Take a look at [this picture](http://admissions.duke.edu/application/aid).
Notice how the aid is slightly less for the absolute poorest applicants? On Naviance, this seems to be the case for a host of top schools. Is this something colleges as a whole do, or only very selective ones? It seems counter-intuitive to offer less aid to the ones that need it most.
It could be that the $0-40k group has slightly lower need because they live closer to Duke, are in majors where the books cost less, receive other grants like Pell and state aid so need less from Duke.
It also might just be from averaging.
I’d put my money on receiving other grants and thus needing less from Duke. This is not a picture of total aid but of the aid that Duke itself provides.
I just ran the NPC with a $5,000 annual income and a $50,000 annual income. Net cost is the same - $2600 student contribution, 0 parental contribution.
Could Pell grants be a factor? Not sure what the cutoff is to receive Pell money, but if the student does receive a Pell grant then that’s a few grand less the school is giving.
It is not uncommon to see families with incomes below 10-20k with very large assets. Particularly for retired parents or business or carry over losses. The “averages” get skewed by these families with no income but very high assets so they don’t receive aid. If you have assets typical of your income you will receive as much or more aid as the families in the 40-60k category at these schools. This is just another example of why income is not the best measure of a family’s financial strength.