<p>Heartburner, you are better off giving, even if it’s only $50 a year, to the ivy you and your wife met at. From an AO friend of mine, they look at that, and even if the gifts are small, if they are regular, then your kid will get the legacy treatment at your ivy. Honestly the only ivy I’ll be encouraging my kid to apply to is Stanford- she has an aunt that went there so there’s some family nearby, and the financial aid grant packages for families that make under 60k a year (which is us) are awesome. I see little utility in Harvard,which seems to carefully screen applicants for the kids who will do well in life later and rubber stamp them (I read a study a while ago where being admitted to Harvard was as much of an indicator of success as attending- even if you went to a state school), than a school with a reputation of taking people and turning them into stronger, better versions of themselves. </p>
<p>So even among those of us aggressively pursuing BS, not all parents care about ivy. I’d rather my kid not get saddled with ivy league student loans, when with work and luck, she should be able to snag some serious scholarships if she goes through a BS.</p>