<p>if my EFC is 15000 then if i go to a public school that meets 100% of financial aid.........will they meet everything besides 15000??</p>
<p>Then whats the point in choosing public over private if you are contributing the same??</p>
<p>Public universities usually do not promise to meet 100% of financial need. It is possible to get financial aid from them but it would be based on merit. </p>
<p>SOME private colleges and universities will meet 100% of need, as they define it. Even the most generous will include a self-help portion, to be met by summer earnings, possibly a small loan, and work-study.</p>
<p>Thus you can end up with a situation when an offer from a public will cost more than for a private school. However that depends on your family's income and asset, your academic and other accomplishments, and your ability to get into and want to go to a 100% need school.</p>
<p>Depending on how things play out, you could alternatively end up with a situation where the public university is less expensive. That might happen if the private school gives you a large EFC or you don't get into private schools that cover 100% of need or give you some grants but lots of loans.</p>
<p>Private schools often use profile which calculates your EFC differently from FAFSA which most publics use. And meeting full need does not always mean gift money. My D had full need met at her public but anything over merit money and government grants was loans and work study. Luckily she recently got a new scholarship that got rid of most of the loans.</p>
<p>If you're a top student and get get into the 100% need met schools, you're right, often it can even cost less than a public. But while most of the publics only use FAFSA, most of the 100% need schools also use profile which counts more assets such as your home. It also can count more people like stepparents.</p>
<p>Glad this isn't turning to a public vs privates, but suffice it to say that if you have a FAFSA EFC of $15k, your EFC using profile, or any other instiututional method calculation, will most definately be higher.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that the school could meet your need with all loans also.</p>
<p>On a related note...if your EFC is $15,000 and you are anticipating getting additional aid, it would seem likely that you are applying as an Out of State student to a public university. In many cases, the criteria for admitting out of state students is more competitive than for instate students. State universities are first supposed to provide a college education for their residents who pay taxes to support these institutions. Their instate acceptance rates are typically higher than out of state acceptance rates. And as others have noted...your need can certainly be met with loans, not just "free money" (grants and scholarships). But you never know unless you try. Just try to have some financial safeties in your mix of college applications. And if financial aid is a serious consideration, do NOT apply non-binding early decision.</p>
<p>"if you have a FAFSA EFC of $15k, your EFC using profile, or any other instititional method calculation, will most definitely be higher."</p>
<p>That may be true in most cases, but it was not true for some of the schools that accepted my daughter.</p>
<p>I stand corrected.
[quote]
That may be true in most cases, but it was not true for some of the schools that accepted my daughter.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I shouldn't have generalized so much.</p>