<p>“But this also raises a quandary … does D decide to go to a less competitive school because she’s in the top 25% and will get more money?
Or go to the more selective (i.e. “better”) college and pay more?
I don’t know the answer.”</p>
<p>Golf – full sticker private college is now $250k per kid and rising. So price is a factor for a majority of the 1% and 100% of the 99%. Studies say that the two primary factors in college decisions are (i) academic reputation and (ii) price. My advice is to pick the schools you apply to carefully so that you and your kid will have a good group of schools to choose from at varying price points and varying academic reps.</p>
<p>In my second go-round, I did a much better job in helping my kid develop the list of applications. We intentionally went light on stretch dream schools and bulked up on match (academic and financial) schools. With the Common App and $50 app fee, to me it made sense to throw lots and lots of match-ish schools into the hopper so we’d have choices.</p>
<p>Because of that approach, kid got into 11 of 12 schools applied to. We had three $50k schools, two schools in the 40s, four in the 30s, one in the 20s and one in the teens (home state U as a safety). Kid picked one of the $30k schools.</p>
<p>So if your kid is interested in LACs in Ohio, apply to Kenyon and Oberlin and Denison and Wooster. If that comes back as Kenyon at $55k, Oberlin at $47k, Denison at $36k and Wooster at $31k, then it becomes much easier to contemplate what is/is not worth paying for for your particular kid.</p>