<p>Carleton doesn't officially offer much merit money to National Merit Finalists. (Maybe $2,000 ???) </p>
<p>But here is our family's experience with Carleton financial aid: They obviously interpreted our family's financial need with every possible benefit of the doubt given to us. (DS was a NM Finalist.) The comparison of Carleton's financial aid package with those from son's other accepted-at schools was stunning (in Carleton's favor). My bank account was devastated when he decided to go off to the Ivy League.</p>
<p>N.B.: Carleton's aid package for DS was the thousands-and-thousands-better "winner," even when compared to the package from one school that has replaced loans with grants, and also when compared to the offer from another school that offered DS a sort of unadvertised "special-deal" no-loans package. (Meaning that we still had to contribute to the cost at these two schools, but that the school's share for each aid package would have been in the form of outright grants, and not in the form of loans to be paid back.) CARLETON NEVERTHELESS HAD, BY FAR, THE MOST GENEROUS FINANCIAL-AID PACKAGE!</p>
<p>Damn, but that kid should have gone to Minnesota!</p>