Full Ride or Great School

tk21769
Sat, 05 Mar 2016 23:07:19 +0000

For a family income of $60K with no home equity and only 1 child in college, here are the College Board Net Price Calculator’s estimated prices I get for several “elite” private schools (after deducting need-based aid but before deducting for any work-study or student loans):

$9735 Northwestern
$8500 Notre Dame
$6767 UChicago
$5925 UPenn

Your Mileage May Vary.
Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Stanford may offer lower net prices. Or, as an NM finalist, you may be eligible for a full ride from certain state universities such as Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma, or Nebraska.
http://publicuniversityhonors.com/2013/04/20/best-major-universities-for-national-merit-scholarship-funding/

If you’re not an NM finalist, then even after an automatic merit scholarship from a school like Alabama, your net price may be somewhat higher than it would be at a private school that offers generous need-based aid.
http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out-of-state.html

Even with the NM finalist package from Alabama, it appears that after the first year, your net prices might be higher than at some selective private schools.
http://scholarships.ua.edu/nationalscholars/

So consider a variety of options.