[robotresearcher]

Financial aid is available for many, many students, and targeted at those unable to pay. They may be called scholarships, or bursaries, or tuition fees waivers, or whatever. A LOT of money (or equivalents) is given to students who are not in the top 10% of performers.

Scholarships for the best students are given partly to obtain or retain those students to the institution. If I have offers from Harvard and Princeton, but one will give me $20K, that influences my choice and that school gets a star student. That’s competition.

Those same schools ALSO subsidize places for students who are unable to pay. Of course some students are in both categories.