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-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.
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
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.
* 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.
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.
Sorry, are you saying the net worth you put into the calculator was more than $250k? Then $70k is even less surprising!
(If colleges ignored home values you could put your $250k into repaying your mortgage faster and report having no savings. They'd charge you $0. And if you needed money later you could borrow against the value of the house.)
Never said it was impossible for me to pay, just said it was still expensive.
https://npc.collegeboard.org/app/bu?sessionId=N5uYUvK7OuteM4...
FM estimated twice IM which I take to mean BU uses 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-f626-4d2...