<p>What's financial aid like at Duke? My dad ran some numbers through the EFC calculator at collegeboard.com and the Federal Methodology spat out an EFC around $38,000 and the Institutional Methodology spat out an EFC of $36,000...should I expect anything significantly more or less than this?</p>
<p>EFC = expected family contribution, that is the amount that your parents are expected to contribute per year based on their income and assets, not the amount you will receive in financial aid. Unfortunately, it is a pretty accurate assessment of the amount they will need to pay regardless of which school you attend, unless you receive some sort of non-need based merit aid. Since the cost of attendance for most schools like Duke runs around $45000 +/- $3000, you can expect the school to offer you the difference in need-based aid, which at Duke is a combination of grants (60%), loans (30%), and work-study (10%) for most recipients.</p>
<p>leejwwc is correct, but those percentages for grants, loans, and work study can vary greatly. Loans are capped at a certain amount (which is going down next year) so it could be a very small portion. Similarly, if you EFC is close to the total cost, your financial aid package could consist of 100% loans. Work study is pretty much $1800/yr no matter what, IIRC. So that 10% figure is for somebody who has a fin aid package of $18,000 (I believe the average fin aid package is ~$25,000 for the people who received any aid; ~55% receive nothing and this avg doesn't take that into account).</p>
<p>i'm not sure about duke, but some colleges are getting rid of loans completely & replacing that with grants.</p>
<p>Duke is only doing this if you make below, I believe, $60,000 a year.</p>
<p>yeah, duke is reducing loans for everybody though, for a family that makes up to $100,000 a year.</p>
<p>Here's the new financial aid policy, effective 2008-09:</p>
<p>"In December, Duke President Richard H. Brodhead announced significant enhancements to the university’s financial aid program to benefit lower- and middle-income families. These changes included: eliminating parental contributions for families who make less than $60,000 a year; making it possible for students from families with incomes below $40,000 to graduate debt-free; reducing loans for students from families with incomes up to $100,000; and capping loans for eligible families with incomes above $100,000." Source: <a href="http://news.duke.edu/2008/02/tuition0809.html">http://news.duke.edu/2008/02/tuition0809.html</a>.</p>