Run the online net price calculators on a variety of colleges that interest you.
Let’s give it a try on a few schools mentioned above using College Abacus (which let’s you compare the net prices of up to 3 schools at a time). Assume $120K income, no farm or business income, 4 kids, married parents, $60K in financial assets, Maryland resident.
Estimated Net Price … College
$14,836 Bryn Mawr (private, women only, claims to meet 100% of demonstrated need)
$16,106 Grinnell (private, claims to meet 100% of demonstrated need)
$17,538 Whitman (private, meets ~93% of demonstrated need on average per CDS)
$18,250 University of Minnesota - Morris (OOS public)
$18,250 University of Minnesota - TC (OOS public)
$28,095 New College FL (OOS public)
$38,925 Wisconsin - Madison (OOS public)
$39,880 UC - Berkeley (OOS public)
I think you can. Use net price patterns to eliminate the kinds of schools that probably won’t be affordable, such as
OOS public flagships that don’t grant merit aid*. I suspect that in your situation, you’ll get some of the lowest net prices at selective private colleges that claim to meet 100% of demonstrated need (or close to it). Identify the subset of those ~60 colleges that appeal to you on paper, then research them in depth.
- Public universities in Minnesota do seem to have relatively low costs for OOS students.