@Cue7 This new policy makes official what they told us (before applying ED) was their policy for students who opted out of ED for financial reasons. I think they made their “unofficial policy”… “offical” now and I for one am glad they did- they said if son opted out for financial reasons they were ok w him going to a Public but not another ivy or top school…
Son qualified for full tuition scholarship to Temple and U Alabama but we had a feeling he wouldn’t get any FA at Penn. (we are low income but high assets - assists whose values are volatile…) It was a hard decision $300K vs Free. I think they leave in the Public and hefty Stamps Scholarship school options so you truly have a financial safety net for high achieving students who might not be need based. you are going to dismiss this idea but I think this is very important and might reach more students than you know. Penn is only 50% students receiving FA.
Also there might be certain demographics that they are going after or not going after -that you might not be taking into consideration. I think there are a lot more reasons in this decision than you have focused on.