Lately I’ve been using these data points at the bottom of US-News pages to get an idea of what financial aid colleges are giving. If you scroll down to “Costs and Financial Aid” and look at the blue graph labeled Financial aid statistics, you can see what I am talking about. For example University of Florida (http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/university-of-florida-1535) seemed like a good school for financial aid as 95% is the average percent of need met.
Then, I just got bored and looked at U of California Berkeley (http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/uc-berkeley-1312) and I see that 96.5% of the time the need is fully met, and they average meeting 97.5% of the aid. Sounded absolutely fantastic to me, but I know for a fact that the UC’s don’t give any aid to OOS students (or at least barely any - nothing close to 97.5%). Then, I thought, perhaps these numbers are just for instate students, but above it, it says that the average scholarship or grant award is 23 grand. But including Room and Board, the in-state tuition is only 27 grand. I could easily understand how some in-state student would pay this much but I just find it hard to believe that the average amount people are paying after applying for aid is only 4 grand??? Now, my new theory is that the number includes giving out parent loans, which is sometimes included in the financial aid package, but doesn’t exactly help out the parents so much. So do these numbers include parent loans or do they completely represent something else?
Seems like financial aid calculators are my best bet to get real numbers, but it can be time-saving when looking at thousands of colleges to get a quick idea of what kind of aid they can give. So hopefully someone can explain these numbers to me and perhaps I am just deeply confused with what all of these numbers really mean. Thanks.
You need to look at the information in context. UF is a good school for financial aid if you’re from FLA and have Bright Futures scholarship available. That’s how that need is met. For the UCs they have CalGrant scholarships for in-state students. Are you in-state for either one? If not those sources won’t apply. The numbers are not supposed to include parent loans.
The best thing you can do is fill out the Net Price Calculator on each school’s web site and see what it says.
Thank you, that seems to makes sense, and I am out of state for both (Missouri).
Although I am still confused about the Berkeley one, as it says that “the average need-based scholarship or grant award is $23,099”, so I am confused how 47.5% are averaging 4 grand in college expensives. Perhaps that is really just the case?
And also the school has 30% OOS students, and I am sure at least some of them applied for financial aid. Wouldn’t the extremely low OOS aid where it is almost 0% need met deeply lower that huge number of averaging almost 100%.
The stats are for enrolled students. Those who had high need and didn’t receive sufficient aid likely enrolled elsewhere.
Parent loans are not counted as meeting need, but student loans and student self help are.
Google Berkeley Common Data Set … the numbers in there are at least consistent school to school.
Yes about 50% of students get average amount of $25K. I guess 50% have high need, but remember Ca has some programs that cap middle income tuitions and I guess room and board and other expenses too.
Loans are listed separately as self-help.
The education fee / OOS supplement is never subsidized, apparently forbidden by state law.
You can now look at other comparable schools.
One thing useful is to see how many merit and athletic awards are granted at various schools. and % need met.
For example, UCB has only 129 $5K merit awards out of 5,000 freshman and 130 $20 x awards for athletes. So, unless you are exceptional for Berkeley, you ain’t getting one or the other.
It is not particularly useful to guess average financial amounts are near your likely amounts. This logic seems to be a favorite on online resources like USNWR, but unless you are their mean financial aid person, why do you care what others get ?
The NPC would be a much better tool to determine likely financial aid packages.
^^^
this is right. Those numbers don’t reflect the awards that got sent out with acceptances. Many high need OOS students never enrolled because their pkgs were awful, so their stats aren’t included.
Typically, the only OOS students who can afford to attend are the full pay ones.
OOS students have to pay EFC PLUS $23k plus full loans/work study. Obviously, a 0 EFC student can’t pay $23k plus full loans, etc. So, likely mostly the OOS students are ones whose families can pay the $53k per year.
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Then, I thought, perhaps these numbers are just for instate students, but above it, it says that the average scholarship or grant award is 23 grand. But including Room and Board, the in-state tuition is only 27 grand. I could easily understand how some in-state student would pay this much but I just find it hard to believe that the average amount people are paying after applying for aid is only 4 grand????
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The instate COA is about $32k. The UCs are very generous to instate low income students.
The UCs seem to be filled with a bunch of kids who either qualify for Blue and Gold, or are full pay.
Bright Futures in Florida doesn’t cover tuition. Used to, but no longer. It is either $77 of $103 per credit, depending on your level, which comes out to about $2300 or $3100 per year. Tuition is about $6500 at most schools, and there are other costs and fees. Many people in Florida purchase prepaid tuition plans when their kids are young, so their ‘need’ is met with their own money. There are a few other scholarships associated with all the state schools, but I know a lot of kids who were paying $15000 or more even after BF. Loans are included in ‘meeting need’. Pell and other federal money are included.
Just because it says 95% are getting need met doesn’t mean 95% are getting grants or scholarships or free money. Loans, work study, etc. are part of it, and also determining that a student has no need because anything above the EFC has been covered is also a part of it.
Thank you to everyone, it seems like the main reason I was confused was because this is for the enrolled numbers, and for a very expensive school like California you are either going to be able to afford it or you would be in state and be getting most of the money.
Getting different answers on the loans though, I get the logic as to why it is possible that these numbers don’t include loans, but 98% and 95% seem like such large numbers especially since twoinanddone says this bright future aid isn’t really that much, and because I would think there would be a decent amount of OOS people going into Berkeley with around 40-45k in EFC that get no aid and still decide to go that at least would make these numbers not look so much like 100%, and I’m confused why the other UC’s are a bit lower if it’s all the same Cal Grant Aid (Maybe rich people are just smarter and going to Berkeley idk that could just be a coincidence too), so I guess it’s still totally possible it doesn’t include loans. And to be honest it doesn’t really matter anymore because it seems like these numbers are useless to me considering the fact that I wouldn’t be offered the in-state opportunities. Although it sounds like the graph will be helpful if I am looking at a private school. I still know the NPC is much better, but it’d be nice to get a quick idea when looking at lots of colleges, but that’s alright.
UC COA = not 27k. More like 32-33k
Sooo there’s an average parent EFC of 10k for those that applied for financial aid. Full pay families most likely didn’t apply cause they knew they wouldn’t qualify.
Why do you want to get an idea of average financial aid statistics? How will this benefit you? Is it simply curiousity?
If a school meets an average of 97% of need…remember…that includes students who have a very low amount of need as well. This does not mean that Cal gives 97% aid to everyone.
If a student’s need is $3500 and they get a $3500 Direct Loan, their need has been fully met.
Thumper, that is what I would expect to see on a school that averages 97% of need met, but they are averaging 23 grand in aid not $3500. Maybe i’m misreading it? Lilliana does help explain why they could average that amount, but it’s weird because on US-News the price comes out to 28 grand, and even on Berkeley’s website it says they will charge about 28 grand. Maybe that just assumes less credits than normal or something.
And Madison, I’m honestly kind of confused how average financial aid statistics doesn’t help me (a student who needs financial aid). If these numbers for Cal Berkeley were what I thought they meant on the graph, it would be the number one school on my list, but I already know the UC’s don’t give good aid so it’s not even on my list. Yes I know I can run the financial calculator and spend lots of my time on each college. (But remember I’m only a kid, for some of these financial questions, I need my parents and they aren’t at my beckon call). And it doesn’t work when I’m looking at beyond an extraordinary amount of colleges. I have to research the departments/social life and atmosphere before I even know if I want to go to the school, and then once I figure out I like a college, I could run the calculator and learn they don’t give aid so all that time was worthless. And on the complete flip-side, I can get my parents to come around and fill out the calculator and then later learn that I don’t even like the school.
It would be beyond beneficial if these graphs could give me a general view of what they give to students, but now as I have learned through this thread, the graphs are useless to me since both A) they are only for enrolled students, and B) I don’t get the instate opportunities. Not blaming the website though, it just so happens that data isn’t good for someone like me.
Would be great if I could see the average percent need met to all accepted students both in and out of state. But for now, back to the calculators.
No they are saying that 97% of need is met. So if the need is $100, and the person gets $97…the school has met 97% of need.
If a person has $10,000 in need and gets $9700, 97% of need has been met.
I completely understand what you are saying, and I know that the number means how much of the need is met. I’m using this quote “the average need-based scholarship or grant award is $23,099”.
So if the school costed 28 grand as listed on US-News and the average aid is 23 grand, and the school meets nearly 100% of it, that would imply that the average need is 23 grand. Then, that would imply that the average EFC is roughly 5 grand (or roughly 10 grand if the school costs 33k). So, they would need 23 more grand which is what the school is giving them or at least 97% of it, I just find it super hard to believe that in the city of California, where everything costs more, that the average EFC is this low. Seems like the EFC is anywhere between 1/6 - 1/3 of the income, so that would imply that the majority of people who applied for need are only making 15-30k. Which is a very possible and legitimate number for people wanting aid for this school, but I can’t believe that this is the average. I would think the people with 15-25k in EFC would deeply lower this average down. It would seem to only make sense if they gave this much to OOS, but we all know they don’t so its very confusing.
@thesteve…a calgrant recipient at the UCs would get aid in just about that amount. The Calgrat is given to students with family incomes of $80,000 or less (the amount is higher if there are more family members).
Really in order to fill out the NPC’s for the many colleges you need only a certain set of numbers from your folks. Once they do it once you can sub those in each place. Earning, number of people in family, number in college, investments…
It sounds like finances are just as likely to keep you from going somewhere as admission.
Not to complicate this further but realize in some situations like if they own a business or are divorced there may be problems with the NPC too. Financial aid is very complicated (for example EFC may be the least you have to pay), you should read up on some of the threads. Best to you.
That would then make sense thumper, thank you.
And yes Tempe, you are right, most of the things I can fill in again, I guess my main complaint is just the time it takes. There’s nothing too special for my family, but I know these NPC are not always perfect so I’ll probably throw in some financial reach schools just to see what really happens. And thank you too.
OP, those numbers are very likely. Median income in CA is 61k. UC’s have been adamant about accepting students of diverse socioeconomic backgrounds recently -which essentially means accepting more low/modest income students. A lot of low-income families are unaware of the meet-need private colleges, so they often look towards state schools. And if you’ve been brought up in CA, you’ve most likely been hearing about UC’s your whole life. So when tons of low-income CA kids get into UC’s each year with excellent aid, it’s very likely they will attend one over another college.
The way aid works at a UC: you either get it or you don’t. For incomes above 80k, there isn’t really a sliding scale for aid like some generous private colleges have. There’s the middle class scholarship -however, it’s not exactly a proportional/fair amount, thus middle class families most likely do not end up attending a UC. And upper class families probably don’t even bother to apply.
Good explanation, that data definitely makes sense to me now, thank you!
OOS students don’t get Cal Grants, and the $80k income threshold doesn’t apply to OOS students, either.