Reply #21: Not necessarily

[frazzled]

You may find that you will qualify for better need-based aid at a private college or university somewhere than at an in-state school (despite the tuition being lower. You may end up paying the same or less at a pricey private college elsewhere, especially if your income is very modest.)

Thus, for example, the threshhold for qualifying for need-based aid (out and out grants, not loans) at UNC Chapel Hill is 200% of federal federal poverty line ($24,000 to $37,000). If you make more than that, you're not going to get any non-loan financial aid. If you were to go to Rice University in Texas, for example, the threshold for receiving aid would be $80,000 in income. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_financial_aid_in_t...

Thus, for example, when our daughter was applying to colleges her final choice was to go to University of Wisconsin-Madison at in-state tuition rate or a small, fairly elite private college out of state whose tuition was much higher. But the financial aid package offered by that private school made it about the same price as the in-state state public school.

All this said, two provisos: beware the financial aid packages offered you. Both our kids got offered very good aid packages upon acceptance. But after filling out FAFSAs in subsequent years, that aid shrank. We were not very aggressive in arguing with the schools after that, but we felt we'd been bait-and-switched. Make sure your package covers all four years (ours seemed to say so, but technicalities did not apply).

Also, you will be surprised at how poor you have to be to qualify for out-and-out aid. (Loans they are happy to give you.)

Lastly, don't even bother with merit-based aid. It really doesn't exist. Our son won a National Merit Scholarship, which means you are in the top one-half of one percent of all students nationally taking the PSATs. The award is $2,000 (which doesn't go far these days). The trick is: the minute you get the "scholarship" it reduces your financial aid package from your school by the same $2,000! My son was furious when he learned this, and wrote a testy letter to the National Merit people--it ain't a scholarship if it counts against your aid.