Bewig tells the story of one senior student who was heavily recruited for her basketball skills. The student had a choice between two Ivy League schools, neither of which was Harvard.

"There was a $4000 discrepancy and the better award was from the school she was less interested in," said Bewig. "She called [the school with the lower offer], and almost instantaneously they matched the award."

While such negotiating may lead to higher aid offers, counselors say it can also make a complex situation more confusing.

"When kids have to get on the phone and change their own financial aid, that's a situation that's not good for kids," Khoury said.

And, although he says that Harvard hears and often grants appeals of financial aid offers, director of financial aid James Miller denies that Harvard negotiates its financial aid offers.

"We have a responsibility not to negotiate," said Miller. "To the best of our ability, we don't say we're going to match Yale's offer or Princeton's offer."

But, if an informal survey of a dozen Harvard students on financial aid can be believed, students do negotiate with the University's financial aid office.

Six of the students said they had gotten their financial aid offers changed by bargaining with at least one school's financial aid office, and two said they had successfully negotiated with Harvard's office.

And those negotiations can degenerate into bidding wars in which students play financial aid offices off against each other.

Marvin A. Coote '95, of Ridgefield Park, NJ, said that his college decision boiled down to Harvard, Yale and Princeton.

"They all gave me the same package, except Princeton," said Coote. As a New Jersey resident, the first-year student received a Kean Scholarship, which removed his summer work requirement.

Coote says his father then went to work on using Princeton's offer against Harvard.

"My dad was able to get rid of my summer work [requirement] with Harvard," said Coote. "He increased my loan."

Even more disturbing than questionable "negotiating" practices, say the high school counselors, is that the discrepancies in aid offers may portend the end of need-based financial aid, as colleges begin to use financial aid as a recruiting tool.

"It's very possible that colleges are going to use financial aid to get the people they want," said Bewig. "I think the colleges are going to start to move to merit scholarships."