That might not help much, if a couple has higher income

Adjusted gross income means Income (including wages, interest, capital gains, income from retirement accounts, alimony paid to you) adjusted downward by specific deductions (including contributions to deductible retirement accounts, alimony paid by you); but not including standard and itemized deductions.

I just talked to a friend yesterday. His son already accepted by MIT. His son is very smart. He won the 4th place in the nation wide math contest, and won countless award for math and computer science. But they will not get any student aid for his son. So they need to pay 50k per year for him for 4 years. BTW, my friend and his wife are Chinese, he works in the IT field, his wife works in a hospital.

I think if the family income is in the border line, then save maximum 401K will help :))