<p>“Those full need guaranteed schools typically award aid based on parental financial information and the total package regardless of your “hook” is likely to not vary from another accepted student with the same finances.”</p>
<p>Thumper, this is what I meant by what experienced parents think. I don’t think it’s always true because it wasn’t true in our case but I can’t tell you the exact additional $ that some of these schools gave us because you never know what their contribution is. However, we had full-need guaranteed schools that read our financial need very generously – this includes Profile schools that are not considered the most generous on cc and their estimate was less than the FAFSA worksheet (despite my home equity). One thing several of these schools did was waive or reduce any deposit.</p>