<p>Our son is accepted at his no. 1 dream school, Reed. He's a liberal arts/creative/non-career-oriented/ learner seeking close intellectual community, so we thought Reed would be ideal. Now, however, we are sagging under the $240k price tag...</p>
<p>We would love to hear experiences - good, bad, decided to save the $ and went to another college, transferred out, etc. - from others, and how the price tag, or work load, or anything else affected you in your situation.</p>
<p>Thank you very much.</p>
<p>My kid got into Reed and comparable places a couple of years ago and ended up not attending partly for reasons of cost (we have other kids in the pipeline). Most of the top LACs don’t give any merit money, but there are some exceptions. Likely for reasons of geography (i.e., a location that is not a Northeast or West Coast hotspot), places like Oberlin and Grinnell do give grant money even to middle/upper middle class families if scores/grades justify it. Young Witherspoon ended up in a top LAC in a non-glamorous locale with a good merit package and is doing just fine.</p>