<p>Some colleges do consider retirement accounts when determining the EFC. I don’t recall which schools do this or whether they consider all retirement accounts. If my fading memory is correct, the CSS profile asked for 401k information. It may have also asked for IRAs, etc.</p>
<p>You’re right, EllenF. What I was attempting to say was that my mother’s retirement is not in a specifically designated retirement fund–specifically, it’s in company stock.</p>
<p>Have you visited Caltech? I would definitely visit and determine if it’s worth the extra money to you. If you visit, and it’s just another school, I would consider saving the money. If you visit and get the feeling that it is the school for you, I wouldn’t worry about the money- it’s where you’d fit in the best and be happiest.</p>
<p>Ellen–that’s true, it’s on the CSS Profile, but most colleges only consider the balances in their calculation if they’re quite large.</p>
<p>I have a good friend at Caltech whose father had just retired, and they had most of their assets either in the house or retirement (although the mother still worked). They weren’t poor at all. EFC of 5000. MIT wanted 20,000. Pretty good deal!</p>
<p>Caltech also pays well for jobs during school year, and summers can be spent in SURF, internships (which pay more), etc.
Contributing something to the school helps with upper class merit awards–they are given not just for grades.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, college educations fit into the rare category of having your cake and eating it, too. Parents who are thrifty and sacrifice to save for their children’s college educations find themselves paying full frieght. Parents who spend their money as soon as they earn it, often on items the thrifty people forgo, are rewarded with minute EFCs. Grumble, grumble, grumble…</p>
<p>I don’t think the OP’s parents were apparently saving very much of the money that resulted in their “no aid” calculation for his college education.</p>
<p>o0CrazyGlue0o: Despite all the DARPA funding, Caltech is somewhere to the left of NORML. I did know one guy who was doing ROTC (who was an enormous prick, BTW), but he had to go to either Pasadena City College or one of the Claremonts to do it.</p>
<p>The two people I can think of that do ROTC here both go to USC for the tool-of-the-man training.</p>
<p>My friend who was class of '03 and AFROTC (he’s now a researcher for the Air Force) also went to USC for his training.</p>