@collegetour2022 , I completely agree with your point. The first question is can you pay it, but the more important question is should you.
The agreement in our house since our kids were in elementary school was that if they got into a school where the academic opportunities and networking were life changing we’d find a way to pay for it. If not, we’d pay for the equivalent of a state school.
That list of schools varies based on your criteria, but for us we could probably count them on the fingers of one hand, certainly not more than two, which means that many Ivy League schools and prestigious liberal arts colleges, while wonderful institutions, are not on that list.
Tulane is widely regarded as an excellent school that offers an outstanding undergraduate experience. Is it life changing versus your second or third choice to the extent that it warrants an additional $150k+ over four years? The answer for us would be no, but only you and your family can answer that question for you.
The past few months have involved a number of difficult conversations in our family (with more to come) as our daughter is interested in a number of schools that fall short of our benchmark and don’t offer merit aid and has been accepted to state schools at little to no tuition as well as several strong but less prestigious liberal arts colleges that offered strong merit packages.
Best of luck to you, you’re not the only one in this situation.