We can only afford 20K for our 11’th grade DD, We’re from NY and our family income is over 140K. I’m not sure there’s a point in visiting colleges that I know are ‘financial’ reaches for us. Are SUNYs and CUNYs the only schools we should apply to. My DD has 4.5 W GPA and 1900 SAT. She is reluctant to go far, (250 mile radius from NYC isok). Most schools I’ve checked (NPC) shows our EFC = 28K-35K (w/ 2 in vollege). DD is still undecided on what she wants to do… but she’s loves Arts/Writing. She’s been a straight A student yet a nervous SAT taker. I need help!!
Look at the schools that don’t require standardized tests at fairtest.org. Look at the Merit money thread here on College Confidential. There are lots of people in your shoes. And while I’m not a big fan of the SUNY’s (mostly for reasons of location and size) they provide a good to very good education for many students. She should look at Geneseo for sure.
You should consider Hamilton See Facts about Hamilton College - Enrollment - Admission - Athletics
Also
Hopefully you can afford Hamilton.
Consider SUNY Geneseo. A bit beyond the 250 mile range, but a great school for the arts.
@OP, don’t beat yourself w guilt. No rational parent could have predicted that the cost of college wd rise 3x the rate of the cost of living since we were students.
U didn’t have a savings problem. Colleges have had an out of control spending problem.
If need-based financial aid will not be sufficient, she can try for merit scholarships, such as those listed here:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1678964-links-to-popular-threads-on-scholarships-and-lower-cost-colleges.html
Be sure to let her know your cost constraints before you makes her application list. She can add a few thousand on top of your contribution with a federal direct loan, and a few thousand more of work earnings.
what is her math +cr score
It will be ok 
We’ve been gone from NY for 20 years. What is the cost for SUNY these days?
Is it 20k per year per child that you can afford?
You mention there will be two in college - how many years is there an overlap?
If you can afford $20K/year and the EFC is $28K-$35K, you may be able to manage the gap through “self help” (loans + student employment). In that case, run the Net Price Calculators on some of the less selective “full need” schools (http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2014/09/15/colleges-and-universities-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need). Bryn Mawr, Franklin & Marshall, Holy Cross, and Trinity may be within reach (for location, cost, and admissions). Connecticut College is a “full need” (but need-aware) college, and is test optional (http://www.fairtest.org/university/optional).
If what you can afford is $20K TOTAL and the EFC is $28K-$35K, that’s different. Unless your D can raise her scores to >= 2100 (to qualify for enough merit aid), focus on in-state public schools with affordable sticker prices (SUNYs, etc.)
Here is the list of test optional schools, many of them top colleges:
http://fairtest.org/university/optional. For writing, Sarah Lawrence and Bennington are good, but most likely expensive. They do give financial aid. Clark University in Worcester MA is a great school that gives merit aid.
Start by reading the links in the first post on this thread. There are schools with good scholarships, guarantee scholarships. And a list of schools that cost < $24,000 a year. Start there.
I’m not sure how Hamilton will be affordable. The family income is $140,000 a year, which will likely generate a family contribution of over $30,000 a year…which is out of their target price range. Hamilton does not give merit aid to too many students, if any.
Test optional schools will help with acceptances to other schools, but many of the test optional schools require the standardized test scores for merit aid consideration. Some don’t…but many do. You need to check that.
And even at a test optional school, it is likely that the school will still require the family to pay their family contribution. Simply put…even if the student got $20,000 a year merit…which is a lot at these schools…the family balance would,still be $30,000 a year…plus.
There are MANY different SUNY campuses which would be affordable for this student. NY is a large state, and some instate SUNY campuses could actually be further away than 250 miles…depending on where they actually live.
You are fortunate to have these SUNY options at a price point that looks like it is affordable for your family.
This is my take. If you are not really wealthy or have a lot of help coming from family etc even if you do everything right still you might not be able to afford your efc because you never know what life throws at you. There were things that happened to my family that took money from the “college fund” but to this day I still believe it was the right thing to do. I do not feel guilty a bit. There were bad stuff such a cut in salary and eventually unemployment and time needed to rebuilt my career. And there were good stuff such as the expensive trip (due to air travel) that the kids took to meet their grandparents.
Nevertheless, with my current savings and salary I do afford our state schools and I feel pretty darn good about it. We are also blessed to have several colleges in commuting distance so this is another perk. I am not going to beat myself up with all the “could have beens”. It is what it is.
And just FYI…you have far more in college savings per year than most families. $20,000 a year is a nice amount of college savings. Please don’t beat yourself up because it’s not more.
Is it $20000/yr? If so, that is a great amt of college savings. 
My EFC is very high, even with two kids at once. Unfortunately through life events and for the fact my income has only been at this level for the past few years,I did not have a lot in the college fund. You would be surprised with how much merit there is out there for a student with your daughter’s stats, especially at the test optional schools. Try Fairfield, Clark, Hofstra, Alfred, ( not the SUNY one) , Conn College and even University of RI ( 1900 out of state does qualify for out of state scholarships, I think its around 14K). I am not sure if they have her area of interests. Don’t even bother with Syracuse. My daughter was accepted last year. Two kids in her class with lower stats were accepted too. They received “merit” and my daughter did not. They definitely bundle merit with financial aid. I called them about that. At one point I had dead silence on the phone when I said point blank. " I make too much money for my daughter to get merit." The woman on the other end could not come up with something fast enough to counter.
Thanks ALL for your responses, I’ll read up on all the links that you’ve shared and the schools you’ve suggested. Yes, 20k per child which already includes 4k loan/ yr that we can shoulder. Location and SAT scores seems to be a limiting factor but I’m glad that there’s other options out there. I’m glad I posted my question. Thanks for your help.
We’ve visited lots of schools but not on an official school tour… just happened to be in the area so we’ve walked around schools in Rhode Island/DC/NJ/CT but the first true visit we’ll schedule will be at SUNY New Paltz
I would suggest that she apply to more schools that you are considering. Group the schools as Reach, Competitive and Safety - considering both her GPA/test scores and finances.
I’d suggest 3 of each. If you wan to add more, keep it in the Safety & Competitive groups.
She can only go to those that accept her and you will have financial aid info (merit and need based) to help you decide.
Re here SAT grades, has she considered the ACTs? All of my kids scored higher on that. You only need to submit one.
Ok, so you can pay 16k per child per year for each of two children out of current earnings and savings for 4 years for each.
One is in 11th grade - is the other a college freshman?