<p>mtindall, please do not feel badly about not looking at ivy league schools if you think they would have been better for you in terms of financial aid. First of all, ivies do NOT have merit scholarships. While they pledge to meet 100% of need, realize that this is not necessarily your idea of your need. The schools use the CSS methodology to come up with your expected financial contribution --- I can promise you that if you consider yourself "not rich, not poor," you will be disappointed by the large sum you "should" be able to pay. So your financial aid package at an ivy would be money to meet the difference between your EFC and the total cost of the school. A portion of the aid package will consist of loans, and any outside scholarships you bring in will reduce the amount of your aid package accordingly (usually loans & work study first, but not always). If your EFC is $20,000 you are expected to pay that at all schools --- you cannot get need-based aid for that $20,000 even if you don't have it to pay (although you CAN take out PLUS loans). That is why schools with merit money are often a better bet for the upper middle class. They have some flexibility to give you funds to help offset the EFC if they want --- they can just call it merit money. </p>
<p>So if an ivy has a cost of $5000 or so more than Furman, and they don't give any merit aid, you would probably still do better with your Furman package. I don't know that for a fact, but there is a good chance of that --- so don't think you made a mistake in your college focus.</p>