Do private schools tend to offer more grants than loans in a fin aid package?

Paying for College
1

<p>Just curious... I become so restless thinking about fin aid, just because schools are so darn expensive!</p>

<p>Would 100% need schools offer more grants than loans? I'm guessing this is contingent on their endowments, but does anyone with experience have any idea?</p>

<p>Anyone know? Thanks in advance :)</p>

2

<p>For a good many schools, collegeboard.com provides some helpful information. For each school, click on “cost & financial aid” and scroll down to Financial Aid Statistics. Here’s an example (Rice U) of what you should see.</p>

<h1>Average percent of need met: 100%</h1>

<h1>Average financial aid package: $26,954</h1>

<h1>Average need-based loan: $1,184</h1>

<h1>Average need-based scholarship or grant award: $24,776</h1>

<p>Some schools don’t provide this information. Also, the data is a couple years old and some schools have changed their FA policy.</p>

<p>For even better info, see the common dataset for the school. Google: <school name=“”> common dataset. Section H, more specifically H2, provides the FinAid stats. This also includes self-help aid (work/study). Here’s a link to an example.</school></p>

<p>[Common</a> Data Set H](<a href=“http://virg.vanderbilt.edu/VIRGWEB/CDSH.aspx?year=2008]Common”>http://virg.vanderbilt.edu/VIRGWEB/CDSH.aspx?year=2008)</p>

<p>Again, the problem is that not all school make their common datasets available.</p>

<p>For the schools you are interested in you can and should try to get a hold of this data. Good luck.</p>

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<p>Thank you!</p>

4

<p>For most colleges, it depends on how much they want you. For example, NYU and George Washington offer wonderful grant packages to the top xx% of thier applicant pool, and mostly/all loans to the bottom xx %. Thus, it ain’t as easy as looking at the CDS, bcos it only reports averages – a full ride of $50k for one student and a full loan package of $50k for another averages out to a CDS report of $25k.</p>

<p>Only a few colleges are no-loan, and only a couple have the finaid resources of Harvard.</p>

5

<p>You really cannot base too much on the ‘averages’ without taking into account your financial situation. Financial aid is based on *your *need as calculated by the school. If I get a $40,000 grant and you get $0 our average grant would be $20,000. You would still have $0.</p>

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<p>But the averages are helpful when comparing one school with another, as are the %grant/%loan figures.</p>

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<p>^^ True, they are good for comparison purposes. </p>

<p>But I have seen a few posters in the past confused and upset because their awards are so much less than the ‘averages’ on the colleges sites. To be honest at 17-18, I would have been confused too.</p>

8

<p>Good point, swimcatsmom.</p>

<p>My EFC as calculated by FAFSA is somewhat high, and I’m guessing my institutional one will only be higher. I guess I can only hope…</p>