<p>My family has a total income of around 150,000 a year, but with taxes, four kids (two of which in private school), and other such expenses we most definitely do not have the 50,000 a year top tier schools require.</p>
<p>Are any top 50 schools known for giving good need-based aid to families such as mine?</p>
<p>HomerSimpson, Your college student might qualify for some need based aid at one of the schools that has recently raised the income limits for such aid. However, your income is not low enough to qualify for their maximum awards (you would have to check each school for the specifics of their awards). </p>
<p>Truthfully, if your child has what it takes to get into one of the top highly competitive schools, you might want to look at schools that would offer your child significant merit aid which would not be dependent on your family income. </p>
<p>Just FYI...everyone has taxes and other living expenses so that would not factor into your financial aid equation. Also, you might want to check on how many of the schools you are considering also require the CSS Profile. That asks many more questions than the FAFSA and is used for the institutional aid need based aid these schools disperse. You don't say whether you own a home, but some amount of home equity will also factor into the equation at many schools. And remember also that there almost always is an expected student contribution.</p>
<p>Look at the stickies above on the Fin Aid forum for possible schools with merit aid. Not too many are in the top 50 but there are many excellent schools.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses thus far, and, to clarify, we do own a home with about two hundred thousand in equity. However, my parents are unable to spend nearly two thirds of their after-tax income on tuition. Obviously I am not expecting complete financial assistance, but if anybody has any information on (in particular) Wake Forest, Boston College, Holy Cross, Duke, Tufts, or similar schools giving out any kind of financial aid to families in our income bracket, I would be very appreciative.
I have looked at lesser-known colleges and these make up the vast majority of the schools I am applying to, but I was curious if I should even bother applying to more expensive schools based on the tuition.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>Wake Forest, Boston College, Holy Cross, Duke, Tufts>></p> </blockquote>
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<p>These schools all use the FAFSA and Profile for computing financial aid. They will all consider your family's home equity in the mix. Wake Forest and Duke have some merit scholarships for high fliers. Tufts and BC give only need based aid (I believe). I don't think that Duke or Wake guarantee to meet full need of students. </p>
<p>None of these schools is providing financial aid in the same way as say...Stanford or Princeton, if that is what you were thinking.</p>
<p>Might you be eligible for any kind of merit aid at Duke or Wake?</p>
<p>HomerSimpson, just to clarify, your parents aren't necessarily expected to contribute all $50k for you to go to a private school out of their current income.</p>
<p>They are expected to pay for it out of savings, current income, and debt. </p>
<p>It's unlikely most schools will think your family is in need when it has the capacity to pay for school over time through savings, current income, and debt.</p>
<p>As others have mentioned, merit-based aid is a better possibility than need-based aid.</p>
<p>Merit scholarships are always a possibility </p>
<p>[url=<a href="http://robertsonscholars.org%5DRobertson">http://robertsonscholars.org]Robertson</a> Scholars: Homepage<a href="Duke%20/%20UNC-Chapel%20Hill">/url</a>
[url=<a href="http://www.moreheadfoundation.org/%5DThe">http://www.moreheadfoundation.org/]The</a> Morehead-Cain Foundation<a href="UNC-Chapel%20Hill">/url</a>
[url=<a href="http://www.jeffersonscholars.org/%5DJefferson">http://www.jeffersonscholars.org/]Jefferson</a> Scholars Foundation<a href="UVa">/url</a>
[url=<a href="http://www.abduke.org/%5DA.B">http://www.abduke.org/]A.B</a>. Duke | Memorial Scholarship Program<a href="Duke">/url</a>
etc.</p>
<p>HYPSM will give you a lot of FA (think 30k or more in grant aid), especially H and Y. However, the other Ivies are likely to be more stingy and you'd be lucky even getting 10k in grant aid from them. Furthermore, HYPSM isn't exactly easy to get into so I'd look into great schools that offer merit aid along with your college list.</p>
<p>The Harvard Financial Aid Initiative provides families who earn 120,000 to180,000 a year to pay only about 10% of their income. Of course, savings and investments are also calculated. But they have indeed given great aid to this "middle class" group.</p>
<p>Princeton is also quite generous.</p>
<p>Agree with Cervantes & fauve. At least in our experience, we got some nice grant $ from the tip top schools, but even dropping down to a mid-Ivy or top LAC meant zero need based FA offered (except for a few small loans).</p>