Half this thread is a red herring. Wall Street and the dad’s opinion on <HYPS schools are irrelevant except for the part where dad gave the budget. Poster just needs to run NPCs at schools (that are good enough for him) until he finds one that generates an EFC near enough to 16k. Then apply for a lot of scholarships, and possibly rethink the loan stance.
If Pitt will offer “ALOT of money” for decent stats then go ask them how much you’ll get from them.
Did anyone ask if that 16k was how much tuition dad will pay for, or how much total he will pay? Because if its total then that’s pretty much expecting free tuition.