The hunger for bodies isn't equally distributed, of course. Colleges and universities in cities along the coasts tend to be awash in applicants, "since that's where kids want to be," O'Shaughnessy said.
That popularity can make schools less generous with financial aid, she said. New York University is probably the most notorious example, meeting an average of just 55 percent of student financial need. Only 4.4 percent of undergraduates had 100 percent of their needs met, and the average graduate has $35,109 in student loan debt.
Not all popular colleges respond the same way, however. UNC, which has an acceptance rate similar to NYU's, on average meets 100 percent of financial need. The average graduate has just $15,983 in student loan debt.
Seeking out generous schools is one way to get a better deal. Another is to target schools in less popular areas: away from cities and the coasts, O'Shaughnessy said. A good financial aid offer from one school can sometimes be used to leverage a better deal from another, she added.
"Families should never assume the first offer is the final offer," O'Shaughnessy said.
The question remains: will your kids be missing out if they don't get into elite schools?
The conventional wisdom is yes, since they won't get the networking opportunities and connections these institutions offer their students, not to mention the quality of the educations. But research seems to indicate there's not much economic advantage.
Princeton University researchers Stacy Dale and Alan B. Krueger found in a 2002 study that those accepted to highly selective schools but who attended elsewhere did just as well financially as those who actually graduated from the elite schools.
In follow-up research, the pair found that attendance at elite schools was associated with 7 percent higher lifetime earnings. When qualitative characteristics such as motivation or ambition were factored in, however, the difference dropped to almost zero.
The exceptions in both studies were traditionally disadvantaged students. Black and Hispanic students and those who came from less-educated families earned a significant financial advantage from attending an elite school, even when adjusted for motivation or ambition, the researchers said.