<p>The EFC is the LEAST amount you are to pay and still get federal aid. If you have an EFC of $33K, if you get a combined financial aid and merit award that could reduce your cost to lower than your EFC, the federal amounts other than PELL have to be reduced. However you can still borrow the DIrect loan student amounts as long as COA issues are not breached, but just not on a subsidized basis once you are at EFC.</p>
<p>I don’t think not applying for aid would have given your DD more merit money. It appears that some schools gave your D merit money that exceeded any financial aid that had federal money in it. A school can use its own funds any way it pleases, so it can stack merit and need, as long as no federal funds (other than PELL) are involved. But a lot of schools have their own procedures not permitting this.</p>