Discussion of the increasing price competition in higher education provides tables, graphs, and analyses of the higher education market and examines implications of offering attractive financial aid packages to better students. Finds price competition results in a greater concentration of talented students at high-resource schools and declining…

Explores how, while there are fears that the new emphasis on merit-based aid comes at the expense of aid to the most needy students, evidence suggests that it has not yet jeopardized need-based aid although it is clearly rapidly increasing. (EV)

Discusses data that indicate that students' academic promise is increasingly influencing even the amount of "need-based" aid they receive, signaling that families' demonstrated financial need is of less importance than they may expect when they fill out all those financial aid forms. (EV)