Need advice on college choice, $$, etc.

[GnocchiB]

Has the OP left the building?

[IxnayBob]

Since OP apparently is gone, and left without saying that my scenario is right or wrong (post #96), I’m going to take the liberty to state it as true. I propose a thought experiment.

The scenario: you’ve got a lowish 7-digit portfolio, accumulated through frugality (LBYM) more so than high incomes. Many of your assets are in taxable accounts (because you’ll need those to get you from now to age 59.5). Your investments have done well over the years, you’ve paid off your house (because you’re debt averse), and you’ve got it all figured out: you can retire early AND send the kids to whatever school they can get into. Then, the market stumbles a bit, your “unprotected” assets count for more than you thought they would in FA calculations, and all of a sudden your frugality, which has grown into a fetish, rears up on its hind legs and screams: “half a million for college is absurd, I won’t pay it!”

So, given that OP told his student that money wasn’t a consideration, that OP approved a list of schools where 11 of 14 were expensive and unacceptable without significant aid, that OP didn’t express reservations before the application list was settled on, that OP didn’t suggest additional RD applications to a different type of school after SCEA acceptance to Princeton, that OP apparently STILL hasn’t indicated to student that there’s a problem with Princeton, etc.

Here’s the thought experiment: let’s say that OP wanted to make the maximum number of bad decisions and non-decisions possible and diabolically screw up his kid’s opportunities, what would he have done differently?

Before anyone tells me that OP wanted advice not censure; I have advice: suck it up and delay retirement if necessary, but you’ve completely hosed your child’s chances at an appropriate school. Live and learn. Own it.

[fallenchemist]

Without any indication the OP is coming back, it seems like time to close this.