Unless you have no contact with your parents, of course. Or they're just assholes who refuse to provide you with their tax returns. Most private schools won't g

Unless you have no contact with your parents, of course. Or they're just assholes who refuse to provide you with their tax returns. Most private schools won't give you aid unless you fill out their own specialized financial aid forms, like the CSS profile. Even if you're classified as an independent student on the FAFSA (like I am), 99% of the private universities I've talked to say I'm ineligible for all of their scholarships/aid if I don't provide my parents' info. (Note: I'm age 24. Have been financially independent and living on my own since age 18.) If you're from a jerk family that won't help you with college, either by paying your tuition or providing their tax info, you're pretty much just fucked. It's also entirely possible to have a $0 contribution on the FAFSA and then like $30,000 or something on the CSS profile--private colleges can ignore the FAFSA and use their own definition of calculation of "financial need," to ensure that you aren't found "needy." Also, many of the top private universities don't take transfer students--non-elite students often have to work for a few years before attending college, and it's unpleasant to find out that having tried to take what community colleges you can afford in terms of time and money while holding down a full time job to keep a roof over your head has literally made you ineligible to apply almost anywhere except a state run university (who also tend to heavily discriminate against transfer students). Even for your example, Stanford, transfer admissions are significantly more selective than normal admissions processes: "Transfer admission is considerably more competitive than freshman admission. In recent years, the admit rate for transfer students has ranged from 1% to 4%. Between twenty and fifty transfer student spaces are typically available each year." This further increases the ability of Stanford to keep its student body composed of financial elites--while touting its "generous" financial aid policy. Plus, even an 18 year old applying to Stanford requires SATs, extracurriculars, etc that most of the non financial elite are unable to afford. Most college applications are at $80/pop nowadays; if you can only afford one college application, why pick the university you probably won't be accepted to?