full amount...
        jefftk 4y ago
        Two things: * If you have a net worth of $250k and they calculate you can pay $70k for the first year, estimating full payment as $70k * 4 ($280k) isn't right. Your net worth will be lower next year, and they'll consider that. * Their goal is to charge you the most you are able to pay, and someone with $250k in savings is able to pay $70k. I think this is all a bad system, for the same reason that a 100% marginal tax rate is a bad idea, but it's not quite as nuts as you're suggesting.
        LigmaYC 4y ago
        >Your net worth will be lower next year, and they'll consider that I was just giving an example to demonstrate how bad their calculator pricing was (280k fees < 250k savings without selling house) if you wanted to make it more realistic I would also take into account that my investments grow too. >Their goal is to charge you the most you are able to pay, and someone with $250k in savings is able to pay $70k. Seems pretty bad to me. Wouldn't pay 7k/year for BU, much less 70k.
LigmaYC 4y ago
You can try it out yourself, in my case the tuition dropped from $79k to $70k. Which is still expensive for a family that makes $100k. https://npc.collegeboard.org/app/bu?sessionId=N5uYUvK7OuteM4iwHMAJ https://npc.collegeboard.org/app/bu?sessionId=N5uYUvK7OuteM4...
- 1123581321 4y ago
  Seems off. I used a higher income with sibling and it estimated $13k family contribution via IM formula. That was close to BU’s own calculator, which suggested a $17k combination of loans and family contributions, forgiving roughly $60k via needs. FM estimated twice IM which I take to mean BU uses IM.
  - LigmaYC 4y ago
    What is IM formula? I am using BUs own calculator.
    - 1123581321 4y ago
      Your link asks if you want Federal or Institutional Method when calculating expected family contribution (FM vs IM) or to run both methods. I don’t know why a school would choose one or the other, just noting the similar result from IM. Boston seems to have two calculators going. This is the one I found in Tuition & Aid, that provides institution-specific results. https://app.myintuitionapp.org/institution/2fc48230-f626-4d2e-a602-63d8dbd1db45/costestimator https://app.myintuitionapp.org/institution/2fc48230-f626-4d2...
      - LigmaYC 4y ago
        Oh right, thanks.

PragmaticPulp 4y ago

> There is a huge gap in between, that isn't addressed in your comment. 80k/year is still expensive to someone whose parents make 100k. If someone's parents make $100K/year then they aren't going to pay anywhere near that $80K/year figure. The average annual expenses (tuition + living expenses) at Boston University is closer to $30K ( https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/school/?164988-Boston-University https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/school/?164988-Boston-Univer... ). US college tuition pricing is extremely weird because very few people actually pay full price. They put a big number on it so they can justify charging high amounts to wealthy parents (hence the millionaires and billionaires comment above) but then give everyone else "discounts" to bring it back toward lower numbers. Note that their $30K/year is still a whopping 50% higher than the national average.

LigmaYC 4y ago
>If someone's parents make $100K/year then they aren't going to pay anywhere near that $80K/year figure. In my case, using the calculator estimate dropped it from $79k to $70k. And this is just an estimate, I doubt I would even receive 9k from the needs based scholarship. https://npc.collegeboard.org/app/bu?sessionId=N5uYUvK7OuteM4 https://npc.collegeboard.org/app/bu?sessionId=N5uYUvK7OuteM4