@foodwishes: You have, in my opinion, received considerable good advice in this thread. I’ll take a moment to respond to your comment to me in post #9. I know you were being humorous and self-deprecating – and that is GREAT – but there’s nothing “obsessive” I can detect in your behavior. Rather, your thinking and planning ahead, which is precisely what you’re supposed to do.
As I suggested in my earlier post (#6), Virginia is blessed – and we have devoted many resources to attain this, over the last century – with an excellent public higher education system. This may very well be your best undergraduate destination. However, universities including Stanford, Penn, Harvard, Duke (I couldn’t neglect my alma mater), and other most-selective schools are DEEPLY committed to need-based grants for undergraduates. Therefore, it really will be in your interest to investigate the likely net cost your family will incur – at (for example) UVA and W&M, but also at Penn and Stanford – because it’s far from certain the public alternatives will be less expensive.
There’s a world of good information on CC (in the scholarships forum). At the top-level, however, each university’s Net Price Calculator is your highly-beneficial “friend” to ascertain rough and ever-more-definitive costs. I’ll add one final comment, for you and your parents. It’s very important to use the NPC with thoroughness and accuracy (especially as you get closer to application submissions). You’ll see that the NPC’s determinations tie to the “reasonable contribution” your family can make to your undergraduate costs. Thus, here is my key point for all of you: that “reasonable contribution” (as I understand it, and I am not an expert in this area) is not really geographically indexed. Consequentially, a “middle class” family in Loudoun or Fairfax, may well be assed as “upper middle” by national standards (simply because salaries are increased here to compensate for considerable elevated everyday costs). I highlight this because realistically it means – and your family has likely already experienced this with your older sibling at CM – potentially reduced need-based FA. I don’t believe that’s particularly fair for families who live in high cost-of-living areas, but it’s factual.
I wish you good luck as you continue your voyage toward undergraduate school.