<p>Is it an accepted practice in determining aid, or is it the unfortunate result of rising tuition and need-based financial aid caps or increasing merit aid?</p>
<p>Say what?
10 char</p>
<p>This has been going on since at least the '70s when I applied to college. My undergraduate school separated the admission decisions from the financial aid decisions (needs blind admissions). After the admissions decisions were made, the financial aid office handed out the money until it was gone. If you didn’t get aid your freshman year, you were told up front that you would not be considered for aid in any of the subsequent years. In other words, you could decide to come, but you’d have to pay all of it yourself all four years. Every year they had a few students whose families scraped together the money and did just that. I have no idea how many otherwise qualified students were lost to the process.</p>
<p>If you (or your kid) got into the school, and needed but didn’t get any money, just forget that school and move on. It isn’t worth the energy for you to give it another thought.</p>
<p>All the best.</p>