Hello seeyougator!
My daughter is a freshman at Colgate. I was a little worried at the beginning when she told me she applied to Colgate as well as to other 6-7 schools both private and public universities here in NY. I knew how private colleges will cost more compared to public ones. We were relying on merit scholarship for her since graduated with highest honors. She applied to Colombia(didn’t get accepted), NYU (wait listed), RIT, RPI, Clarkson, Colgate , SUNY Stonybrook and SUNY Binghamton which she got accepted to all. With the exception of SUNY Binghamton, she received good financial packages from all mentioned schools. Colgate is at the top with the highest COA at 75K/year!!! After we received all her FA I put everything in a spreadsheet for comparison. Although Colgate came out as having the highest COA they offered the best FA for us with the least amount of out of pocket even better than SUNY. Our EFC is a little high too and we fall under the 125K/year income. Colgate does NOT offer merit scholarship only a combination of grants, loans and federal work study which what my daughter has. Her FA totaled a little over 60K. The difference is our out of pocket which will cover her room and board, books and miscellaneous fees. One good thing with Colgate beginning next year 2020 they will remove federal loans on their FA. My understanding is they will increase the grants. Personal loans is still an option as well as FWS program. Check their website for the bicentennial initiative. They also have a calculator that you can use to estimate your COA. Good luck!!!