[Coronita]

If the College Board really wanted to help make college more obtainable for poor people, instead of mucking around with this Adversity Score (which I’m happy they backtracked on), they should reconsider reducing all the fees and costs that they impose on students, particularly since the CEO of the College Board, a non-profit BTW, took home over $1million/year in total compensation. Probably even more now, since that number was back in 2009. Lesson to learn.. Just because an organization is non-profit, doesn’t mean the executives aren’t milking others while serving in that non-profit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_Board
The consumer rights organization Americans for Educational Testing Reform (AETR) has criticized the College Board for violating its non-profit status through excessive profits and exorbitant executive compensation; nineteen of its executives make more than $300,000 per year, with CEO Gaston Caperton earning $1.3 million in 2009 (including deferred compensation).[18][19] AETR also claims that College Board is acting unethically by selling test preparation materials, directly lobbying legislators and government officials, and refusing to acknowledge test-taker rights.[20]

Those increases have bolstered the College Board’s financials. As of 2016, the nonprofit was sitting on $1.1 billion of assets and paid its top executive, David Coleman, more than $1.4 million in compensation.

Regarding costs…
It’s $48 to take the SAT, $65 with the essay portion, $51 ACT, $67 with the writing section, and $22 for each SAT subject test, not including the $26 registration fee….each time…. The PSAT costs $17-20…

Each AP class costs $94 ($124 abroad) and an additional $40 late fee if you register after Nov16. If you cancel your exam or don’t use it, there’s an additional $40 cancellation fee.

If you are “poor”, the College board gives a “generous” $37 discount off of the AP class (late fees still withstanding)….

[Coronita]

[quote=scaredyclassic][quote=flu]New promotion offer. Open a new 529 ScholarShare account (CA plan) and deposit $1000, get $100 free.

[Expired] $100 Bonus for Opening a 529 Plan with ScholarShare [9/1-9/30]

Offer over end of Sept…

Free money. Why not? lol

Actually, it’s free $100 for each account you and your relative(s) and spouse opens per beneficiary.. If you can convince 10 relatives to open an account for your kid, $1000 free money… lol.[/quote]

100 isnt enough nowadays 4 me to choose a bank.

I did jump at a recent 400$ offer from wellsfargo[/quote]

Yes, but that $400 is really $200 after you get that 1099 at the end of the year. Plus there’s theoretical no limit on the number of 529k accounts you can open to get that $100 credit, if you were planning to open one or more anyway. And it’s easy peasy to rollover amounts among accounts.

[Coronita]

New promotion offer. Open a new 529 ScholarShare account (CA plan) and deposit $1000, get $100 free.

[Expired] $100 Bonus for Opening a 529 Plan with ScholarShare [9/1-9/30]

Offer over end of Sept…

Free money. Why not? lol

Actually, it’s free $100 for each account you and your relative(s) and spouse opens per beneficiary.. If you can convince 10 relatives to open an account for your kid, $1000 free money… lol.

[Coronita]

just when I thought Piggington posts couldn’t get anymore stupid, I am proven wrong over and over again by the same suspects.

If I ever become old, single, and alone with no friends, I’d rather have someone just shoot me than have to resort to camping out here.

[Coronita]

sure Brian, if you say so… I don’t see how you could possibly pick up second language if you spend most of your time on Piggington… But if you say so. You definitely wouldn’t be able to handle Chinese… So try Spanish.

let me guess … Last year… You were trying to impress a Chinese woman. This year you are trying to impress a Latino woman????

I am surprised someone, as worldly and refined as you claim yourself to be, would not already have a foreign language under your grasp. Afterall, if I recall, it was a requirement in high school for 3 years of a foreign language as a condition for being considered for admission into almost all top rank schools, including Ivy League schools that apparently you think so highly of as part of the criteria to being refined and worldly… That’s the only reason why even I, as “narrow minded and parochial” as you think I am, took 3 years of Spanish in addition to my native fluency in Mandarin.

Didn’t you apply to one of them “refined” universities when you were in high school, considering you think it’s so critical for being so refined and scholarly? Didn’t you end up going to one of them “refined universities” where you learned all your “refinements and worldliness?”

Clearly, someone as refined , worldlt, and knowledgeable as yourself Brian would have already taken 3 years of a foreign language , no?

[Coronita]

I bought some TSM… Theres report going on about customers like AMD might be seeing production slip dates from 1-2 months to 6-7…. That suggests TSM is running near full capacity and business is good.

[Coronita]

It’s in my opinion that college degrees at expensive and prestigious colleges has more or less evolved (devolved?) into something like a luxury car. For many people, going to an expensive, hard to obtain college is a mere exercise of futility of “keeping up with the Joneses”…in which the air of exclusivity trumps any sort of logic.

This is why I can’t understand the point of sending a kid to a prestigious college for a bullshit degree that can’t ever recoup the cost of tuition and room and board. Maybe for the top 0.001% where money grows on trees it doesn’t matter. I went to one of those Ivy League schools that was difficult to get in and expensive and frankly I don’t think I did that much better than anyone else that attended a good engineering school elsewhere..One could argue that part of the motivation and work ethics that it takes to get into these difficult schools is often a reflection of the person’s future work ethics..But again, I’ve seen a lot of lazy slobs from all sorts of expensive private schools….And I admit one of the stupid reasons why I went was for the name, because back then I didn’t know any better. It was good at impressing some chicks, except the ones that got into a better Ivy League school than you…lol

Maybe that’s the solution. Colleges should offer tuition like luxury cars to get around the appearance of an expensive cost… Leases…..

[Coronita]

.

[Coronita]

You know, not every kid who is from a poor family gets a full ride to a good school. Many kids aren’t your straight A student and just because a kid has a less than a straight A doesntean they don’t deserve to have a shot at a good future. The issue is that what do you do with the kids that are from poor families with not the best grades? They get double dinged.

There are some kids I know from families with no money and are less than stellar grades from high school.. Now, they have even financia troubles entering a JC. They won’t be able to finish college until they saved up enough money from waiting tables.

As much as I want to complain about the high cost of college tuition. I am thankfully kid doesn’t have to go though this.

I did draw the line for her though. Even if she gets into an Ivy League school/Stanford/MIT….Unless she gets a full ride, I am not going to pay $400,000+ for a bachelors of arts or science(which is how much it’s going to cost if you extrpolate that average 4% annual increase tuition/room/board ) I’d rather take 1/3 of that amount and let her have the money so she can use it as a downpayment for her own house or start her own business. Besides, most of those universities penalize Asian kids with quota limits, and I would probably be one of the parents paying full tuition to subsidize someone else’s tuition and room and board who got in under a completely different criteria. So, I am voting with my dollars against those schools….even if I went to one of those schools.

And if my kid decides to major in some ubemployable major like Shakespearian History or Conversational Linguistics with job prospects of something requiring you to say “You want fries with that?” or “Grande or Vente?” So long 4 year college. Hello Junior College.

[Coronita]

.

[Coronita]

Because there are people who struggle and have a minimum wage job at best, and their kids deserve a chance to get out of the shithole, especially if their academic credentials are good.

And if it wasn’t considered, people like me would make my kid apply for financial aid while I spend my money on a McLaren. Of course there are a lot of Americans that do just that, where they would bleed there live savings to death to buy bling and then complain about how their kid needs to take out a student loan….And I’m sure if you really wanted to, you could also take that approach…

But I guess for some of us, that goes against the grain of reason and responsibility….Yes, folks like this are suckers.. Oh well.

[Coronita]

[quote=Myriad][quote=flu]529ks can pretty much be rolled over from one account to another belonging to the same owner. 529 accounts can also be rolled over between accounts for the same beneficiary. The beneficiary of a 529k account can also be changed. The gift tax exemption per person is now more than 10million making large rollovers among beneficiary moot… 4 variables to play with years before college…..[/quote]

True, but you don’t have to file the paperwork if you go over the $15/year. Not that the IRS is really checking that closely though.[/quote]

True… I was thinking of the other case. Let’s say one fvcked up and had $200k extra in Timmy’s 529k and didn’t want that towards his assets as part of financial aid consideration. Mommy Jane rolls over $200k into Timmy’s 529k owned by Uncle Bob. Uncle Bob rolls over $200k into Niece Jane account also owned by Uncle Bob. Niece Jane and Nephew Timmy not related.

Poof.. $200k gone from Jimmy’s household 2-3 years prior to financial aid consideration…. Of course bringing that money back into play the following year is a challenge. Which is a second exercise of a different kind.

But I should warn that while most public schools dont consider equity in primary home as assets, most private schools do… Forget about financial aid if you own 5-6 rental properties free and clear. Which is why for many folks, it’s not even a question.. Financial aid is clearly off the table…which is even more of a reason to get a 529k started as early as possible.

Personally, even if I could hide my assets and get need based financial aid, I wouldn’t do it. I figure there are people who actually need it. But that’s my personal decision.

[Coronita]

[quote=Myriad]Back to the original post.
The drawback of the 529 is that it can impact the student’s financial aid package.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-column-feldman-529/dont-let-that-529-college-plan-hurt-your-financial-aid-idUSBRE93S0LZ20130429

The argument can be made that non-parents shouldn’t use the 529’s for the “future” student. They’re better off paying the tuition directly which doesn’t count as a gift to the IRS.
As for a 529 owned by the parent or student, you could invest in 401k/IRA instead, but there of course are limitations associated with those vehicles vs 529.
https://www.cappex.com/articles/money/how-to-shelter-assets-on-the-fafsa%5B/quote%5D

529ks can pretty much be rolled over from one account to another belonging to the same owner. 529 accounts can also be rolled over between accounts for the same beneficiary. The beneficiary of a 529k account can also be changed. The gift tax exemption per person is now more than 10million making large rollovers among beneficiary moot… 4 variables to play with years before college…..

[Coronita]

[quote=spdrun]Some of us attended state schools on the East Coast and liked it just fine. You won’t be attending the school, the kid will be. Private schools are overrated.

Also, AGI can be adjusted below $120k for a few years to meet “standards” — if you have paid off homes, take a pay cut. The rich play the subsidy game, why not the middle class?[/quote]

But you admitted on a different thread you attended an expensive private school… So what do you mean by “some”?

Not only are you giving out advice for something you didn’t do. You are giving out advice for kid and family you currently don’t have for now or for the foreseeable future with an AGI you probably don’t have too.

If this isn’t the most ridiculous thing ever, I dont know what is. Anyone with a shred of logic would see it the same way.

OP asked a very simply question. OP probably already put a lot of thought into it. OP isnt asking for a what you think about public schools in New York. For all we know there might be very specific reasons why he or she isn’t interested. And given that he/she is only talking about starting a 529k account, it means his/her kid are young and a lot of things can happen from now until then. For example, your foolish idea of counting taking a lower AGI just into a public school in New York could completely blow up 16-18 years later when his/her kid actually is old enough to attend and when, due to state budgets, free isn’t free because the state runs out of money. You don’t know, and as a parent you would be stupid to count on any state assistance that currently exists today to still be there 16-18 years later, especially of you are the borderline of being middle class and reasonably well off by admissions standard. This is the sort of stupid short sightedness that 80+% of the American population make thinking future benefit will be there and find out it’s not and, well, get screwed. It’s the same inane foolishness similar to waiting for that one big investment score while it’s been proven time and time again proper long term planning, small investment decisions along the way, on average trounces those one shot, one hit, one time big bang investments people try to score only to be wrong and get left behind because one’s single time gamble blew up and didn’t occur the way one wanted. There is no replacement for well planned , well thought out, small, decisions over a longer period of time that limits single instance big risk and uncertainty even if at any instance in time the world briefly blows up.

The only exception is if you really are poor, and then you have nothing to lose, which would defeat the entire point of this discussion because some who really is poor wouldn’t be thinking about a 529k plan.

Is it really that difficult for to answer a simple question asked by the OP and nothing else?

[Coronita]

lol… see what I mean….

I am pretty confident if you live in San Diego with kids and your household AGI is less than $120k, the last thing you are thinking about is a 529k. You are probably thinking about damn, it’s tough out here. so I would assume.those considering the 529k plan have a household AGI above that.

Also, for those of us that make more than that, some of us have no desire to be on the east coast. especially for a state school. You can’t argue all you want being on a cheap(er) budget. And maybe for you, that’s out of necessity because you have a smaller budget. And that certainly your choice if you intentionally want to earn less. But for the rest of the population that wants to and has the capability to earn more, has earned and accumlated more, there is no desire (and more importantly) no need to go on a cheap budget. Not that there is anything wrong with it too
Just different strokes for different folks. Which is exactly why your response is completely useless.

Plus the 529k plan isn’t just for tuition, it also includes incidentals like room and board , books, etc. None of which is completely covered. Like I said, none if this is information you would know about or consider if you don’t have kids. Which makes commenting on this moot if you don’t. It’s almost as dumb as a president that had no prior presidential skills. oh oops…

[Author]

Posts