<p>Paying half of current income is not so surprising (we’re paying more than that for two kids), but it can also come from savings, loans, home equity, etc. If you chose a school that cost $150K per year, that might indeed be their expected contribution.</p>
<p>Are there actually any costs that go over 60k?</p>
<p>Cider, I think it is obvious that you will not qualify for need-based FA. So–can your parents afford 50k/year for college? If not, figure out how much less their limit is and start searching for merit aid.</p>
<p>“Are there actually any costs that go over 60k?”</p>
<p>I’m not aware of any at the undergrad level, but if there were, your parents would likely be expected to pay the full list price.</p>
<p>They can afford it. It’ll be more like 30k per year because of the 85k (which depreciated by 15k…) savings will cover more. And we might end up actually qualifying for some aid, depending on how things change in the future (taxes, economy, sister going to college, etc.). But I’ll definitely be getting merit-based awards.</p>
<p>So you can afford full freight at your reaches–that’s great. Are you seeking merit aid at safeties? It’s certainly not something you can assume.</p>
<p>I probably would get as much merit-based aid at any safeties that I could, but I can’t be sure yet since I don’t have any safeties chosen so far. I’d still rather base my choice of safety on academics and how much I’d want to go there instead of merit-based aid, though.</p>
<p>I think that you should look at the University of Rochester as a probable safety, and the University of Chicago as a probable match. You might also want to look at Pitt as a probable safety. It seems likely that you would qualify for their honors college.</p>
<p>Tufts and Holy Cross-both near Boston.</p>
<p>Not entirely sure how Tufts is a safety…</p>
<p>Elaine Benes, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus in the sitcom Seinfeld, mentions that she attended Tufts, and that it was her “safety school”. Tufts has been well known as a safety school for the Ivys but clearly a tough school to get into nonetheless.</p>
<p>My Math SAT is top 25% (probably higher) my Reading SAT is roughly top 50%, and my Writing SAT is top 75%, which doesn’t seem to indicate safety school to me. I don’t know.</p>
<p>^ No, not a safety. For a safety, both your M and CR scores should be at least top 75%.</p>