<p>I guess we will just stay the course then and hope for the best as far as aid. If there’s a will there’s a way and she can always commute as we are only 45 minutes away.</p>
<p>I tell my children from the get go that they have two hurdles: getting in, and affording the college. We don’t make any decision until the financial aid awards come in the mail in April or May–we don’t even visit the college until then. My philosophy has been to have them apply to any school they’re interested in but to make sure they have financial safeties. My children are fortunate in that they have great academics and test scores. For instance, my D applied to Univ of Alabama which offers a terrific merit aid and she was awarded a full ride in tuition; the school has a good drama program. </p>
<p>I do believe you should apply to any school regardless of finances. You just need to make it clear to your child from the get go that they may not be able to go if it is too expensive. This happened to my D with RISD, which didn’t offer any grant/scholarship. She had to turn them down even though at the time it was her dream school (but it all worked out for the best anyway, thankfully).</p>
<p>Our own experience has been that a school’s offer depends on two major factors: what they can afford (some schools are much wealthier than others) and whether they consider you ‘worth it’ for their school. You can’t know how much they’ll want you ahead of time, so in my own belief, you should put your best case forward, and apply. In the case of RISD, they liked my D enough to accept her but not enough to award her their valuable grant money. This is just a fact. </p>
<p>Many schools surprise you. NYU Tisch ended up being less than half the cost of Rutgers for us, since Rutgers cannot offer much aid, being a state school and a great bargain to begin with. I would just apply to any school that interests you but again, make sure to tell my child from the very beginning that money is the primary factor. They need to learn budgeting at some point, might as well begin now!</p>
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<p>This is true for most schools, but there are some very wealthy schools that offer astounding aid to families with demonstrated need, but virtually NO money for merit. Northwestern is such a school. </p>
<p>I totally agree with your philosophy. Allow a child to apply everywhere, but clearly explain financial realities in advance. IMHO, those “realities” should be in synch with FAFSA and/or the CSS Profile, rather than an arbitrary amount that the family wishes to pay. So far our family has found that we’re able to comfortably afford what the formulas suggested we could, even though at first we found the amount heart-stopping. We aren’t wealthy, but so far don’t mind giving up luxuries while our kids are in school.</p>