agree with ucb above:
if two schools are quite similar but one has a lower graduation rate, the statistics don’t lie. there is a reason. A high transfer rate will be reflected in a low graduation rate. also look at stats for ‘percentage of freshmen returning’. some schools are simply not enjoyable and students transfer.
As for FA - the term I always use is ‘financial friendliness’ and it is specific to the individual student. Best thing to do is utilize the NPC for a variety of schools. But the collegeboard site includes stats for different income levels, as does tuitiontracker.org