<p>What does "100% need based aid met" mean? My family makes less than 40K combined annually. The colleges that I am looking at are around projected at a cost of 45K per year, but the tuition is about 33K. So if the college states that it meets all the need of a family that makes less than 40K, does that mean that I will get 33K or 45K? Also, what form will the aid be in? Is it all in grants? Thanks in advance for answering my question!</p>
<p>They'll take the difference between you EFC .(from the FAFSA/CSS Profile/Both) and total cost of their college costs and create a package that usually has grant, loan, work study components. If you get merit aid, it usually reduces the self-help portion of the aid award (i.e. work study and loan). 100% of need met is that the school typically meets each applicant's total aid requirements (based on the difference between your family's EFC and the cost of the school). If the college says it guarentee to meet need, it will meet the difference. If it does not say that, it does not guarentee it.</p>
<p>to piggy back on Ilseboy's post demonstrated need is as follows:</p>
<p>Cost of Attendance - EFC (of parent and student) = Demonstrated need</p>
<p>demonstrated need will be in the form of :</p>
<p>self help- loans, work study
grants and scholarships</p>
<p>Keep in mind that just because a school meets 100% of your demonstrated need does not mean that it will be met using all grant/scholarship aid because a school can give you loans and will have still met your demonstrated need.</p>
<p>i would suggest looking up your school on the college board's website. click the tab for financial aid then scroll down to see how aid is packaged (the percentage of scholarship/grant aid vs. % loans work)</p>
<p>Each school has a COA (cost of attendance) that you can get from the admissions/financial aid offices or web site. That magic number is what limits your school/govt aid and loans. If your dorm, your books, your food costs more than what they have allotted, you need to discuss with the school about the differential. Govt funds only cover up to COA. so any additional funds have to come from the school's coffers.</p>
<p>The school will determine your need from whatever financial aid form they use for those purposes. FAFSA is used for most colleges, but the ones who tend to guarantee 100% or close to that tend to use FAFSA for qualification of federal funds, and then give their funds based on Profile (with their own special questions often) or their own form. It is that number that is used for EFC in the above equations and it may not be the FAFSA EFC or your family's personal determination of need. Then they will provide the aid in form of self help as well as scholarship/grants, as Sybbie well illustrates. So 100% is not necessarily 100% in the family's eyes, though it is by school definition. The most selective schools with huge endowments tend to be the most generous with few or no loans, and extra money to cover costs outside of COA in some cases.</p>