<p>Institutional money is given as colleges choose. Some schools use institutional money for merit purposes only. Others use a combination of merit and need. Some provide need based aid in the form of grants for some students as well. </p>
<p>There is NO WAY to know how these schools determine the awarding of THEIR institutional funding as the formulas for doing so vary wildly by school.</p>
<p>In addition, just because student A gets package A…doesn’t mean Student B will get the same package. Sometimes schools award their money on a first come/first served basis. It really varies.</p>
<p>In addition, there really isn’t any way to tell a student what their aid will be with an EFC of $0 beyond the federal mandated funding (e.g. the Pell grant) and Stafford loans.</p>