In my experience, yes they do. (Obviously, this can vary based on each school’s FA policies.)
See the example listed in post #35. USC and WUStL claim to “meet full need”, but produce a higher net price than UCLA for California residents, which claims to meet 82.6% of need of frosh who got any need-based aid (meaning in-state students with need since there is no need-based aid for out-of-state students) in its common data set.
The school’s calculation of need is going to vary widely simply by whether or not they weigh home equity, the extendt to which they consider it, and the method they use to calculate equity. And that’s just one of many possible variables.
The discrepency that #ucbalumnus notes between USC & WUSTL vs. UCLA is easily explained by the fact that UCLA considers FAFSA only (no home equity, no noncustodial parent information) – whereas I believe USC and WUSTL are both CSS Profile schools that do consider those factors.
And yes, I am sure there are many cases of schools that do not promise full need offering more generous aid than full need schools, but it is hard to tease out because most of the non-full-need schools also offer merit money and they tend to leverage their aid packages. So if a student has $15,000 of need and the school gives a $5000 merit grant and $10,000 of need-based aid – is that a full need package?
“Meets full need” does mean a lot, but it is not something that can be tied to a dollar amount or the expectation that the financial aid will be comparable from one school to the next. But it does mean that the school is making a commitment and will tend to follow the same aid formula from one year to the next.
As a parent I had no clue what the financial aid awards would look like from each college, and they varied considerably from one school to the next – but I did know that based on my income & assets we definitely would get SOME aid – and I could figure out what factors were likely to influence the awards. So it wasn’t groping around in the dark either.
Most colleges DO include personal expenses, books and transportation in the cost of attendance…and also consider those when considering financial need. This is definitely true of schools guaranteeing to meet full need for all.
Some do NOT include the cost of school provided health insurance.