<p>I thought of a converse of the terms the schools use which is need blind versus need aware… as a parent, I would say I am not rich enough to be aid blind, I am aid aware. My S is applying to USC and Vandy as well as some full tuition NMSF schools hoping for a more aid aware merit based package than we’ll get from the Ivies and equivalents. He is not applying ED anywhere for that reason as well (actually, this is more because there is no one school that he loves, he loves many of them). He had verbalized a very pragmatic emotional approach to the process: “why fall in love with a school when it is a lottery ticket and you are likely to be rejected, just wait and see what you get into and fall in love with your choice then”. </p>