@thumper1 I recently watched a documentary where they discussed financial aid at BU. The director of financial aid said that once students were admitted, the FA office was notified and given the rating of the student. The FA office then used this to prioritise FA. Those with the highest ratings had their full need met and so on. As money ran out, lower rated students received less and less aid. NYU use does this too.
To my knowledge, preferential packaging is not based on the date an application is filed, so long as deadlines are met. It’s based on how highly the application was scored.