>May I ask which Ivies your children attend?
Columbia & UPenn. Also got the financial aid package from Brown but it wasn’t any better.
I tried to talk them into the state schools with full merit scholarships but no luck :)
I don't know anything about UPenn’s financial aid, but Columbia doesn't have a great reputation for generosity. And then, the cost of living in NY,...Yikes. These factors were part of what dissuaded my younger son from applying to Columbia. Pennsylvania schools were verboten to start. My younger son applied to Brown, but was rejected there. If he hadn't gone to Harvard, it would have been Hopkins, which was quite a bit more expensive, and I would have had to borrow to send him there.
My older son could have gone to our state flagship for free. He received a special scholarship that included tuition, room, board, books, a thousand dollars extra cash, and $5K set aside for travel and research. But he chose Harvard, even though it was a few dollars out of pocket. He is leaving for two months in Asia in about 10 days. It's an internship through his department at school. He's a rising senior this year. He's had significant paid internships each summer, starting with the summer after high school, when Harvard paid for him to go to Rome, serving as an assistant faculty advisor to his old high school.
It cost me a few dollars to send him to Harvard, but he's received back a multiple in terms of opportunities for work, travel, and professional development.
sitetest