<p>College don’t offer financial aid. That’s right. They made up this phrase to refer to “tuition discounts”. They set the so-called “list price”, and then figure out how much/little they can offer your family and still get sonnyboy to attend (and have you foot the bill). A really good scam (the Ivies in particular like this, but others do as well), is to raise the list price $5,000 and then offer a $5,000 “scholarship” or “financial aid”. It looks like they have done you favor, and it hasn’t cost them a dime (but it goes into the statistics as reflective of their so-called “generosity”.)</p>
<p>Don’t get scammed. Look at the actual first year costs, add 5-6% a year for each of four years, and then add together, and you know pretty well what you will be paying.</p>