<p>mdf, I would encourage that 19,000 offer at a private, or if your state school is good, I would encourage it. Hopefully, he still likes them since he applied to them. Our efc is a bit higher, so we did not have the 19k option. Our best offer was about 21k from a private college (after sub. Stafford, merit and w/s). JMU was I think 24k at the time (did not include loans, because we only took out the $500 subsidized part of the Stafford that was offered).</p>