<p>So when college says they'll meet 100% student financial need is this a good thing? how is this different from a school that doesn't meet 100%?</p>
<p>Bump! 
I think I would like to know the answer to this as well.</p>
<p>Give the question a bit more thought and the answer may come to you.</p>
<p>Schools that claim to meet 100% will meet 100% of your Efc defined by their own caluclations…</p>
<p>Damond3 is correct, and this is very important to understand. A college that meets 100% of need does not necessarily meet 100% of what you actually need … they meet 100% of what they determine to be your need. If your family is willing and able to pay what the school believes they should be able to pay, it’s a good thing. If not, then it’s not an option. Of course, they would probably be offering more than a school that does not meet need … so there’s that. It is a good idea for students who would be in a position to get into a college that meets 100% of need to also apply to colleges where they would be able to get significant merit aid (if you can get into a 100% need-meeting school, you can qualify for a good merit scholarship somewhere not so “elite”). Hedge your bets.</p>
<p>In addition, part of your need is likely to be covered with loans in addition to grants & WS. There are only a few very selective schools that have no loan policies; some do have no loans for families with incomes below a certain threshold.</p>
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<p>Unless the college that doesn’t-meet-full-need offers merit scholarships which, depending on the finances of the family, could be more than the ‘need.’</p>
<p>Yeah I was confused because isn’t it the same as an average financial aid package from a school since thats a mixture of merit, need based aid and loans? and what if your efc is 0?</p>
<p>No, it is not the same as an average financial aid package. Average is just that … average. 100% need-meeting means that your combination of merit, need based aid, and loans will meet your calculated need … if the school doesn’t promise to meet need, your combination of merit, need based aid, and loans might not meet your calculated need or even be as large as the “average” (or your calculated need might not be as large as the average).</p>
<p>If your EFC is 0, and if the need-meeting school calculates your EFC for its own purposes as 0 (keep in mind that sometimes students with a federal EFC of 0 on FAFSA will not have an institutional EFC of 0 due to different formulas - but often they do, so you might) - you would have all of your costs covered by your merit, need based, and loans. If you go to a school that does not meet need, you might have your costs covered - some schools work hard to help the 0 EFC students - but very often your costs will not be covered. In that case, you will most likely want to decline, because you would not be able to afford the school.</p>
<p>Oh ok I understand now, so when a school meets 100% need that means they’ll cover all the expenses with a combination of grants, loans, merit while a school that doesn’t wont cover all the costs sometimes and not be affordable. Thanks for letting me know</p>
<p>No, it doesn’t mean that either. It sounds like you are confusing </p>
<p>“Meets 100% of need*”</p>
<p>with</p>
<p>“I’ll get enough money in loans, grants and scholarships to pay for 100% of the Cost of Attendance which is tuition, room, board, books, travel, and incidentals, and my parents and I won’t have to take a penny out of our own pockets”</p>
<p>*The school may calculate that you only ‘need’ $10,000 and that your family can afford to pay $25,000 from its assets, savings, current earnings.</p>
<p>thatguy, do you have a 0 EFC?</p>
<p>Ok so its what the school calculates what u need based on your financial information?</p>
<p>@kelsmom yeah my efc is 0</p>
<p>Yes. Sometimes it matches your FAFSA EFC, sometimes it does not. My daughter attended a school that meets need without loans. They calculated our EFC as the FAFSA calculated it - not higher. We did have to pay our EFC, but the remainder was covered with scholarships/grants.</p>
<p>Are you a senior, and have you applied to a school that meets need?</p>
<p>@kelsmom thats cool, I hopefully i wont have to take out loans but most likely i might have to</p>
<p>Wait what happens if i applied to schools that said meets on average 80-90% of need? and my efc is zero. Would this mean I might have all expenses covered?</p>
<p>It’s hard to say. Probably not, but maybe so. It all depends. I know it’s not helpful, but really there is no way to know for sure. Every student’s case is different. I would not count on need being met at a school that does not always meet need … but sometimes it is. Best to assume you would end up owing (and there would already be loans in the package that meets, say, 80% of your need). With a 0 EFC, how would you come up with that gap between aid and cost? It’s okay to apply, but don’t get your heart set on it.</p>
<p>Averages are just averages. Look up the schools you are considering on collegedata.com, under the “Money Matters” tab.</p>
<p>Random example, Valparaiso University:</p>
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<p>So the average aid is 81% of need met, but 24% had full need met. OTOH, that means that some significant number had even less than 81% need met.</p>