Actually-- if you have a household income between 90 and 200K, that's where I'd say you're in the very worst situation currently-- because you
cannot realistically write those checks, and yet many institutions expect you to anyway, or, you know-- just borrow the difference.
The super-elite institutions that offer THAT much assistance at those income levels are few and far between, sadly-- and the competition is incredibly fierce for them.
Along with Val's remarks about an elite LAC, I'd add (and I expect that people may sneer at me, and that's fine) that
regional public schools may also be worth looking at. Sure, they may not have the prestige of the giant state flagships like Michigan or UCLA, but some of those schools have individual departments which are STELLAR. They also (like the elite undergrad LAC's) tend to focus on undergraduate liberal arts education.
I graduated from one of them in a class of 5. Four of us went on to earn PhD's, and about 20% of graduates in the decade spanning when I was there went on to earn PhD's at places like MIT, Brown, Nebraska, Cal, UVA, etc. Powerhouses in the field.
I got a LOT of individual attention, was very well-educated, and the thing that seems to have separated my experience from Val's is twofold only, from what I've been able to tell:
1. Most of my peers were as poor as I was, and a lot of us were commuters who worked or had family obligations,
2. No, not everyone around me was super-bright, and yes, sometimes that was annoying, but in my STEM classes this effect mostly went away, because there my classmates were pretty darned bright.
Okay, the school sometimes lacked the most modern equipment, too-- but at least undergrads could learn by DOING, rather than watching someone else doing. Ahem.
When I looked at the difference between a relatively modest pair of LAC's within our state (34-46K annual tuition) and a small public directional (8K annual tuition), I found it difficult to justify the additional expense, knowing what I know about those smaller public institutions. To be clear, that difference would have amounted to about 20K annually given DD's profile and our income level, and the resultant aid offered at those schools, which accept something less than 50% of applicants. They are selective, just not
super selective.
But no, it isn't simple by any means.
There are a lot of things to consider, and fit is a thing that is hard to place a value on, but it's very important. DH and I have the same graduate degree but came there via very different routes-- I wouldn't have succeeded at his undergraduate institution in classes of 500, and he might not have flourished at mine, living under a microscope.
