<p>This may be regarded as a dumb question, but do colleges look at your academic record when deciding how much non-merit aid they are going to give you? (Yes, I realize that it is classified as being non-merit.) If not, why is it that one student going to College X who displays the same amount of need as another student going to College X gets more financial assistance?</p>
<p>yes, some of them do. They provide preferential packaging of financial aid, (less loans and workstudy, more grants), and/or sometimes estimate "need" higher for those students they really want to attend.</p>
<p>I agree with anxiousmom. I also wanted to add that at 2 of my son's safeties, the financial package was poor, and there was no merit aid offered. I believe that both of these schools did not want to offer money to those that they do not feel are seriously going to attend. Actually, my S showed interest, and was serious, but now cannot attend either school. Some match schools offered the better packages. One school that did not offer any merit aid, offered a far superior financial package to the other schools. This school made it possible for my son to attend, even without merit money. In fact, the out of pocket cost was thousands less than at some schools that offered merit scholarships (without the pressure of keeping the gpa above a 3.0). Out of 8 private schools who accepted my son, the packages varied so much, and I felt that 3 of them were doable. There was one other school (not one of the three) that offered a lot of merit money, so much that it was equal to the cost of our instate schools, but I felt that it was a lure (I felt that the gpa that my S would have to meet would be unrealistic). My son has chosen an out of state public school even though he was able to choose from 3 private colleges.</p>
<p>Thanks, I was wondering and it was bugging me.</p>