<p>My D has applied to Wake—not sure if she will get in, but assuming she does, her (our) decision to go is obviously going to be impacted by the cost. I suspect that she will not get any merit based aid, and we are not likley to be elligible for any need-based aid. I am fine on both points–she is a good, solid student but likely not equal to the best students that attend Wake, and while we are not rich, we are solidly upper-middle class, and I am certain there are more families with a greater financial need than ours. Having said all that, D has been accepted into a number of smaller liberal arts colleges (certainly not as well known as Wake, and some might reasonably argue, that they do not have the same academic reputation either). But in order to attract sudents like my D, they are rather generous with merit based aid. The average net costs (after merit based aid) for tuition and room/board at threee schools she has been accepted into so far is about $26,5000/year. Compare that to Wake’s approximately $54,000 per year. I think people can very reasonably say that Wake is a better school than three my daughter got into, and that it has a beautiful campus, Div 1 sports, etc—all true. But I really can’t see how Wake is twice as good. I think my daughter can get an equivalent (or very nearly equivalent) education at the schools she go into, and at the end, we have more than $100,000 left in our pockets. Its really hard for me to see how anyone can justify going to Wake if they have to pay full freight. But, I may be putting the wagon before the horse–she has not even got in yet.</p>