We paid full price as we had been saving to do since they were little. Saved a little money with prepayment plans, but no aid.
D1: Academic star - Applied to rolling safety, Sep 1 and was admitted in mid October. Top two choices based on preapplication information were EA - she was admitted to both, she only filed 2 more applications where she was either waitlisted and denied. She did due diligence overnights at the two EA schools between January and March and picked the favorite. When the last two decisions (WL, and deny) arrived on April 1, she was ready to commit to one of the EA schools.
D2: Started visiting a little early because we knew an ED would help her application as her GPA was ~3.5. She visited a school that she fell in love with during college visits Junior year. Around Labor Day, she made an overnight visit to another school that she thought could be a top choice. Finally in October she revisited the school she fell in love with the first time and did an overnight, visited classes, talked to a professor, etc. She was sure of her choice. She applied ED and was accepted.
She also got a $20K merit award from another school that she had applied to, but had to turn it down when she got the ED acceptance.
Both Ds applied to a total of only 5 schools each.