<p>you’ve gotten a number of insightful answers here that have opened up a lot of scenarios. The answer in a nutshell, is “nope, it is not necessarily that easy”. However, it can be. My friend who has three kids who is in a similar income range as your family found things pretty danged simple. Her kids were all great students with terrific profiles and they did get into school that met 100% of need which was close to what she felt she could afford to pay. It came to about what their state flagship would have cost. If her expectations had been otherwise, she could have been in shock, but they were not, and things worked out well, as her kids all had a couple of state schools including a local one where commuting was possible as financial safeties. They could have gone to that school pretty much for free with merit money they were offered. </p>
<p>Still the cost of college was a steep one for them. Now with their last one at school, it is a tough go. It’s not as though the financial aid was generous. The whole thing was done through savings, scrimping, working, borrowing both on the part of the parents and kids, before, during and after college years. This was what they had anticipated, so it was not a big shock for them.</p>