If you have a kid with a good GPA and test scores, there are colleges that will give merit scholarships from a few thousand to full tuition to a full ride. Those are mostly in the south and Midwest, but definitely worth the searching if you want to cut the cost down.
If you have a HS junior make sure they take their SATs or ACTs this spring. And start searching for colleges over the summer. If you have a sophomore, have them study for the PSAT. There are some automatic full rides for high scoring kids.
Thanks, I have a college freshman that was 5th out 160 in HS, Eagle Scout, many awards, etc. I’m paying around $22K out of pocket to an in state university in PA. Being a white middle class male student with married parents is a decided cost driver. The way I have it figured I’m paying for my kid and some other kid on campus.
I don't think the chart's numbers are too low for Harvard. Over 60% of folks at Harvard get Harvard grants for financial aid, and there are other scholarship and aid programs that bring the total up to as much as 70% or even a little more.
Harvard financial aid phases out, with one student in college, as one’s family's household income approaches about $250,000. At Harvard, median household income is somewhere around $200,000, and thus, that's why, even with the fairly generous financial aid limits, you still have 30% or so of students without any grant assistance or scholarships.
I don't know how these folks calculated the four-year cost of these schools, but it may be that they're normalizing the data to median income levels in the entire population, rather than just looking at the Harvard population in isolation.
My own son's experience was that the best deal came from our state flagship, where he was offered everything but the kitchen sink. No, wait, I think they offered that, too.
But after that full scholarship, full room and board, books, educational stipend, + spending money deal, Harvard's offer was best. Johns Hopkins, my son's first choice, was worst. And it was a pretty substantial difference. And included loans in the package (Harvard doesn't use loans in their financial aid packages).
For top students applying to the top schools, it's usually the better the school, the better the offer.
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