Party dirty wrote:
The Ivies told us that they require about 5% of savings to he used per year. So if your price would have been $30k more, that means you had about $600k that you spent. That can't be the truth because you also told us that your house isn't worth much. So even if you stuck $50k into upgrades and $25k for a car and $25k for vacations, that only changes the cost by $5k.
1) That is NOT the formula used in the Net Price Calculator for the Ivy League schools we considered (ONE Ivy League university for my daughter and several for my son who would have gotten in for sure based on his athletic abilities - though he was still a stellar student, but he would not have been guaranteed admission if not for the athletic part). My daughter did NOT end up going to an Ivy League school. She instead went to another elite university with similar aid.
2) As we were focused on paying the least possible, I was mostly concerned with doing that. We got rid of liquid money (more than what you are suggesting there) and got the best deal we could based almost solely on our income.