Would really need to know your salary pp to give you an idea. The Ivies give great $ to folks making under $100k...it's almost free. We made $200k+ and even got a tiny bit of money for our one kid. We didn't qualify for the FAFSA financial aid, but the Ivies have higher scales of their own.

Anonymous wrote:family income 125k

As others have pointed out, use the net price calculator. At the upper ends of selectivity, all that matters is your family income. If your DC is a serious Ivy (and MIT & Stanford) candidate, you can assume that you will have enough financial aid in the form of grants to cover all of tuition. The range in different aid packages DC might get offered will reflect how much of the living costs will be covered. In general the expected family contribution will be in the $10-20k, range. Between summer jobs and work study and federal loans (don't use private loans), DC will be able to cover at least $10k himself leaving you with a parental contribution between $0-$10K.

The challenge is harder for students going to schools the next level down in selectivity. They are less generous with financial aid and you really need to shop around to find out what they can offer in aid. In order to get merit scholarships, a top student needs to climb pretty far down the selectivity ladder. Seldom will private schools (such as Grinnell, Oberlin, Reed) provide merit aid that exceeds tuition. The public schools that offer merit aid (Ole Miss, Alabama, etc.) are generally relatively low selectivity.

forgot to add, these such scholarships have their own applications and couple essays so talk to the schools and get the info. presidential scholarship, trustee scholarship, etc.