How generous is MHC with financial aid? I’m not a prodigy and didn’t get a 34 on ACT or have a 4.0 GPA but I think I am a very promising student. I am varsity dance, am in 6 clubs, and have over 200 hours of community service. I also won an award for equality and went to the state Capitol to receive it from a Representative. I’m also African American. My family makes less than about 55,000 a year. We could NEVER afford this place. Should I just end this little fantasy I have of going here? 
MHC is a school that meets 100% of financial aid, so if you apply, they will match whatever your EFC is. I have read that a lot of low-income and even middle class students end up in a situation where MHC actually ends up being cheaper for them through this financial aid than their state schools… so don’t lose hope yet! MHC also offers merit aid packages to select students, which is evaluated holistically, not solely on GPA or test scores.
I am applying to MHC this year too 
Good luck!
Just to clarify stitchpony’s reply…
MHC is a 100% meets-full-need school. They use the FAFSA as well as the CSS profile to determine you family’s EFC (Estimated Family Contribution.) You can get an idea of what your EFC will be by running the Net Price Calculator here: https://npc.collegeboard.org/student/app/mtholyoke
If you are accepted, Mount Holyoke will meet all of your expenses EXCEPT the EFC: they will do that by providing grants, work-study, and the federal subsidized student loans, which cannot exceed a certain amount each year and don’t add up to a huge unmanageable debt. If you run the NPC I linked, you will see on the last page exactly what the loans would be, how much work-study they expect (usually <10 hrs/week) and what your family will actually be expected to pay out of pocket.
I think you will be delighted to see how affordable it actually is!!!
Keep in mind that while the COA (Cost of Attendance) they use does include tuition, room & board, and some discretionary money for travel, books, etc, there may be a few other expenses not accounted for. For example your travel costs may be higher than the allowance. And health insurance is not included. (Last year the student health insurance plan was about $1800.)
Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. You made me feel at ease about all of this and good with your applying!
In comparison to the other women’s colleges my daughter was accepted at, MHC’s financial aid was the most generous package she received. We are not paying anything near the “sticker price” although she will have a few loans at the end. While it is costing us slightly more to send her there than a state school it is more than worth it for the academics, opportunities, and the extra attention she gets from staff and professors. (Also MHC didn’t raise their tuition for a couple years in the not too distant past so compared to peer institutions it has remained “affordable”. :))
The fee can be waived.
Yes, the health plan can be waived if the student has another health plan that meets the requirements… in our case the health plan at home was more expensive than the student plan. Also, if you have an outside plan you must pay an extra fee of a couple hundred dollars for the campus health center. Anyway: my point was simply that the COA is not all-inclusive when planning college costs. We initially made that mistake when budgeting and I was just trying to advise the OP so they can avoid our mistake
I second about waiving health insurance. We are out of state but part of the Anthem network and we were able to meet the Massachusetts requirement and get the health insurance waived. We did however elect for the Pre-paid on campus health care ($220 per year) which enables students to use the on campus health clinic more affordably if there is a problem and gave us parents some peace of mind.
About the F/A, like mentioned above, it includes grants, work study, subsidized federal loans but you will pay your EFC as they determine it. But you can reduce that further by using the unsubsidized federal loans as well as a portion of any scholarship money that you might receive. The amount we pay actually comes to less than those in the state school system that we have in PA.
Another extra fee that wasn’t mentioned is for some of the PE classes. I had fencing and there was an extra $25 for that. I heard that any of the equestrian PE classes charge an additional $500 to help pay for the horses.
As for the books, rent or buy used will save you hundreds of dollars per semester.
I knew that. 
I simply didn’t want Danjeh to panic if she believed she would be reasonable for health insurance, as it’s possible to have it waived.
As usual, you’re far more informative and helpful than I. I completely forgot about the heath insurance requirement
When applying to different LAC’s please keep in mind that not all of them are need blind when it comes to admissions. Having said that, MHC admits every year a large number of students who need large financial aid packages.