Some help on advising DS on choosing a college [MIT, Brown, Penn, Wesleyan, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Northwestern and Harvard]

Does that include student loans and work study? Because that can help bridge the gap.

And he can likely earn more than the work-study allowance via non-WS jobs plus summer jobs, which might bring the total payment close to what you are hoping for. MIT pays their undergraduate physics TAs $19-plus an hour, and at my son’s college (not MIT), TA’s usually work around 10-12 hours a week so that can add up fairly quickly.