<p>UPENN
NYU
UVA
UC Berkeley</p>
<p>OK…here’s my opinion.</p>
<p>UPenn guarantees to meet full need. They also require the Profile in addition to the FAFSA, and I believe there is a UPenn finaid form to complete as well. UPenn will determine your need from there. If you get accepted (that’s the first hurdle), your financial aid will be decent enough…but there’s really no way to know exactly what it will be because UPenn will use the info to determine your need, and therefore your aid.</p>
<p>NYU uses only the Profile. They are reportedly fairly stingy with need based aid. I would say they are “spotty”. They do not guarantee to meet full need and many students find a huge gap between the aid+EFC and the cost of attendance. If you get a scholarship based on merit…you would be in better shape there, in my opinion.</p>
<p>UVA does offer aid to OOS students. They use the Profile and a UVA financial aid application form (which has some similar question to the Profile). I do not believe UVA guarantees to meet full need either. </p>
<p>UC Berkeley…to be honest, I would not expect much aid as an OOS student at any of the UCs. They are having enough trouble financing the education costs for instate students. The cost of attendance is very high for OOS students. The news is all asplash with the financial and economic woes of the Cal college systems, both the UCs and Cal states. I’m sure they would love to have you as a full pay OOS student…but I’m not so sure they are going to be subsidizing the educations of OOS students at the expense of their instate taxpayers.</p>
<p>Now…having said all that…if you have competitive stats for these four schools, are you also looking at some less competitive schools where you might be a candidate for merit aid??</p>