Financial aid - Where do you start?

[charolastra00]

In addition to a lot of the good advice given, if your daughters have done well in school, I would have them focus on private schools where they would be in the top quarter or higher of applicants. Private schools are able to offer more financial aid on the whole, so don't look at their sticker prices. I got more than my town's average household income in scholarship each year to my college because I played to the geographic diversity and it was not the best school I could get into.