Your point is a good one - but there are families that would be “full pay”, but are actually not covering college with left over financial means. Students are taking loans or parents are borrowing from retirement accounts. These are families in the “donut hole”, and trying to decide how much a college education is “worth” both to them and overall. Our NPC varied so widely from school to school - some were astronomical, honestly when we first starting this process with our oldest, we were shocked. And it was those less selective, private schools that we thought might offer merit that were so pricey. They would offer these scholarships, but the bottom line was still more than we wanted to pay, significantly higher than the more selective schools. It is so difficult to determine “value” when looking at college education - it is an investment in our childrens growth, it is an experience of self-discovery and it provides career preparation. Impossible to quantify, yet also such a substantial investment that we have to detemine how we “value” it. Yet, using the “Kohls cash” model, seems manipulative and seems to be a trick colleges are using to attract higher paying and higher stats kids, not a trick that lowers anyone’s tuition bill.