I'm curious whether folks here had financial aid experiences (need-based, not sports or academic scholarships) that tracked the table RJM posted above. (Not challenging RJM; I just want to know.) I have one kid in college now. We didn't go through the aid process for her, so I don't have any experience.
When I was in college, schools actually shared information to make sure no one offered more aid than anyone else. (The Ivies and other northeastern schools did this, so did others--I don't know exactly how widespread the scheme was.) That meant you couldn't play one school off against another, and it kept aid awards low. Some years after I graduated, the Department of Justice forced colleges to stop this practice and some other types of collusion, and I hear the aid landscape does look different now. When I applied in the early 1980s, I got a bunch of responses that said "congratulations--we will meet your family's full financial need" and then offered to let me borrow what was then the equivalent of a mortgage. I know some of the schools I applied to now say they award all grants rather than loans--but those grants only cover whatever they decide you need. In the early 1980s (at least in my case), my parents were supposed to essentially liquidate their assets and then cosign a bunch of loans as well--the aid process was a joke. Has it really changed?