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.