@jmnva06 What upsets me is when schools/GC’s encourage this kind of nonsense for the sake of their own PR. It’s exploitative and not in the best interests of the kid(s) at all. Look at the original story that inspired this thread - the kid now can’t afford any of those colleges and ended up starting a GoFundMe, which is going nowhere. One good-fit school that you can afford is worth infinitely more than 100 that you can’t. And the total of all aid offers is an utterly pointless number that thinking people in the education world and in the media should not validate as a meaningful thing.
Kids who are starting from a place of socioeconomic disadvantage have enough barriers to overcome without willful stupidity on the part of their paid advisors being another. This scholarship-total arms race should be actively discouraged. The brass ring is that one great offer. In the absence of that one good outcome, building 50 bridges that each go only halfway across the river is indeed harmful to the person who does all that work only to end up floundering in the water. The story becomes viral “inspiration porn” and the kid is still in the struggle. The stupidity of it just burns.