<p>You have the stats for the Ivy’s where the financial aid is wonderful. Just remember once your parents get back on their feet, providing they earn very substantial incomes, you will no longer be entitled to full financial aid. This can be tough on families who are recovering from a difficult year or two of no income. </p>
<p>I have four children. When our first went off to college (husband was unemployed and I had started a new business) we received excellent financial aid. We were able to manage the remaining EFC without too much hardship. The following year my two middle kids went off to college and the financial aid was again excellent. Three kids in colleges at $50,000 a year…total $150,000 per year. At this point all three of the kids had loans and were paying a portion of their tuition with earnings made throughout the summer and year. The EFC took all three in school into consideration, and we were extremely grateful. Year four our daughter attended a private LAC where she was probably in the mid range for, and we received very little in grant money. By the third year, of son1’s and the second year of sons 2 and 3 year their schools stopped the loans for students. My three sons were each contributing all of their summer earnings to their tuition and they each had jobs on campus. My daughter took out loans (about $8,000) and so did we. She also worked and contributed her summer earnings to tuition. The moral of the story is that we had four schools but the top schools being MIT and Cornell University were the most generous with aid. Our circumstances were different than most in that we had four kids in college at the same time for one of the years, but it was a wake up call that students who can make it into the top schools will do better financially than those attending less selective schools. The top schools have the funds to make financial aid packages very enticing. My husband had lost his job the year before son1 went off to college and we were panicked that tuition was around the corner but MIT made it possible for him to attend. We will be forever grateful. The same goes for Cornell. When we got back on our feet financially the EFC went up for each of our kids but we were not expected to pay $200,000 per year for the four kids. It has not been easy but we all did our best to make it work. The school that really seemed to care less was my daughters LAC. It had been her 1st choice school at the time so we choose to go with it. The other schools that she had applied to offered very similar packages (not much) with Ithaca college offering the least. </p>
<p>Op I would still suggest that you apply to many of the top 15 or 20 schools where the endowments are large and the financial aid policy is clearly defined on the websites. You will probably get very good aid at your state school because your SAT scores are high but check and see if they will include room and board in their grant money. If I would have listened to the advice of many my three sons would have attended our state schools instead of MIT and Cornell. As it turns out my daughter did end up leaving her LAC and attending CC for a year before transferring to our state school. We are still paying almost full price for her even with three kids in college. You are a great candidate that shows promise for a top school so give it your best and I would like to wish you so much luck.</p>