Where did I say meet full need was “related to FAFSA”. In fact….the vast majority of colleges that meet full need for all accepted students do NOT do this based on the FAFSA. They require either the CSS Profile or a school financial aid form. The exception is University of Chicago which uses only the FAFSA data to determine the awarding of need based aid and meets 100% of need.
Perhaps this might clarify what a college means by “meets need” and the respective percentage.
When you run the Net Price Calculator, the school will then provide an Expected Family Contribution (EFC). Each school can calculate the EFC however it wants, and some schools are more generous than others in their definitions (and it’s not always a factor of ranking/prestige…see this post for examples).
Also, colleges determine their own Cost of Attendance (COA). So they estimate how much is needed for books, travel, etc. Again, some are more generous than others.
Now, this is where the need part comes in. Need = COA - EFC. That formula will stay the same whether a school uses the CSS, FAFSA, noncustodial parents’ info, whatever, but the numbers change from college to college. But if you look at the post I linked to above, there were colleges that met less need but ended up being lower cost than schools that met more of the need. Probably because of how each university defined both the COA and the EFC.
Hopefully this helps clarify the issue for you.
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Just to clarify…the EFC being referred to here is actually the calculated family contribution (done by each college). It is NOT necessarily the EFC done per the FAFSA.
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Elon also doesn’t require the css profile after the first year, but they don’t meet full need. it’s unclear exactly how they award initial merit, but they have competitive programs that come with additional scholarships.
Rice University in Texas is very good fir financial aid and has the programs to fit your boys’ areas of interest. WPI (MA) , Rochester, Union College, and RPI (NY) would also be good fits and places where they would be strong candidates for merit & financial aid
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Chicago does require either its own form or CSS Profile in addition to FAFSA, but does not require noncustodial parent finances.
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The Chicago form is VERY short. Their goals is to not limit students access because of the Profile types of info. Basically, Chicago uses the FAFSA financial data…income, assets, etc.
They allow the profile, and if it were betting, I would bet that the Profile is used by students applying to other colleges requiring it, and adding one more school code isn’t a big deal. My guess.
OP- as soon as you all can uncouple “hard work” and “prestigious college” the happier you will be. Not just now, as you are working through the financial realities, but next year, and the year after, and the year after.
If your son’s resent the amount of time they spend doing homework- that’s an easy fix. They can cut back on their academic work and take up photography, pastry baking, volunteering in an animal shelter, becoming a docent in a historical society near you. Or restoring a civil war era cemetery. They don’t need to define themselves by schoolwork.
If they love their studies and are gratified to work hard and to learn- then the reward for hard work is their academic success and the pride it engenders.
What happens in college? Even the “lowest rank” college has serious students who have worked hard and achieved academically. Sometimes the top kids are there because their parents are staff at the college and the free tuition deal was too good to pass up. Sometimes they are there because of a medical issue and they need to be close to home. Etc. But there are smart kids who work hard everywhere.
Rutgers? You’ve got the intensely academic kids, and the kids who are there to party and get their ticket punched, and the kids who might have been slackers in HS but get excited about anthropology or poli sci once they get to college and they become hardworking academics. And you’ve got straight A students with top scores who end up majoring in fraternity hijinks and beer pong.
You cannot predict which kid becomes what kind of college student.
But decouple hard work from “I need to get into Princeton to validate the sacrifices I made in HS by having no life”. That is a surefire way to disappointment-- and isn’t a good way to approach adulthood.
I work hard (and I’m sure you do as well). I don’t drive a jaguar or live in a mansion. The reward for my hard work is a solid paycheck, fantastic colleagues who I love and learn from every day, and slowly but surely funding my retirement. It won’t be on a world cruise, but it is likely to be a financially secure one. So the reward for my hard work is a good life. And the reward for your sons hard work will be a fantastic college education, even if it doesn’t meet the fantasy world we all construct sometimes.
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