First of all, since you are thinking Ivy right now, focused on the, do the NPCs for each of them. If you don’t own a business, there isn’t a NCP involved and your finances are straight forward, that will give you some idea what each of those schools will expect you to pay. You aren’t going to get a cent of merit money from them, or from a number of other schools, and merit at schools like BC, Duke, Hopkins is hard to get. So you need to figure out about where there is even a possibility of getting the money you want and need for your son’s college. No sense fishing where there aren’t any fish. Several families already this year, as every year who were only focused on their kids getting into selective schools are now whipping their heads around, wondering where the money is. Ain’t none if you don’t qualify for financial aid and the schools determine whether you have the need, not you.
Read this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/magazine/30neurosis-t.html?pagewanted=all That’s what it takes to get subtantial aid from competitive schools.
Here is a older but still a good start for schools that offer merit money: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/07/08/education/edlife/8edlife_chart.html
Your son has great stats. but my son’s close friend, who wanted to stay near home, with stats close to your son’s got shut out of his first choice schools which hit him hard emotionally. He has his safety and likely school, but the cost of one is way up there, not a dime of merit and they don’t qualify for financial aid. He did not get accepted, much less get offered merit at some of the top flight schools. If you read around the boards here, you can see that the young man was not alone. The problem with many parents who have kids like yours, is that both kid and parents start thinking that HPY are the reaches and the other all matches, and who needs a true likely or safety? Just there in case, when the reality can be quite different.
Also around the NYC area, many who think they are middle class in income are shocked to find themselves categorized as full pay. Around here, a half million dollar house is one that is worth a third that in most parts of the country but the aid calculators do not take that into account, nor do they give some corner to an income needed to support such a house. payment.