<p>So I found out I have an efc of 10,000, which is definitely not too bad. However, I understand that many schools package loans in the financial aid package in addition to grants/work study. How average, what is a reasonable amount of loans a school that meets over 90 percent of financial aid give? I am really hoping that most colleges give out much more grants as compared to loans.</p>
<p>Some colleges I applied to for reference:
-Lehigh
-BU
-Syracuse</p>
<p>Students are only eligible for $5500 in loans as a freshman and are available to all college students. Some colleges include the Parent Plus Loan in the financial aid letter - that is a loan only your parents can take out and there is a credit check that goes with the Parent Plus loan.</p>
<p>$5500 is the max Direct Loan for freshmen…and everyone can get that loan. Some lower income students also receive the Perkins loans too…could be $3000 or so a year. These are both loans in the student name only.</p>
<p>“school that meets over 90 percent of financial aid give?”</p>
<p>You’re misunderstanding that stat. That stat does not mean that each student is given enough aid to meet 90% of need. </p>
<p>That is an average. So, some kids get more need met, and some get less…a lot less. And that stat ONLY includes students who enroll. That means that accepted students who got LOUSY aid pkgs couldn’t afford to go so their stats weren’t included in that avg. </p>
<p>If you look in the common data set for financial aid for any given college, you can see what the average aid given to students and what the composition of that aid is, in terms of grants, loans and work study. As Mom2coll says, the stats are for those kids who decided to go to the school, so the numbers are probably optimistically construed. </p>
<p>At most schools the most you can get is $5500 in Direct loans and the Perkins ($3k or is it $5K max) as a student. Some schools might have a loan fund that they also privately use, but that is not usual. You can’t get any more loans than that as student, as a rule. The schools can direct you to other loan sources where you and/or your parents can APPLY for additional loans, but those are not officially considered financial aid. </p>
<p>Many of the private schools DS applied to last year were taking the EFC and adding $10,000 in loans and work study. Our EFC was higher than yours. He was offered Perkins, subsidized stafford and unsubsidized Stafford. The loans totaled around $9000. $2400 in work study. The calculators on most of the college FA websites were pretty accurate for us. Good luck.</p>