Does the college consider this package as meeting full need?

Cost of tuition, fees, room and board are $44,345. They don’t include travel, books and personal expenses in the financial aid plan.

EFC $15,500 (a stretch, but not wildly out of line)
Merit aid $18,000
Need-based grant $ 3.600
Direct loans $5,500
Work-study $1,750

Total $44.350

It’s still a going to be hard to pay for, but we will probably ultimately go with this school. Since the numbers are so close, I’m curious if a school would pat itself on the back for meeting full need here.

Not a mind reader…what is your aid? Can’t tell you if it meets full need without seeing it.

Sorry, I hit the tab button and it posted way too early. It’s been edited.

Yes, the school has met your need as far as your direct cost are concerned. However, you should back out the work study because you do not have it until you actually get a job and work. You will have to come up with $1745 to meet your direct cost.

Does the school claim to meet 100% demonstrated need?

Your parents are responsible for their EFC. The student contribution from summer earnings is what is supposed to be used for books, start up cost and travel to school

I think colleges calculate “need” as being the total cost of attendance minus your EFC. So if the school’s cost is $45,000 and your EFC is $15,000, then they will deem themselves to have ‘met need’ by providing you $30,000 worth of financial aid.

Is the total cost to attend this college $44,350? If so, your need has been met.

Was your fafsa EFC $15,500?

Yes, the FAFSA EFC is $15,500. And no, the college doesn’t claim it meets full need, but since the two numbers were so close once I added in work-study, I wondered if the college counted it as meeting full need even though books, etc. were not taken into consideration.

Yes…sounds like a good award. It basically meets your need. Schools do not award need based aid for the EFC…and many do expect that the student will contribute as well from earnings form a job.

The school my daughter attends did this with the NPC, putting anything not covered into the PLUS loan and at the bottom of the page it said “Out Of Pocket (OOP) costs? -0-” This school does have a high number of international students, so not everyone qualifies for federal loans and there are students whose OOP does not read zero.

I didn’t really like it but then again, I’m not a person who takes out a loan and only cares about the monthly payment (once I was taking out a car loan and the bank person kept saying ‘you’re at $176, or $187 for 60 months’ I really had no idea what she was talking about). Some people really don’t care about the loan amount, only how much they are going to have to pay OOP to start school and they like seeing that there is an OOP of $0 option.

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1675058-meet-full-need-schools-can-vary-significantly-in-their-net-prices-p1.html shows how net price can vary by a lot between different schools that claim to “meet full need”. How each college defines its own EFC for a given financial situation and therefore “need”, and what it expects for a student contribution (student loan and student work earnings) is the source of such variation.

Two in…this student financial aid package does not include the Plus Loan. It includes the aid package plus their EFC which adds up to the cost of attendance. That package meets full need.

Colleges do NOT give need based aid to fill the EFC.

OP is asking if the school considers that it has met the full need, and I think it does, and if there is a questionnaire or ranking that asks ‘Met full need of students’ that school will say yes, it did, and pat itself on the back as OP suggested. You can borrow the EFC through a Plus loan as long as the total of all grants, scholarships and loans doesn’t exceed the COA. I do think schools consider ‘full need’ met if they figure out a way for a student to attend, even if the way the need is met is through loans.

No…meeting full need means that the school met your NEED…which does not include your family contribution. This school absolutely met the full need. Need is the COA minus your EFC.

Did they give the kid a full free ride? No. But expecting the family to pay their EFC is …well…expected…and need based aid doesn’t fund that.

Yes…this school met full NEED. Covered everything except the EFC.

It is up to the family to pay the EFC and figure out how to fund that amount. The school doesn’t care how it is funded, as long as the bill is paid. But schools do not include the EFC amount in need based aid.

I am a parent and asked the question because I wondered if there was any hope in asking for more aid. There is nothing cheaper in D’s options, except a state school she didn’t like, so there is no leverage.

Barbalot. Schools do not give need based aid to pay the EFC.

The school believes it met your full need, imo.

Wait…WHAT is the school’s COA? You’re not saying what the COA is. You’re just saying that tuition, room board and fees are. What school is this??? There should ALSO be books, travel, and personal expenses ADDED in…and is part of the COA.

You haven’t told us what the COA is…so, if the COA is higher (likely is) then this school has NOT met need.

From the OP

The student got everything but $15,500 met with need based aid.

Most schools expect a student to contribute towards personal expenses…the student contribution.

i wish the OP would name the school so we could know if the $44k is the COA…or if the OP just added the direct costs to the school (which is different from COA).

If the COA is actually higher (once travel, books, and personal expenses are added), then EFC was not met (assuming this is a FAFSA only school).

At a FAFSA only school, the student self-help contribution is still part of EFC when determining if need is met.

for example… (using round numbers)

IF the school’s COA is something like:

$44k for tuition, room, board and books
$1500 for travel
$3000 for personal expenses
$1500 for books and supplies

then…COA is $50,000

$50,000 COA

$15,000 EFC

$35,000 equals need

Merit aid $18,000
Need-based grant $ 3.600
Direct loans $5,500

Work-study $1,750

FA = $28,850

If so, then need was not met. There is a gap of about $6000

Even if the school is assuming that the student should work and cover that remaining $6k, that is still a gap. Need was not met.

The work study and the student loans are what is considered to be “student self help”. A summer work expectation is not considered to be a part of “meeting need” for a FAFSA only school. A student summer work expectation would be part of EFC, not part of meeting “need”.

And the OP also stated very clearly…the school does not guarantee to meet full need. That being th case, this award is pretty good.

If they don’t have a mor affordable option, it’s because the student applied to schools that are too costly.