<p>Not everyone that applies for financial aid gets a need based award. The ranges from one student can be completely different. EFC is rarely the same, since no family situation is exactly the same. </p>
<p>The financial aid budget for a college can change from year to year, as can state and local funding. A public university can take in more students from out of state or international. </p>
<p>My D goes to a public OOS. Our EFC was 5 times what my daughter’s friend had at her OOS public - but we got more actual need based aid, dollar for dollar. Doesn’t make sense, right? </p>
<p>Some schools have more money to spend.</p>