Once the decisions are in, if you have a school with an FA+ offer and another with what seems pretty skimpy, don’t hesitate to contact skimpy if they are otherwise your first choice and explain the situation. There’s no reason to feel weird about it, and it happens quite regularly. The worst first choice skimpy can say is no. And they might. Take it or leave it. Thanks for playing.
Once again, those few schools with unlimited resources might grant your petition and offer something less skimpy. If so, yay!
Keep in mind, tho, that the less-resource-embarrassed schools, and that’s pretty much all of ‘em, will often come in with their best possible offer on the first salvo in an attempt to lure you with the siren song of USA cash money if they really want your kid, so if you get something that looks fantastic right off, you’ve won and should consider gift horses’ mouths and whatnot.
This plays out often with the same relatively-resource-poor school and families in similar financial situations: the kid from family A gets an ostentatious FA+ package with a gold-plated pencil, voucher for a ride in the assistant hockey coache’s BMW, and nightly turn-down service, while family B’s kid get nothing but the absolute bare minimum aid which prevents family B from even considering another BMW for themselves or anything. Which kid did the school want?
Relatively-resource-poor school might never be able or willing to meet a fantabulous FA package for most kids, but for those few target kids, they shamelessly slather on the bucks.
As always, that’s racing.