<p>Point taken. But why does a school feel the need to sell higher education the way Kohls sells clothing? I can only assume that the object is to convince the accepted applicants that they have gotten great deals, when in fact they are actually paying the true “list” price. It takes a few visits to Kohls to figure out that no item of merchandise has ever been sold at its “regular” price. But one generally applies to colleges just once. I’d love to hear the schools explain this how this approach is anything other than flimflammery. I also wonder whether the stated COA convinces many students who don’t qualify for financial aid and aren’t in the top 75% of applicants (the common rule of thumb for snagging merit awards) that they can’t afford the school and shouldn’t apply. How can that be helpful to these colleges?</p>