<p>When we start to get into merit aid, things become very murky. A 27 ACT kid that Illinois rejects and Ohio State waitlists, is going to be the kid that Miami wants to lure with merit aid. For them, I can see your point that Miami becomes the better option financially. When you start talking about the 30+ kid that U of I or OSU actually wants, then you have the much, much larger endowments of those schools kicking in, and I don’t see Miami being able to compete. That doesn’t mean that some 30+ kids don’t end up at Miami simply because they like it better or their parents are alums or cost isn’t a factor. I just don’t see how, given the low endowment at Miami, that they can win a bidding war for a student if that Big Ten school actually wants to recruit that student.</p>
<p>Getting back to the original point of Fiske’s ranking, I don’t see how micro factors like those can be easily quantified on a macro level to so easily compare different schools from different states, which is why I think Fiske errs in putting Miami on that list given their high sticker price. Do you have any info showing that students’ net price at Miami comes down to a level that makes it cheaper than the net price of the Big Ten universities?</p>