The award letter arrives. There's a number on it. The family reads that number as a verdict.

It isn't. It's an opening position.

Mistake number eleven is assuming a college has already given you its highest and best offer. They usually haven't, and the ones who ask properly find that out.

Two examples.

A client was admitted to the University of Chicago with what genuinely looked like a good package. A scholarship of about $16,784, a Pell grant, some other grants, work study. All in, $28,829.

That's a real offer. Most families would take it, feel fortunate, and move on.

We appealed. It went from $28,829 to just over $49,000.

Then we went back a second time, because we thought they'd made an error. It finished at almost $53,000.

Second one, and this is a friend of mine. We watch St. John's basketball together.

His daughter's first offer from her top choice was $2,518. Effectively nothing, at a school with a very large price tag.

We appealed it up to $53,540.

That's the difference between...