Colleges That Meet 100% of Need †Or Do They

HomeFinanceFinancial aidColleges That Meet 100% of Need – Or Do They?This page may contain affiliate links.Oct 17, 2019 One of the things that many families look for is a college that says they meet â€Å"100% of student need.† This gives parents confidence that the school will come through with need-based aid to help them pay for college. Unfortunately, not every school that makes this claim really meets 100% of need, at least as far as families are concerned. Here’s what to look for before your student applies to a school that says they meet full need. How Hard is it to Get In to a Meets Need School? Not surprisingly, schools that offer excellent aid are in high demand. As a result, they can be very selective. It’s usually very difficult to get into these schools. For instance, the Ivy League schools often offer significant aid to lower-income students. If you have an Ivy League caliber student, that’s great! If not, however, your student may be sorely disappointed if they are counting on getting into a school that offers this type of aid. College % Admitted Columbia University7 Yale University6 Harvard University5 Amherst College14 University of Chicago8 Williams College18 Colgate University29 Princeton University7 University of Southern California17 Pomona College9 Vassar College27 Barnard College17 Dartmouth College11 Stanford University5 Haverford College21 Duke University11 Smith College37 Claremont McKenna College9 Georgetown University17 Northwestern University11 Swarthmore College13 Wellesley College29 Hamilton College26 University of Notre Dame19 University of Pennsylvania9 Franklin and Marshall College36 Carleton College23 Vanderbilt University11 Middlebury College16 Colby College19 Pitzer College14 Trinity College34 Colorado College16 Bates College23 Cornell University14 Washington University in St Louis17 Harvey Mudd College13 Grinnell College20 Bryn Mawr College40 University of Richmond32 Wake Forest University30 California Institute of Technology8 Occidental College46 Davidson College20 Washington and Lee University24 Brown University9 Dickinson College43 Lafayette College28 MIT8 Wesleyan University18 Bowdoin College15 Macalester College37 Tufts University14 Skidmore College29 Connecticut College35 Rice University15 Oberlin College28 Kenyon College27 Reed College31 Emory University25 Union College37 Johns Hopkins University13 Scripps College30 College of the Holy Cross38 Northeastern University29 Boston College31 Mount Holyoke College52 Augustana University69 University of Virginia-Main Campus30 UNC at Chapel Hill27 SUNY Polytechnic Institute64 Southern University at New Orleans12 How is Need Determined? Another important thing to consider before your student applies to a school promising to meet full need is, how is that need determined? Many times, the schools offering to cover full need use the CSS Profile to determine that need, instead of the usual Expected Family Contribution (EFC) from the FAFSA. This means that the need numbers are proprietary and specific to the school. As a result, you may find that these schools expect your family to be able to provide more financially than the federal EFC. This makes the need gap smaller, and the aid will be less as well. For instance, the CSS Profile can take into account your home equity and other assets excluded from the federal EFC. Make sure you’re aware of how need is determined – and whether a school uses the CSS – before you make financial plans about a particular college or university. Loans Vs. Other Financial Aid One concern many parents have is that much of the aid offered for needy students is in the form of loans.Federal loans are available to every student, but they have to be paid back. Because students can still graduate with thousands of dollars of debt, this isnt very useful aid to many families. You may want to focus on schools that offer a â€Å"no loans† financial aid package. These may apply to all students or only to low-income students. Fifteen schools around the country offer No Loans packages for all students, and almost 60 more have No Loans for lower-income students. Its important to keep in mind that although a college may have a â€Å"no loan† financial aid policy it doesnt mean that all loans will be eliminated. Colleges with no loan policies are trying to reduce a students need for loans.A no loans award doesnt mean that you wont need to take on any debt, but hopefully the amount of debt will be lower at graduation than at schools without these policies. Remember, the school determines what you are expected to pay. If you arent actually able to meet that level, you may need to take out federal loans or qualify for private loans to meet the difference. For example, if a college has determined that your family can afford to pay $12,000 a year, but you can only manage $5,000 through savings and current income, then you’ll have to borrow (either through federal or private loans) to make up the difference. Before you decide on a school, use their net price calculator to make sure their determination of your need (and any expected student contribution) isnt significantly higher than your EFC from the FAFSA. If it is, your student may be better off at a school that uses the FAFSA instead. (Get more information on the schools that meet 100% of need. Included in this list is average amount of need award, % of students who do not receive need-based aid; and the average amount of non-need money awarded to students without need.) Schools Self-Report Meeting Full Need The final thing to keep in mind when looking at schools that claim to meet 100% of need is that this is self-reported. No one checks on the school’s financial statements to make sure it’s true. Even when they make these claims, it’s possible that not all students have 100% of need met. For instance, at Brandeis University, 75% of students had their full need met. We’re not trying to rain on anyone’s parade. Instead, we want to help families have a realistic expectation of what â€Å"100% of need met† really means. Are you looking to save money on school? We can help. Find colleges that can be the most generous to your student with merit scholarships. Use our College Free Money Finderto make the searching fast and easy!