<p>Considering your financial situation you need to check out a variety of 100% need schools AND run the Net Price calculators on each website.
Each school will decide how much your family can pay and it can be quite different; then, they can decide to give you less than what you need. That’s where the “100% need” schools come in: they decide how much you can pay, but they will give you enough. If you have high financial need (which should be your case) this list is one to comb through carefully.
[100%</a> Meet Need Colleges | CollegeGreenlight](<a href=“Colleges with Need-Blind Admission for U.S. Students”>Colleges with Need-Blind Admission for U.S. Students)</p>
<p>The most prestigious schools tend to be the most generous; some schools, like Davidson, won’t even package a loan (it’ll all be grants) if they admit you. Of course, the difficulty is to get admitted…</p>
<p>A school may be very expensive, like Sarah Lawrence, yet provide students with excellent financial aid. Sticker price does not reflect how much you’ll have to pay but you absolutely cannot trust that the money will take care of itself. You have to run the NPCs. For one student, it went from a $541 family net contribution to a $12,500 contribution depending on college (the $541 college was a 100% need met college)! A student whose family income is below $30,000 was estimated to pay almost $19,000 by NYU for example…</p>
<p>I agree with MrMom in #7: a student who has Vassar, Macalester, and Pepperdine on the same list has not done proper research into the schools. Check out each website, obviously (after you’ve run the NPCs). Then go to your school or town library and borrow the Fiske Guide, Insider’s guide to the colleges, and/or Princeton review’s best colleges.</p>