@PurpleTitan , I would guess “Prestige.” Regarding money, a couple of posters earlier in the thread mentioned Yale’s much-lauded Financial Aid. In the end, their package was decent. Decent, but not great. Somehow, my H and I picked up on a phrase tossed around at the Information Sessions last year about “10% of income.” But it came out to be much more than that. And yes, we did run the NPC, but again you hear that the top schools’ offers are often more generous. Our fatal mistake was not realizing how much home equity would affect the offers. We have lived in our house for 20 years, and our neighborhood has bounced back nicely from the downturn, so of course we have equity. But absolutely no desire to take out loans.
Also, dealing with Yale’s Financial Aid office was horrible. Very understaffed. Quite surprising. But in spite of all this, if D had REEEAAAALLY wanted to go there, we would have made it happen. But she chose Michigan. GO BLUE!