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<p>NorthEASTERN is also a fine school…and NEU gives MERIT aid while NU (Northwestern) does not.</p>
<p>You are not alone. My DS has applied to 4 privates. But we also encouraged him to apply to state schools and safeties OOS–at both OOS he has been accepted and will receive enough merit aid to qualify for in-state tuition. That’s called being realistic. </p>
<p>We won’t receive any FA due to our large EFC. We have worked all our lives and lived well below our means to get where we are today (and we are still living well below our means). We can’t complain too much about no EFC, because we are now where we want to be financially. We “can” pay for full tuition at a private, but we’ve made it clear to our DS that we don’t expect to do that. Why should we spend our hard-earned (for retirement) savings for full-tuition at a private when our state schools are amazing.</p>
<p>He would love to go to one of those top twenty privates if he gets in. So he is hoping to receive an ROTC scholarship to help pay the costs. That will make our portion closer to in-state costs. He has to take some of the responsibility to pay for a more expensive education. If he decides not to do that, then he will have many great opportunities at the other (non-private) schools.</p>
<p>That Ivy diploma may get your foot in the door, but as others have said, performance will be the main reason you do well in your career. If you haven’t been realistic in your applications for college, you will either be very disappointed or have a huge amount of student loans which you will still be paying off when you are your parent’s age.</p>