<p>sylvan8798–the point is that bclintonk is wrong about that-most kids with a 3.5 and 26 ACT and above will find the U of MN MORE expensive than pretty much every private school around…</p>
<p>parentof Junior-that has not been our experience with any of our kids. Our kids currently have 2 state schools and about 8 private schools on their lists and they are all netting out with just the automatic merit aid listed on the school websites in the $14,000-$17,000 range, with the U of MN (if they considered that school) at full freight and 2 of the private schools coming in as the least expensive options for DS (at and one state and one private coming in on the low end for DD. DS is a 3.8 with a 32 ACT so that helps but DD is a 3.6 with a 28 ACT and she qualifies for about the same awards-usually $1000/year less-but she is a recruited athlete so we don’t know what those numbers are yet (not included in the above).</p>
<p>Most of the private schools come in with a COA around $45,000-give or take a couple thousand with the least expensive one around $37,000 and the most, Notre Dame at $OMG,000 :D.</p>
<p>It also helps that we are not prestige bound by our college choices too.</p>