<p>@ ArghArghArgh - First of all, a huge congrats to your daughter for being accepted to NU. As I’ve posted elsewhere today, I’ve been blown away by the quality of the appliants that were rejected by NU yesterday, so your daughter’s achievement is tremendous. She should take a bow.</p>
<p>Now to the hard part - paying for it. I have no knowledge about whether NU would negotiate a “discount” with you, but my gut tells me no (if you say you earn too much for financial aid). The only hope you have in the years ahead is that if you have more than one kid at college at the same time, meeting the threshold for getting aid in future years becomes easier. </p>
<p>I would pose a different question to you. No doubt NU is a more highly-regarded university than Pitt, Villanova or Penn State (I’m assuming you live in PA). However, as you say you would get the other three for free, is it $240,000 better than those colleges? IMHO, the answer is no. That is a huge up front cost to have to fund, especially with two more children to send to college in the near future. It would take many many years of potentially higher earnings from an NU degree to justify that cost difference today. </p>
<p>As a compromise solution, given your daughter’s obvious ability, has she thought about the Honors Program @ Penn State. It is academically very highly regarded at a faction of the cost.</p>
<p>Good luck with this most difficult decision!</p>