Check out CSS or FAFSA calculators to figure out your expected family contribution. Financial Aid offices at places like MIT that are need blind fill in the gap between your expected contribution and cost of attending with aid.
The answer to your question is it depends. Some assets like your primary home and retirements can be shielded from expected family contribution. If you've got assets sitting in a taxable account....
Can recommend the book as well - its still not that dated and provides a very good overview of how not just a real missing to Mars, but also a sustainable settlement might look like. :)
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