@MYOS1634 That’s good to know about biology. Premed, bio majors might increase in the future, too, since Rowan is building two medical schools.
She loves chemistry, and her AP Chem class next year should confirm if it’s a long term love.
I think she’d pick anything over English. Lol.
Their disaster management major seemed interesting…
I’d keep Stockton Honors as a last resort solution. Like, do your utmost to find something else affordable. It’s really a big step down from Rowan. So, if it’s the only choice, it’s college, and it’ll do. But if you have alternatives, they’re likely to be better.
The NPC on the Canadian schools should not include your assets at all but tuition is pretty low by our standards, especially with the weak Canadian dollar.
Full-time Mount Allison would be $30,000 Canadian dollars, or $20,000 BEFORE any scholarship. And it’s a top Canadian college. 
And now for something completely different,
Would she be interested in studying in the Netherlands? Long story short, a couple of decades ago a Dutch educator decided the country needed students to have an opportunity for an LAC-type education. Universities there, and in Europe generally, are more professional and streamlined than in the US. There are now something like a dozen “University Colleges” in the Netherlands. They are most often affiliated with larger universities like Amsterdam and Utrecht. They are small. They have a global focus. ALL CLASSES ARE IN ENGLISH. At the top ones anyway, many students go on to top grad schools. They cost something like $12k or so per year for US students, and students graduate in 3 years. I know one student who went. They were a strong student, so I’m not sure how competitive admissions are in general for US students. It’s different. It would be for some kids but not for others. Just something to think about. Here are some links to a couple of the programs and an article about them:
https://www.uu.nl/en/organisation/university-college-utrecht
Maybe I’m misunderstanding something important about your situation, but if your objective is to maximize need-based aid, then (for many selective well-endowed colleges) having a high percentage of net worth in home equity could be better than having the same percentage in cash or securities instead. So, I would have thought paying off your mortgage would be a GOOD thing just with respect to need-based aid (irrespective of any other impacts it might have had on diversification risk, income tax, cash flow, etc.)
But even after shifting financial assets into home equity, perhaps you still don’t qualify for as much n-b aid as you think you need from the colleges you like. In that case, your best strategy may indeed be to focus on big merit scholarships or else low in-state sticker prices.
Have you talked to a financial advisor
(someone privy to more info than you’d want to share on the internet, and who knows a thing or two about college financing)?
@tk21769 , Yes, the situation isn’t simple and more than I can share publicly.
I did speak to a financial advisor once, several years ago. I felt like there was a push toward “selling” certain types of investments to grow savings rather than anything concrete for college or retirement planning.
@TTG , Thanks! I did not know about the LAC style schools in the Netherlands.
I once brought up going to the UK or Europe but she wasn’t interested, and from what I knew about European unis, it didn’t seem like the right choice for her. But what you describe about those LAC style colleges is very different.