While I agree that colleges do sophisticated budget analysis, I’d be surprised if they manipulate this lever within a class year. Meaning, I’d think they’d set a typical assets number for $200k for the admissions year and apply that for the year, then reassess all of it for the following year. I’d think it would be pretty sketchy to assert typical assets for a given salary varies by applicant or even by admissions group. Not saying a school or schools couldn’t do something questionable like this, but absent evidence of such practices I’d assume they would use other more legitimate ways to ensure a balanced budget than hoodwinking the small percentage of families that fit into this income range who they are trying to attract by marketing this feature. Especially since most, if not all of the schools offering this are incredibly well resourced.