Hi, since colleges that meet full-need promise students a generous financial aid package, does the cost of attendance even matter? I’ve seen some private colleges costing up to 70k per year, which is a MASSIVE amount in my opinion. If a 70k per year college meets full-need, will I still receive a financial package thats affordable? My family is low-income, and I was wondering about the possibility of a full-need college paying around 60k or more of that 70k per year.
If it promises to meet-your-need, then what you pay is always dependent on your EFC. Your EFC can change, but the COA wouldn’t factor into your EFC. COA going up would just mean they give you more aid. Supposedly. I’ve heard anecdotal evidence of people claiming their cost went up when COA went up, but it shouldn’t.
Financial aid calculators should give you a rough estimate of your EFC.
One problem though, meets full need might include packaged loans, so you might still have to eventually pay a significant portion. Whether a meets-need college packages loans or not should be somewhere on their website.
Those college promise SOME students a generous financial aid package. It all depends on how much “need” the college thinks you have. For some students, it is possible that a meets full need school would pay close to the full cost of attendance, expecting only a (relatively) minor student contribution of several thousand dollars. But it’s important for you to understand that it’s the college that determines how much “need” you have, not you and/or your parents.
The college’s definition of what it thinks a family needs often does not jibe w what the family thinks it needs.
While the calculation for EFC may be straightforward for a family where the parents are married and are earning a salary from an employer, it gets complicated when the parents are divorced and/or self-employed.
It depends on whether the college’s definition of “need” is similar to what you and your family believe you need to attend the college. Note that colleges also have different expected student contributions (federal direct loans and/or student work earnings expectations).
Run the net price calculator on each school’s web site. However, if your family finances are not simple (e.g. divorced parents, self employment income, real estate income, small business income), then there is a greater likelihood of the net price calculator result not matching the actual financial aid offer.
Yes, you are generally correct.
If you are eligible for Finaid then COA does not matter, only your EFC matters
If you are not eligible for Finaid then only COA matters and EFC does not matter.
When you are low-income if you get into a meet full-need generous college you will pay less than 10k/y
Thank you this really clarified things for me
Something you should remember.
The amount of need FA is determined by your SCHOOL, not your FAMILY!.
The column titled “Avg debt at graduation” will give you an idea of whether the school’s view of EFC jibes with the family’s view of EFC. (e.g., compare the avg debt for Penn State $36.9k vs. Princeton $6.6k).
You can click on the columns to sort them.
Your EFC is a FAFSA calculation. the vast majority of colleges that guarantee to meet full need for all students use the CSS Profile in addition to the FAFSA. It’s actually the information on the Profile that the schools use to determine th awarding of their own institutional need based aid.
Exceptions…Princeton doesn’t use the Profile, but does use its own financial aid form.
University of Chcago doesn’t use the Profile. That school has a short form of its own.
Many folks find that the FAFSA EFC is not reflective of what these colleges calculate as what the family can pay.
Your best bet is to run the Net Price Calculator on the college websites. In many cases, this is a better estimate of your net cost than the FAFSA EFC.
This is a misleading comparison, as Penn State does not claim to meet full need. Therefore, the average debt figure for Penn State undoubtedly is made up of a large portion of COA that was gapped by Penn State’s offer of need based aid.
Oh and what if I receive a financial package from a full-need college that’s more than expected? Can I bargain with them or try to ask for a financial review?
If you get MORE than you expected…why would you be asking for even more?
But to answer your question…you can ask them to review your financial aid package based on any changes that may have happened…or based on information that was not on your application for aid.
Do you have any changes?
Full need is defined by each school differently. One can include home and retirement while calculating need while another may not.
Many schools provide large loans and claim to have met full need. Some of the most generous ones require you to borrow the limit of stafford loan and cover 2500 or so through work study which means you become responsible for about 7500 even if they are meeting full need.