Hi, I have this data from the various websites on colleges with full needs met, just wondering whether they really are ?
USC
Duke
U of Virginia
WUSTL
Northeastern
Also more than 90% needs met -
U of Florida
U of Miami
Lehigh
Thanks for any clarifications.
As they define need. Which may not be the same way you do! Run the net price calculator in each college website to get an idea of what you would have to pay.
Run the net price calculator on each college.
Whether a college “meets need” (by its own definition of “need”) does not matter. What matters is what net price it is likely to give you and if you can afford that net price.
Ok thanks for all your replies.
A school that meets full need will do so based on their own calculation of need, which may be quite different than yours. You will still need to pay your EFC and very often ( not always) a profile school will have a higher EFC than what you see on the FAFSA. It’s best to run the NPC to get a look at what these schools will cost. If your student is applying to the schools noted above, then he/she may also qualify for merit aid at schools that are not on this list.
I agree that what ultimately matters is the net price a college is likely to give you and whether you can afford that net price. Nevertheless, in building a good candidate list to investigate, it can be helpful to know which ones at least claim to meet full need. Then run your own net price estimates on the schools that appeal to you.
Remember that “meets full need” may include loans which some students don’t expect. And may assume a student contribution.
The NPCs give an “estimated net price” quote that reflects only grant/gift aid, then a second quote that also reflects “self help”. So if you run the NPCs before you apply, you should know in advance whether to expect loans.
If a school meets “90% need” on average that number is actually rather meaningless.
A few examples.
This statistic does NOT mean that students get 90% of THEIR need met…or that 90% of the cost of attending is met.
Here is an example of how “meet full need” schools can show very different net prices:
This example is a few years old, so you should not rely on the actual numbers shown (even if the examples match your situation), but run the net price calculators on your list of schools now.
My daughter received $500 from UCLA plus $2000 for Regents Scholar. Net price $33,000 (in state)
She had various other packages including $28,000/Duke and $29,000/Santa Clara, $27,000/Cornell
She now attends Vanderbilt/$47,000 in aid. Net price around $15,000
Luckily, she loves it!
I ran a LOT of calculators and they are definitely all over the board.
Some great info and tips here. I ran the NPC on some of the places my son is applying and here are the results -
College OOP annual cost Loan
Duke 2600 0
USC 2500 5500
UV 0 7000
CWRU 3129 5500
Lehigh 7010 3500
Bos U 3000 2500
NE 8038 5500
NW 10481 0
Some of them asked for SAT scores and GPA, all asked for income and savings, which
in my case is below poverty level.
Forgot to mention, SAT = 1490 and GPA 3
Re: #11
Do the numbers you list include the student work earnings or work study contribution?
The total net price = student work + loans + parent contribution = list price - grants.
A GPA of 3.0 may be a very difficult admit to a number of the colleges on your list.
The GPA is not really 3. It is 75% which I translate to 3. But I know many of these big universities read 75% as higher than 3. World Education Services, for instance, will translate this to a 4.
You’re US citizens who live overseas & can only contribute $5k/year, right? Do you qualify for a Pell grant? If so, you’d have ~$5k Pell + ~$5500 student loan + your $5k/year + ~$3k summer work earnings to work with – if you can find a school that offers guaranteed merit for your son’s stats, you might be able to make that work. Just don’t forget to add in the travel expenses and health insurance costs.
You may want to compare costs using only the Estimated Net Price, consistently, without subtracting “self help”. Although a school’s estimate may not indicate a loan, you could take one anyway. It distorts the comparison to apply self help to some estimates but not others.
Here’s the line-up I get after adding loan amounts to the out-of-pocket cost figures in post #11:
$13,538 NE
$10,510 Lehigh
$10,481 NW
$ 8,629 CWRU
$ 8,000 USC
$ 7,000 UV
$ 5,500 Bos U
$ 2,600 Duke
Of course, these estimates are very sensitive to changes in the input (for income, assets, etc.)
I ran estimates using the College Board NPCs for all these schools, assuming:
$60K family income, $30K in cash assets, 3.0-3.09 GPA, top 20%, 1490-1450 SAT taken March 2016 or later, Virginia residence (except for UVa/OOS estimate).
With these assumptions, here’s what I get (with an asterix marking colleges that claim to cover full demonstrated need):
$ 65,906 Bos U
$ 34,020 CWRU
$ 18,004 UVa * (OOS, MA resident)
$ 13,103 NE
$ 11,504 UVa * (in state)
$ 10,800 Duke *
$ 9,996 NW *
$ 9,804 Pomona *
$ 9,525 Lehigh *
$5,656 Bos U (assuming class rank improved to top 10% and GPA to 3.7-3.79)
The College Board NPCs don’t cover USC; I substituted Pomona (another “full-need” California college).
YMMV. Unfortunately, some of these schools will be way out of reach with only a 3.0 UW GPA (unless this number really equates to a much higher one at most other high schools).
I think I am understating the GPA. I am converting from 75% to 3 directly. I just looked at Lehigh’s site and they want all foreign transcripts to be evaluated by WES or some other accredited agency. I ran my son’s numbers thru WES’s calculator and it returned a 4.0 GPA.
UVa and UNC-CH are the two public universities that say they meet 100% of demonstrated need by US students. Both have extremely competitive out of state admissions. UVa typically does not offer any aid to international students, unless an international student wins one of the ultra-competitive Jefferson full merit scholarships, which need a separate application.
For UVa out of state students, UVa’s package typically includes $7,000 of federal loans per year. If the Perkins program ever ends, UVa says they intend to offer their own loans to make up the difference. UVa typically also includes work study in their packages. A student does not have to accept the work study, if they can find other funds, such as a well-paying summer job. The loan and work study amounts are lower for in-state UVa students.
Yes, UVa is on the Apply List and the 7000 loan package came up when I ran their NPC. UNC-CH does not offer engineering, so out of consideration.