[pc86]

A HS friend of mine went to Penn and for a brief period of time was an admissions counsellor there. She said many times that if you were smart enough to get in, the administration would do everything in its power to get you whatever grants, scholarships, and loans you needed to get in. She was there probably 7 or 8 years and could recall less than 1/yr where someone was admitted but did not attend due to cost.

Mediocre colleges will leave you on your own 99% of the time but if you're good enough to get into an Ivy or a similarly leveled school like Stanford or MIT it's very unlikely that cost will be the determining factor (not that it will be easy of course).