Originally Posted by Bostonian
I don't understand gifted students intending academic careers (and their parents) who avoid the Harvards/MITs etc. because they are too "competitive". Gifted students need to measure themselves against other gifted students, and the most gifted students cluster at certain schools.
Originally Posted by JonLaw
Because is costs $250,000.
So the choice is between the parents being able to ever retire vs. funding their kid's college.
For instance, my BIL chose Duke over Harvard because of the 75% scholarship he received.
Originally Posted by 22B
What you describe is more representative of higher income families. For those with more typical incomes, Harvard would be cheaper than Duke because it provides more needs based aid.
Originally Posted by JonLaw
I'm positive that their income was well under six figures.
It's assets that kill you.
So, they punish savers.

There is the Simplified Needs Test
http://www.finaid.org/educators/needs.phtml
which ignores assets for low enough income.

For FAFSA (not CSSprofile) many types of assets are disregarded (not even reported).

What types of assets are you talking about? And which means test.