<p>It’s an equitable system, however, Kelsmom, like it or not. THere are schools that do have components of enrollment management even in financial aid. I can understand it in merit, that goes without saying that the school looks to “buy” the students it most wants,and they are not always the highest stat students. But sometimes financial aid is distributed in a way to make the money go further, to get the most students for that amount. A student with $50K of need, for instance, might get very little, whereas the funds would be distributed, the $50K that is, to 5 kids with $10K of need. Win for the school in that they have met 100% need for 5 kids., and too bad for the one one who needed so much. When these sort of things are done, it’s impossible for a calculator to come up with what the package will be.</p>
<p>I know a school that does code the accepted students, not relevant for much except maybe for a special acceptance day, UNLESS financial aid is in the picture. The A list gets the lion’s share of grants and full need met. The next group gets loans and self help and what’s left of the grants. The last group doesn’t get need met, for the most part. So the NPC is not going to be able to tell where a kid will land and the average aid figures will come out for everyone.</p>