<p>Patience, your advice to HZ is so poor that it exactly the reason that it’s useful to have parents with experience as a reality check. “Meeting financial aid” can mean lots of things; if one college is giving you eighty percent loans, another 80 percent grants, it can mean a big difference to the financial burden a student will carry after graduation…but the college giving 80 percent loans has still “met 100 percent of financial need.” </p>
<p>It’s easy to be cavalier about other people’s money, perhaps. In that vein, perhaps you might find it irrelevant to consider the nuts and bolts of how financial aid may and may not work but I guarantee you that many readers who are footing the bill will find it of interest…and remember, these threads are archived and are not only read by whomever is posting in the thread at a given time.</p>
<p>As for what my D thinks, she has enough on-line obligations of her own but is happy to pass on information if I run a thread by her.</p>