<p>Curmudgeon- Where must your child be in the applicant pool, (percentage wise) to be in the "preferential packaging category" ? It seems you've had success targeting schools which were willing to "work" with your family to make a particular school more affordable. Other posters seem skeptical that the financial aid types opt to reclassify debt or expenditures at all. Have some people targeted the wrong schools and found themselves disappointed or are the candidates the fin. aid officers willing to do this for one in a thousand? My coworkers D had 1400 math/verbal and only decent EC's but he claimed he got what you termed "preferential packaging" at what I'm guessing are second tier schools ie., Providence College and Assumption here in the Northeast.</p>