It sucks, my son wanted to apply to Northwestern as a reach school but unfortunately we own a small business and also own a home in CA which essentially eliminates us from consideration for need based aid. Northwestern and a host of other top flight privates (Rice comes to mind) essentially preclude affordable attendance for families who fall into these categories. I guess the assumption is that we can mortgage our assets to send our kids to college.
Interesting to note similar schools in California (Stanford) do not consider home value in their calculations. It’s a good first step, if they are serious about making this affordable. It’s tough to come up with standards that can be applied throughout the Country without these pitfalls. Hopefully they will figure it out in the future. In the meantime merit aid privates and public schools.