Contradictions and Mysteries in Financial Aid

As far as adding retirement contributions back into available income - doesn’t that vary by school? The same thing applies to home equity - some schools may expect you to tap into a portion of your home equity in order to help pay for college expenses.

In any event, @934homer , congrats to your daughter for working hard and getting into schools with enough merit so that between that and what you can afford to pay, she will graduate with little to no debt.