<p>applicannot, I looked at that website, but I did not see a chart showing how much the college requires in loans, work study, student contribution, etc.</p>
<p>whatever4, I will link to it directly.</p>
<p>[Project</a> on Student Debt: What’s the Bottom Line?](<a href=“http://www.projectonstudentdebt.org/ncoa_chart.php]Project”>http://www.projectonstudentdebt.org/ncoa_chart.php)</p>
<p>Thank you, applicannot! That is very interesting.</p>
<p>Note that the second link includes only schools that have made a formal pledge. The first link leads to all schools, including those already having low loans but didn’t make a formal pledge.</p>
<p>Mom2Collegekids, One college for us met more need with merit and grants, the other was just higher grants than another, re Conn College being lower than another.</p>
<p>Remember the colleges determine your need! </p>
<p>Calculate your own EFC’s from the worksheets in back of “Paying for College Without Going Broke”, by Kalman Chany, Princeton Review, 2010 Edition, with 2009 Tax Returns. </p>
<p>Are they meeting your need? Also, as Kalman Chany points out, no one ever checks on those statistics the colleges report for books, web sites, common data sets, etc! So the “average amount of debt at graduation”, may not be accurate, along with their other statistics! All the colleges’ reported stats should be taken with a grain of salt. (or maybe the whole cannister of salt) 
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<p>DO NOT GO TO UM. President Donna Shalala is violating the 1st amendment OF THE US CONSTITUTION by continuing to ban a magazine created by UM students; and now she is threatening us with charges, fines, and academic consequences if we continue to distribute on campus. </p>
<p>I personally withdrew from UM in response to the ban.</p>
<p>“All the colleges’ reported stats should be taken with a grain of salt.”</p>
<p>I would counsel instead to generally believe schools’ published statistics, so that decisions have some rational basis, unless you have a reason for doubting a particular number.</p>
<p>On the other hand, when you do find a discrepancy, point it out to the school; it worked for me when I found a discrepancy in one school’s Common Data Set.</p>
<p>“President Donna Shalala is violating the 1st amendment OF THE US CONSTITUTION”</p>
<p>No, the First Amendment doesn’t apply to private entities.</p>
<p>I was very disturbed to see the information on MIT in the link posted by Applicanot because my DS is applying there and will be hearing from them on Sunday.</p>
<p>According to the chart, people with our income level of around 120K have an institutional EFC of 50K, while our FAFSA EFC came out to 25K. My heart sank when I saw this because there is no way we could pay that kind of an EFC.</p>
<p>I posted this on the MIT forum and someone reminded me that MIT has an online calculator for financial aid. When I sat down and punched in our actual 2009 numbers, I got an EFC of 18K, which is great news.</p>
<p>So there may be inaccuracies in the chart. I, too, would take it with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>That chart also reports a higher family cost for my family for a student enrolled at MIT than does MIT’s calculator. It’s a good idea to apply widely and see what financial aid packages come from what colleges.</p>
<p>Student indebtedness that does not include EFC is IMO useless;
EFC that does not include family indebtedness is IMO useless.</p>
<p>Put the two together, and witness the current state of affairs.
Upenn has a table that shows average non-merit grant money based on income tier. That is useful, albeit very general, information.</p>
<p>The “Project on Student Debt” chart that applicantnot posted in this thread is not accurate for MIT. There’s a current discussion of this problem on the MIT site. </p>
<p>If anyone is interested in MIT and worried about the amount of financial aid they might expect, MIT has an online financial aid calculator here: <a href=“http://mitadmissions.org/financialaid/cac70C179start.html[/url]”>http://mitadmissions.org/financialaid/cac70C179start.html</a></p>
<p>Since that chart is flawed regarting MIT’s financial aid, I don’t think it can be trusted overall. Better to check with each individual school.</p>
<p>The charts, CDS reports and various sites all have important information, but they’re rarely entirely accurate for specific individuals. However, apps can form a general impression of which colleges will meet their needs and how. You can then research the individual college through their web site, cc and other college sites, and through information the finaid office supplies. I found that a direct call to someone of importance in the finaid office was very valuable.</p>
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<p>Like I said, the chart is mostly useful for $0 or very low EFC students; i.e., the first two categories ($20,000 and $40,000).</p>
<p>I have added some additional information from wikipedia to the US News list of schools.
- no loans if income limits not exceeded
** no loans at all</p>
<p>Adrian College
Amherst College**
Barnard College
Bates College
Boston College
Bowdoin College**
Brown University*
Bryn Mawr College
California Institute of Technology*
Carleton College
Chapman University
Claremont McKenna College**
Colby College**
Colgate University
College of Holy Cross
Columbia University**
Connecticut College
Cornell University*
Dartmouth College*
Davidson College**
Duke University*
Emory University*
Georgetown University
Gettysburg College
Grinnell College
Hamilton College
Harvard University**
Harvey Mudd College
Haverford College*
Lafayette College*
Macalester College
Massachusetts Institute of Technology*
Middlebury College
Mount Holyoke College
Northwestern University*
Oberlin College
Occidental College
Pitzer College
Pomona College**
Princeton University**
Reed College
Rice University*
Salem College
Scripps College
Smith College
St. Olaf College
Stanford University*
SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
Swarthmore College**
Thomas Aquinas College
Trinity College
Tufts University*
University of Chicago*
University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill*
University of Notre Dame
University of Pennsylvania*
University of Richmond
University of Virginia*
Vanderbilt University*
Vassar College*
Wabash College
Washington University*
Wellesley College*
Wesleyan University*
Williams College**
Yale University**</p>
<p>you can strike Williams off that list. Things can change rapidly in the finaid department, last years CDS might not mean much come acceptance time.</p>
<p>Be wary of colleges that offer great packages first year…then terrible packages later…</p>
<p>I agree anxioiusmom, my son’s package was going to stay the same unless income rose, but I have read on this site of parents that had FA office tell them, " the freshman year package wasn’t guaranteed, even if nothing changed!" That was a wake-up call to ask questions and then more questions.</p>
<p>re: Willliams
Current applicants are still promised no loans in their FA packages. In the future income limits will be applied, so remove one asterisk. Williams will still have excellent fin aid.</p>
<p>Williams is also cutting back on FA for international students, but FA for international students is usually different anyway, even at the schools on this list.</p>
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<p>Debruns in her reply mentioned that some colleges talk about later-year packages being subject to change even if family income and assets don’t change, but how else would a family know that a college has a policy like this, if the college doesn’t directly say so?</p>