My kids are currently attending a great private school.  They are learning so much and have tons of friends.  However, the school may end up closing by the end of the year. 

My husband and I chose the school because of the academics, diversity and the fact that we were offered a nice financial aid package, which we needed at the time. My hubby had started working part time to finish a degree.  Therefore, the financial aid was the clencher .   

A few months after school started, I started hearing rumors about the school's financial crisis and noticed we were losing many of our students.  Now I have found out that it may be closing. 

This leads me to my question.  We can afford to go to many of the private schools in our area, including the one my kids attends now, without financial assistance.  However, there is a great school to which we are considering applying, that offers financial aid to more than half of their students.   The schools that we can 100% afford are good as well, but do not offer the same level of academic and extra-curricular activities.

Should we apply to the best school we can find, if they offer financial aid or are we setting ourselves up for disappointment due to the economic situation many of us our experiencing?