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No.</p>
<p>You need to determine your Expected Family Contribution (EFC). Colleges generally will not cover any part of the EFC amount in any need-based aid they offer (though they may differ in their own interpretations of EFC). Need-based aid generally will cover, at best, any gap between EFC and total costs.</p>
<p>To give you some idea, consider aid at Trinity College (Hartford), a selective private LAC. For family incomes of $60,000 - $89,999 in 2011, the mean need-based aid (to those who get it) is $41,872/year. Total cost of attendance is more than $53K/year. So, based only on the Trinity data, and the income you mentioned, the EFC for a family like yours might be about $12K/year. (You guys need to verify this with an on-line EFC calculator and more detailed information about your family.)</p>
<p>Many schools leave a gap between EFC and costs. Therefore, you may be expected to cover more than $12K, maybe much more. Typically, the less selective a school is, the less generous it is in covering “need”. </p>
<p>But let’s assume any gap is covered, and your out of pocket cost is about $12K/year. How much of that can your family help you pay? In my judgement it is realistic for you to borrow no more than about $5K-$7.5K / year max in student loans. You may be able to make $5K or so from your own earnings. That gets you close to my very rough EFC estimate … but then, you may need to cover more.</p>
<p>You can look up average aid amounts in the “Common Data Set” document available from many college sites (Google college name + Common Data Set). See Section H. </p>
<p>Consider St. Mary’s College of Maryland, a public honors college. SMCM has the look and feel of a much more expensive private LAC, in a beautiful waterfront location. But total cost is still about $26K/year, and the average need-based aid only covers about 59% of determined need. If you could cover $12K from loans and employment, you’d need to cover about $14K from some combination of aid and family help. Can your parents contribute about $6K/year?</p>
<p>OOS public schools will be even more challenging. **My strategy for you would be to focus on SMCM, UMBC, or some other in-state school as a safety, possibly including one within commuting distance. Then also apply a few private schools that cover a high percentage of determined need<a href=“as%20indicated%20by%20the%20Common%20Data%20Set,%20Section%20H.”>/b</a></p>