Full need-based aid (not merit scholarships), is extremely rare outside the very top universities. At other schools, including those ranked in the top 30 or so

Full need-based aid (not merit scholarships), is extremely rare outside the very top universities. At other schools, including those ranked in the top 30 or so, "need-based aid" is a euphemism for loans, often in extremely high amounts. Anecdotal, but I've even seen bait-and-switch tactics at some places: my brother was accepted at Tufts with a decent aid package, and then after freshman year, with no change in family financials, saw it drastically reduced. He dropped out and transferred immediately. As mentioned in other comments, American education has a lot of pricing similarities to American healthcare, and the lack of any sort of true market mechanisms is a big reason why. Good to see some price pressure getting applied. Now, whether or not this is a good idea for Germany is a whole different question...