When the Breen twins of Lexington, Ky., started applying to college last fall, they just assumed that schools would look at their dad's new job as a controller for a hospital company in Tennessee, and the fact that their mom was going to lose her job as a special-education assistant when she moved to join their father at his new job, and provide enough grants to allow them to attend. "People in the middle class live pretty much paycheck to paycheck," says Matthew Breen, 19. "They can't come up with $35,000 a year. That's absurd." Then, in March, Matthew and Ryan started getting thick letters-and their first lesson in college economics. While some of the schools patched together enough grants so that they could just cover their costs, others gave the Breens little option but to take out big loans. "It was really unnerving," Matthew says. "Your financial situation doesn't necessarily dictate how much aid you'll get."