<p>I guess that’s the rub, isn’t it? Even if you never had the $400k, your EFC would still be too high to get any free financial aid. And even if your family was destitute and your EFC was zero, you still wouldn’t receive enough aid to meet the costs of virtually any school that only uses the FAFSA. I think people sometimes over-exaggerated the availability of free need-based aid for people with low EFCs, and I think that’s a mistake. Apart from a tiny Pell grant, most need-based aid involves taking out loans that have to be repaid, and some schools even have the chutzpah to offer private loans as “financial aid”. </p>
<p>If you have $200,000, or even $100,000, you can probably pay off the costs of attending most schools for at least the first two or three years. You could potentially graduate with minimum loans (if any) from some of the finest schools in the country. I can’t imagine why anyone would consider rejecting that in favor of debt. I mean, that’s like saying, “I could buy this new car with cash, but I’d rather borrow the money from the Mafia instead.”</p>