Income seems to be a much bigger determinant of financial aid than savings, although savings and other assets do play a role.
@Homerdog, it sounds like you and I are in a similar situation in that we are closer to the cut-off for aid/ no aid than are some other full pay families with much higher salaries. We even considered applying for aid this year to see if we would get any, but ultimately we decided not to do so.
But I don’t have a problem with part of our tuition being used to fund other kids’ educations, because I consider their presence on campus to be part of my son’s education. One probably learns as much from peers in college as one does from the professors.
But yes, a lot of the full pay kids are from much, much richer backgrounds than ours. I am on a public K-12 school district’s salary scale, and my spouse earns less than I do.
But my kid’s friends at college include people on full financial aid (all aid there is need-based), some middle to upper middle class kids probably on partial aid, some people probably in our general ballpark, and some much more wealthy kids… and kids from all over the nation and world, of various races, etc. I consider this diversity to be part of the benefit of going to a college like his instead of going to a college that cannot afford to subsidize the education of less wealthy kids and thus attract them to the college. This exposure to diversity is a big part of what you refer to as ROI in this thread.
But yes, as I have shared with you before, sometimes my husband and I do walk around campus and comment that so much of the school’s money seems to be going to attract top professors and students and is not going into other things. Parts of campus definitely look a bit run-down.
And the contrast between what kids with even a little aid get versus what kids with no aid get is stark: all their textbooks, free skiing lessons and all equipment rentals, career exploration trips, etc., etc. It seems like the list of things that are paid by the college for kids with financial aid never ends. It is hard not to experience moments of envy, but then I put it into perspective: we are lucky that we do not have to panic about how to pay for our shelter, food, transportation, and health care. Some of the people whose kids get aid face those worries every day.
In answer to the original post, however, I don’t know if ROI can be quantified if you broaden the definition beyond post-graduation salaries— and I would, because college is about learning and enjoying the exploration of ideas, not just about career preparation. So much of the college experience is intangible.
If I were your family, I would go by what your son feels is the best “fit” once he knows where he has been accepted. All his applications are to good schools, so there is not a “wrong” choice. Where will he be happy?
My kid is so happy in every phone call that I am fully satisfied with our ROI so far. The “fit” seems so perfect. Sometimes I try to imagine what it would be like if my son had gone to one of his safeties that is pretty different from his college. I think he would still be happy, because of who he is, and even his safeties were colleges with very good reputations. But, judging from some of his high school friends’ experiences, I think there would be some aspects that would have been less of a “fit” for him than where he is.
What really would have been tough for him, and might be tough for your son, would be a choice between a couple of safeties that “fit” and do not “fit” in very different aspects. Then, the question becomes, in which aspects is it most important to him to have a fit?
