<p>
</p>
<p>My opinion. Financial information is gathered for statistics. The second part is more intellectual and has won a few people Nobel Prizes in Economics. Everyone knows pretty much that negotiations is appropriate for buying a house. Each party has something that the other wants, the question is to each is, how dear is that desire. The only way to discover this desire is thru information on the other party (financials, school rating, reputation) but there are other pieces of information that are unknown and can only be discovered by meeting face-to-face or thru some type of negotiation. This discovery practice is called “enrollment management.” It is a effective way to gage a student’s desire to attend a school with or without financial incentives. Like anything else that one buys, some will pay full price, some will buy on-sale, and some will buy on negotiation. The most successful negotiation outcome is if both parties can have walking away power. </p>
<p>We are 100% EFC.
We knew at one private school what merit aid DS would receive minimally based on NM and XYZ award even before he made the application. DS’s eventual matriculated SCHOOL offered nothing, but on the revealing of the awards from the near, “peer” school, his SCHOOL offered a nice “institutional grant,” which although was much lower than the other school’s offer. However, SCHOOL’s counter grant was sufficient to seal-the-deal. This School knew our financials and DS scores and based on this did not see a need to offer “merit” money. But when we revealed the award from the other school, the SCHOOL either had to make a counter offer or walkaway. We likewise could take scholarship and walkaway from this SCHOOL. The SCHOOL knew we were still interested because we revealed the competitive award-the SCHOOL only had to discover at what incentive level would we definitely make a choice. </p>
<p>The grant was unrestricted and without conditions. But we still had to file FAFSA, school’s request for FA form, and complete 1040. I know this because each year I forgot to file one of these items. </p>
<p>Answering your question another way, If two equally desirous schools offer equal amounts of merit money, which school would You choose. If two Nearly equal desirous schools offer unequal merit aid, which school would You choose? And finally, if no desirous schools offers merit money, which would You choose?</p>