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.
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...
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.