OP - you do not decide this. You wait until acceptances are in, merit aid is known ---- and it's not a guess. You are asking for a shortcut. You are asking for a crystal ball. You don't get that. Make sure DC applies to a couple instate, affordable publics. Then, apply widely. See what the choices are.

You have nothing to decide at this point.

I mean those of your with high incomes but DID receive aid to put the cost close to a state school..

Thanks! For those with higher incomes, 180k+ what did the rest of your situation look like?
Did your have retirement,cash, home equity and 529s combined over $1mil, $1.5mil?

We were prepared to pay full price at any school, but got $15k/year in need based from a SLAC. She can use the leftover money for grad school.

HHI $230k.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We pay about $35K at a HYPSM school. $22K from 529, $5K from an outside scholarship DD received, $8K from salary. Quite doable.

Then you are probably not UMC. If your household income is >= 180k, then the chance of getting need based said is slim.

This is 100% NOT TRUE. Stop spreading false information. Our HHI is $195K (with average assets)
and we got significant need based aid from DD’s school.

Go to the Stanford NPC if you don’t believe me.

My income is over 180K; if she had gone to HYPS, we would have gotten about 35K need based aid.
As it is, she is going to a state school, and probably no aid, but less out of pocket costs.

Our income is $200K and we got about $30K from DD’s ivy. So it ends up being about $12k/year more than our state school. I’m happy with that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We pay about $35K at a HYPSM school. $22K from 529, $5K from an outside scholarship DD received, $8K from salary. Quite doable.

Then you are probably not UMC. If your household income is >= 180k, then the chance of getting need based said is slim.

This is 100% NOT TRUE. Stop spreading false information. Our HHI is $195K (with average assets)
and we got significant need based aid from DD’s school.

Go to the Stanford NPC if you don’t believe me.

My income is over 180K; if she had gone to HYPS, we would have gotten about 35K need based aid.
As it is, she is going to a state school, and probably no aid, but less out of pocket costs.

We pay about $50K per year for an Ivy.

We always planned on continuing to pay out of pocket for college the same money we were spending on private school tuition ($42k senior year). So we saved about $150k in the 529. We ended up paying all four years of tuition at DC's Ivy freshman year. All the other expenses are coming out of the 529. We aren't spending any more out of pocket and there will be a little left over in the 529 for grad school. After 18 years, we're done with paying for the child's care and education!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We pay about $35K at a HYPSM school. $22K from 529, $5K from an outside scholarship DD received, $8K from salary. Quite doable.

Then you are probably not UMC. If your household income is >= 180k, then the chance of getting need based said is slim.

This is 100% NOT TRUE. Stop spreading false information. Our HHI is $195K (with average assets)
and we got significant need based aid from DD’s school.

Go to the Stanford NPC if you don’t believe me.

Anonymous wrote:We got nothing from FAFSA or schools. We pay full freight fir two in college, one one the six year plan ( not that uncommon) and headed to grad school

FAFSA is a form that you fill out. It is not a source of funding. Schools are the sources of funding.

We got nothing from FAFSA or schools. We pay full freight fir two in college, one one the six year plan ( not that uncommon) and headed to grad school

We have three kids and are UMC but have to be reasonable. DC #1went to honors college at UMD (about $28K next year with differential tuition + room/board). DC #2 is deciding now on schools. Has a scholarship OOS to bring tuition down to UMD range. Paying all of it with savings.

DC #3 doesn’t go to college for awhile but probably will take one of those paths.

If one of them got into a HYP, we would have paid for that, but not paying for small private that isn’t as good as UMD just for a “small school” experience

We are saving enough in 529s to pay for half and will pay the other half out of our monthly income. Only concern is the two years both are in college.

We were full pay at private colleges for both. One got merit awards from lower tier schools but ultimately chose a different school. For kid 1 it was around $60k/year. By the time kid 2 graduated last year it was about $70k/year.

Our kids were not eligible for any financial aid at even the most generous school. We saved enough in their 529s that they could choose whatever schools appealed to them. Neither was interested in the State flagship, which was fine with us. Both are at top 20 schools now. We pay $60K per year for one and the other received a large athletic scholarship which leaves us with a four year total of around $80k.