yeah, that is more what I mean. You can often tell, even here. If kids are from NJ, have 1540 and have a list of SLACs, and say parents can pay, I see no reason ask them 4 times for financial safety (ok, not 12, but let it be after 1 nudge). If they don’t mention merit, I don’t bring it up.
AND I don’t necessarily think it is our responsibility as strangers on the internet to solve all problems or assume they want advice on questions not asked. I try to take people at their word. They ask for northeast, I give them northeast. They want LAC, I give them that… they want financial advice, i give them want. They want to know if they will get into ABC I give them that. If they want other schools like ABC, I will do that. I may ask follow-ups if I need them to be able to answer their question. Maybe as I always ask super targeted questions myself ..and generally don’t ask questions as nobody actually answers them, but answers random asides.
Also, I will answer slightly differently if I think if it is a kid vs an adult (which isn’t always perfectly obvious).