If you don't apply for financial aid do you still get merit aid offers?

[Anonymous]

"Not a crap shoot.

1. If they really want your kid, and your kid is above average, they will offer you a discount. The better your kid, the better your odds."

I agree, it is not a crap shoot. It's hard to argue against the idea that more qualified students get more merit aid.

But everyone should be aware that many schools give merit aid like coupons in a grocery store. Not the top 50 or 60 schools, but many schools near 100 in the ranking, intentionally mark their price up to near the standard $67-70k of a "top ranked school" and then give merit aid to drop the price back to $50 something thousand.

Last spring my DC could not get past the idea that school X must want them the most because they gave DC $20k in merit aid and other schools only gave $15k. The $20k merit aid school cost $72k and the others cost $67K. To us, all the schools were strong choices and cost the same so it didn't matter, to DC, more merit aid meant something. Colleges know students (and grocery shoppers) can be manipulated this way.