<p>I always had the opinion the Liberal Arts Colleges (WIlliams, Ahmherst, colgate, bowdoin.....) do not offer that much financial aid and thus when you apply for financial aid, it can hurt your chances of admission. After all, they are simply 4-year colleges. You can compare this with that to top 50 universities, which means more alumni, resources, and assuming more endowment. </p>
<p>Yet, could you guys give me a sense to which LACs give the most generous financial aid packages...</p>
<p>Based on average institutional aid per student attending (which would be an algorithm combining the amount of aid provided per student and the percentage of students receiving it), of the Ivies, only Princeton breaks the top 10 (at the bottom). The rest are LACs. Amherst is in the top 10. Williams, Colgate, and Bowdoin are not.</p>
<p>You can check this out by simply googling the Common Data Sets of colleges and universities in which you are interested.</p>