<prompt> Human: My kid is on track to be the Valedictorian fingers crossed. Been accepted to GWU, BostonU, Pitt, etc. Saw this from BostonU in the mail yesterday. Its their how to afford us brochure. We can in no way afford. Not pointing fingers at BU, as the costs of Pitt and GW, even when they make a generous 25Kyr offer, are 40K a year. 160K for a bachelors degree, with 10 years of hefty payments to look forward to upon graduation. William and Mary accepted, and offered very little. : How anyone can afford this?So defeating.  <response>: Simple - Send the kid to a state school for their undergrad, and offer to pay for an elite grad school if they decide to continue their education beyond a BS.At the undergrad level, school name means very little. Even beyond that, unless talking specifically about a top-10 MBA, it matters more what you did and with whom, than where you went. Though admittedly, whom in that context does tend to favor big name schools with big research budgets. 