Colleges Meeting 100 Percent of Financial Need?

Paying for College
1

<p>Harvard says it meets 100 percent of demonstrated need, </p>

<p><a href="http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/faqs/financial_aid/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/faqs/financial_aid/&lt;/a> </p>

<p>and MIT says so too. </p>

<p><a href="http://web.mit.edu/finaid/fin_aid/index.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://web.mit.edu/finaid/fin_aid/index.html&lt;/a> </p>

<p>I'd like to hear about how many other colleges there are that say they will meet 100 percent of demonstrated financial need for their admitted applicants. I'd also like to hear about any details of this kind of policy that might be unfamiliar to parents new to the process. (I worked my way through an undergraduate degree at a state university, with no financial aid--long story--and I don't have any kids who have reached college age yet.) I'm curious about how all this works, especially from the point of view of a parent.</p>

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<p>There are lots who meet 100%. The question is how and how much financial need is determined. Also, how aid is broken into grants (free), loans and work study. For example, D1 goes to a school that meets 100% of demonstrated need. 1 year costs $40K. They calculated family contribution to be $33K, very close to FAFSA number. So that leaves $7K in aid. $2.5K was Stafford loan (that's always the first aid given). $2.5K was a work study job. $2K was a grant.</p>

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<p>to add on a bit, basically, the 100% need-met schools will take your EFC (expected family contribution, usually calculated with FAFSA) and then calculate the difference between that and the amount that they have determined it costs to go to their school. Then they give you the max amount of federal loans/workstudy/grants (I'm not sure what order they max them out at, or if they divide them equally, probably depends on the financial state of the school) and if there's anything left over, it is usually covered by a university "scholarship" or grant.</p>

<p>princeton review has a good section on understanding financial aid</p>

<p>On a side note, princeton university (not related to princeton review) has a nice policy that eliminates loans and gives only grants to fill 100% of need.</p>

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<p>Yes, I particularly had Princeton in mind because I attended their regional information session here recently and heard of undergraduates getting their diplomas with NIL debt. That's cool. Term-time work is not a problem for a kid who wants to do research anyhow. I used the financial aid estimator on Princeton U's own Web site, and the picture appeared to be that any of my children, if they got in at all, would have no worries about affording going to Princeton.</p>

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<p>when a school say 100% need, a large, very large part of that can also include loans, so you might be in some serious debt when you graduate, princeton IMO is the most generous of all the ivies</p>

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<p>read the full pay thread on the parents forum, where a lot of this is discussed</p>

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<p>go to <a href="http://www.collegeconfidential.com/discus/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.collegeconfidential.com/discus/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Financial Aid thread , a lot of this has been discussed in depth</p>