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<p>It means that your family has the income/ assets that should she decide to attend Stanford, that it will still be an affordable option for your family. You are also fortunate in the fact that should you decide that you don’t want to pay the EFC to send your kid to Stanford (there are some waitlisted families who will be more than happy to do so), you can still send your child to your state U with merit money. </p>
<p>Life is full of choices and tradeoffs. Because your child was able to get in to Stanford, does not necessarily mean that she should go for free. Now if she was an olympic caliber swimmer, cyclist or athlete that the school was trying to recruit, then that would be a different story (see, your bad again, because you should have spent the time unplugging the computer and worrying about grades/SAT scores and spent that time cultivating her into a world class athlete if you were simply looking for a free ride. But then, the Ivies, do not give athletic scholarships (don’t ya just hate things like that cause ya just can’t win).</p>
<p>Most of the schools that your D was admitted to (ex. Stanford) only give need based Financial aid. So unless your family falls under one of the low/middle income initiatives, there is no free lunch . Even students who fall into the no loan categories, there is still no free lunch because schools still expect students to have some “skin in the game” by the way of student contributions (through summer earnings) and work study. </p>
<p>Also remember that all “free money” over the cost of tuition, books and fees is considered taxable income (so there really is no such thing a a free lunch or a free ride, because Uncle Sam is getting his cut).</p>
<p>Move on, there will be bigger fish to fry.</p>