<p>Alemom - If all schools using the CSS profile determined a family’s need identically, then the financial aid packages from all of these schools would be roughly similar. However, that is not the case. To see just how wide a range of need-based aid can be given by CSS-profile schools based on the exact same financial data, go on collegeboard.com to their new section containing “Net Price Calculators.” In Fall of this year, every school will be required to provide such a calculator on its website to show prospective students how much aid they would likely receive at that particular school. I ran this experiment myself and found that the same family could receive need-based grants ranging from about $13,000 to about $23,000 from different private colleges with roughly the same cost of attendance. Several plausible explanations for the differences include 1) schools with higher endowments are giving more grant aid; 2) schools are still considering merit to some degree in awarding need-based aid; and 3) schools that give a lot of merit aid are giving less in need-based grant and making up the difference with loans. </p>
<pre><code> Which brings me to a second point – although a financial aid package may not technically be “gapping” a family where it covers their demonstrated need, if that package is comprised primarily or exclusively of loans rather than grants, then the result may be the same. Many families are not willing or able to incur tens of thousands of dollars in debt in order for their child to attend college.
Third, I misspoke when I said that "many" of the students who could not afford to attend USC received higher grant aid from every other school. I apologize for that. In fact, I know of several students in our community for whom that is the case. However, my information is admittedly only anecdotal. As Memama indicated, just the opposite may be the case for some families. So, if I suggested that USC is low-balling on financial aid in every case, that clearly is not true.
Finally, in response to Hawkwings -- yes, in fact, USC does give merit aid in excess of the cost of tuition. It is possible to stack scholarships (e.g. Trustee and Tuition Exchange) up to a maximum of $8000 over the cost of tuition.
</code></pre>