<p>I am very skeptical of post #4 – to the extent that I think it is deliberate misinformation.</p>
<p>Some colleges will look at offers from competing schools, others won’t. If they won’t, they usually tell you so – sometimes on the financial aid page of their web site. You can always simply ask if there is a process for review or appeal, and what factors they will consider. </p>
<p>Any university that would “freeze” an award as punishment for “disclosure” of another college’s award would be acting extremely arbitrarily and unethically, because obviously for need based awards, there may be clear factors that one college has taken into consideration and another has missed. </p>
<p>I also believe that the claim in post #4 that “hundreds of U.S. colleges and universities [have] voluntarily chosen to freeze the aid offer of any student who revealed to a university representative an aid offer (or difference in net cost) from a competing university” would be a very clear anti-competitive practice in blatant violation of US anti-trust and anti-price-fixing laws. So I am skeptical not only because the practice described would be illegal, but also because if it were happening, I can’t believe that any current employee would be stupid enough to disclose that practice on a public internet board. See <a href=“http://www.nber.org/digest/nov00/w7754.html[/url]”>http://www.nber.org/digest/nov00/w7754.html</a></p>