Most donot understand those parents who are on the low end of the scale end up taking from retirement savings to pay for their adult children’s tuition. This means retirement is postponed for some many years. Those parents whose adult children do qualify, well I bet they retire with no impact to their original plans. The aid should made available equally to all regardless of the parents position. I worked full time and took 6 years to get through engineering school and my parents provided me a bed to sleep in, which I’m thankful for having. I received a pell grant had four other siblings and I couldn’t qualify for any other because my father made more than 45k a year (1980s). This is a perpetual injustice to adult children across America whose parents make enough that they donot receive aid but the parents can’t afford tuition without a second mortgage or withdrawing retirement savings.
There are many ways to make college cheaper…e.g., go to community college for 2 year then transfer to the state U.
Also in some states you can do Dual Enrollment in HS and get those CC classes for free. Or if you are in the top 15% of your class you can get CC classes for free. Also there are some colleges where you can get automatic merit scholarships based on your grade.
I am not sure how old you are, but it is no longer possible to work your way through school and pay for it.