For financial aid, it is calculated more or less like this.
The most important issue is income (and number of kids in college). If you make 200,000+, you are probably going to be told you can afford 20-ish percent of that for college.
Then comes savings - they only count your non-qualified plans. They figure about 5-6% per year on this stuff.
It has been our experience that qualified retirement plans (401(k)) are not used in the calculation at all.