Part of it results from how individual colleges define your assets for financial aid purposes. For instance, some include home equity, while others do not. Another part of the difference results from colleges competing to attract top students. High-caliber students increase the college’s prestige, making the college a more attractive alternative to subsequent years’ students. To encourage these students to attend their college, merit scholarships are often given, or the mix of traditional need-based financial aid is altered. Financial aid consists of grants (which do not have to be repaid), loans, or work study programs. Two financial aid packages may have the same dollar value, but the one with a higher percentage of grants will be more valuable to the student.

What implications does this have for a child approaching college? Consider these tips:

• Encourage your child to perform well in high school and on college entrance exams. Not only will this make him/her eligible for acceptance at a broader range of colleges, it may increase your financial aid package.

• Don’t start the financial aid process determined to attend just one particular college. Consider a few alternative colleges that would be acceptable and apply for financial aid at all of them. You may be surprised at how different the financial aid awards are, especially if your child is a strong student. Your expected family contribution remains the same, whether your child attends a public, private, or Ivy League college. Many private colleges have more merit aid and discretion than public colleges do when making financial aid offers.

• Review aid packages over the four years your child will be attending college. Find out how the aid package will change from year to year and whether there are any conditions for renewal. Keep in mind that the package is need based. So, in future years, if your income changes dramatically or you have fewer children attending college, your aid package may decrease. Even if nothing changes in your family situation, the college may admit new students with greater financial need, decreasing your aid. Many packages have conditions, such as maintaining a certain grade point average. Make sure those conditions are reasonable for your child. Another complicating factor is that most aid packages do not increase with inflation, while college costs have been increasing by more than the inflation rate. Thus, by the time your child reaches his/her senior year, the amount you need to contribute could rise substantially.

• What should you do if your child has his/her heart set on going to one college, but you receive a better financial aid package from another college? Talk to the financial aid officer. While some colleges are receptive to matching other colleges’ offers, others are not. In those cases, your best strategy is to review the financial aid calculations with the officer, looking for ways to increase the award. Many subjective factors go into calculating financial aid awards and you may be able to convince the officer to change some of them so the total award is increased. Perhaps just changing the composition of the award so more is given in grants will help.