<p>AFA,
I am sorry if I sounded sanctimonious to you, I certainly didn’t want to be. 
For a person like my S, who wanted a large, nondenominational, urban school, Gonzaga was a WRONG choice( insert the quote from my previous post here). Therefore he didn’t apply there. UW suited him much better, plus it was definitely affordable, FinAid or no FinAid, by reason of being a his State school. Even without scholarship money it would be. So I don’t really understand the complaints. If you are an in-state student, yes, of course your state schools are financial safeties. The thing is, there is a number of options, with respect to finaid. WSU gives more merit money, UW gives less, it always had been like that. So to apply to a school like UW in hopes of merit windfall while not really liking the school itself seems like a waste of time to me( sorry if it sounds sunctimonious to you) . I also never tried to compare Harvard and UW in terms of aid, it would be wrong, bacause Harvard uses different methodology for calculating need and also is a “need only” school, there is no merit money at Harvard. And UW, while pretty stingy, does have a number of scholarships available for in-state students.</p>