<p>I know Davidson has a "no student loan" plan, but somehow I found something that says that Davidson alum are an average of 25k in debt. Is my source just dated or is Davidson finaid full of crap?</p>
<p>The Davidson Trust program was announced in 2007 and replaces the typical loan component of a financial aid package with a combination of grants and student employment. There are several reasons Davidson alumni might graduate with some student debt: former students didn’t have the benefit of this program and current students can still take out loan monies to apply towards the EFC of the family.</p>
<p>In our experience Davidson was the most generous of all the schools offering aid and the work study jobs have been readily available to satisfy that component of the package.</p>
<p>As the parent of an incoming Davidson freshman I have to agree. Davidson was consistent with the generous financial aid policies of several competitive schools that were in play, including its calculation of demonstrated need, which was met without incorporating loans. However, I’m sure many families find, like us, that their EFC is difficult or impossible to meet without loans. Davidson openly recognizes that some of its students will use them.</p>
<p>So it’s more a problem with the system of calculating financial need than it is with Davidson’s policies? That’s fine, I guess</p>
<p>Not sure I’d put it quite that way. My point is simply that we found Davidson’s financial aid to be ultimately as generous as several other schools that it arguably competes closely with; and much more generous than some other schools we considered.</p>
<p>How does Davidson factor their merit based aid? If you have a high EFC score, does the merit aid go towards the EFC or your demonstrated financial need package?</p>