<p>Calgrant doesn’t sound likely if his parents have money to pay for college. Kreigl, you would have to go to a lower ranked college than you could otherwise get to get a merit aid. If there are ones you like than it is a win. Look at the threads posted at the top of the forum for Automatic Merit and Competitive Merit. For the automatic colleges, you can get full ride/merit at some, see the last page.</p>
<p>Also run the Net Price Calculator on each college and see what it looks like the first year with one in college. Then run it for two in college to see. Try it with a UC first and see if you will get any break.</p>