"Meet full need" schools can vary significantly in their net prices.

<p>I just looked at that list…which schools are PUBLIC universities that guarantee to meet 100% of need. I didn’t see any.</p>

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<p>We’ve already gone 16 pages and nearly 7000 views debating the definition of MIDDLE CLASS. Apparently the colleges are just a muddled on the definition of NEED.</p>

<p>Thanks for this list @ucbalumnus‌. It’s good to see the numbers in black and white. I have heard amazing stories where one school will put the family contribution at 12k and another school and 40k. It seems to me, when that’s happened to folks I know, home equity is the big killer. Some schools are a lot rougher on that than others.</p>

<p>Things change. I used to know a number of schools that did not require NCP info despite using PROFILE and gave good aid packages. How many of them still do this, I don’t know. I hate naming schools as examples for that reason, as things are changing VERY rapidly. Even the list of schools that do not require NCP Profile is not accurate because things change, and because even if the NCP Profile is not needed, some additional financial info on the NCP is required and taken into consideration for fin aid packages. </p>

<p>What’s particularly frustrating in such cases is that the NPCs are not accurate in this situation, and school vary greatly on how they calculate the NCP’s required contribution. I’ve seen huge variations for kids who are in this situation even among PROFILE schools that requre the additional NCP. My friend’s son got a great aid package from BU (and he did not have terrific stats) with his low income dad as his custodial parent and his mother who makes quite a bit, certainly does not qualify for aid with her as the CP, for some reason. The formula apparently did not weight the NCP financials much. He got heavy duty SEOG and Perkins, and work study on top of the PELL and Direct loans, and then a nice grant though he was on the border of the aid/merit matrix for the school. He got zip from any other PROFILE schools other than entitlements. But he did not know any of this up front.</p>

<p>@thumper1 First of all, that percentage on the list are for all students (not just in state). So, there are no other public schools meet 100% need of all students than the 2. That’s why UMich is 90% even they meet full needs for in state student. Second, the list consider 90%+ as need met. For in state student at public school, the remaining 10% or less need (not CoA) would be a rather small amount. Just like the examples from OP. Even for those with EFC=0, there are still a certain amount out of pocket. So there are a handful of public schools that may meet the need of in state student and use only FAFSA although they may not claim to guarantee 100% need met.</p>

<p>Also, as the example in the first post shows, the claim to “meet full need” may not mean much. USC claims to “meet full need”, but its net price seems to be higher for most income levels than in-state UCLA, which apparently does not make such a claim on the CDS even for in-state students (based on the percentage being much lower than the in-state student percentage).</p>

<p>Billscho, it’s really hard to quite get the breakdowns. There are schools that tend to meet most students financial aid according to their info, but then your realize that it is heavily a commuter school, and the instate tuition is low. A lot of PELL kids, the Direct loans covers a lot of the kids. Anyone with more need than that, out of luck. Schools can look better in the numbers by meeting full need of those with with less need, and than just gapping the heck out of the high need kids. </p>

<p>Right now, there are no public universities other than UNC CH and UVA that will meet full need even as they define it for OOSers. UMich, yes, meets full need of instater, again as the school defines need. </p>

<p>It’s important to know how that need is defined too. If you are at a school that includes 100% of primary home equity in the assets as opposed to none or capped numbers, the aid can differ. When using their own formulas, the FAFSA percentages and rules do not necessarily hold I know schools that use 30% of students assets towards EFC, that include 401K balances, and who carry forward certain asset balances over the four year period. </p>

<p>I wish schools had to report what percent of need they meet based on FAFSA EFC, so we can see a little bit more of the apple to apples comparisions. Still not going to catch a lot of situations, but a lot better than what we have now. </p>

<p>Need met or not is probably more a slogan than reality. A need met school can be more expensive than a non need met onecan because of the way the calculate the need. I guess the NPC figures would be much more informative although it can sometimes be inaccurate.</p>

<p>Ucb. thank you for sharing the infor. It does make give a place to run some comparative costs, add some clarity and your example dramatically shows how schools can vary in their packages and bottom line costs.</p>

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<p>That’s because some schools don’t have bottomless 30 billion dollar endowments. Generally, the fat endowment/capita schools will give the most generous grants. When we shopped for schools, we looked at endowment size, too.</p>

<p>And yes, loans can be a part of fin aid, but some schools offer no-loans fin aid to some students. At those schools, direct loans and earnings from work can usually cover the gap.</p>

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<p>Key word in the above…MAY. I believe that almost all schools give at least one award to at least one student that meets full need. BUT unless this is a GUARANTEE for all admitted students one should not hedge their bets on getting full need met.</p>

<p>As an example, University of South Carolina offers a McNair Scholarship…and this award can be stacked with other forms of aid up to the full cost of attendance. The McNair is actually a full ride, with some other perks. Added funds from elsewhere can pay for books, transportation, and personal expenses…all parts of the cost of attendance. Some kids do get need based awards (e.g. Pell eligible would get the Pell…so would be getting some need based aid as well as McNair). BUT this full ride is really for a small fraction of highly competitive students, and is not guaranteed by the university for all who are admitted.</p>

<p>Several public schools like Indiana University SE that has over 90% average percentage of need met, there must be a significant percentage of students getting need met or near 100% need met. Of course those would be most likely in state students due to the lower CoA/need and also funding from state government. The question is how do they define need.
One thing I want to clarify is that getting need met is absolutely different from full ride. It just mean the student is paying near the EFC with or without merit aids.</p>

<p>Bill. We are just going to have to agree to disagree on this. </p>

<p>Unless a school guarantees to meet full need for ALL students, a student applying should not hope that he or she will be the lucky very small percentage that just happens to get need met. Schools like Indiana do meet full need for some…like I said…most schools do. But that is NOT a guarantee for anyone. </p>

<p>Heck, even schools like NYU meet full need for some kids. But that should not dupe folks into thinking that this is the norm. It is not.</p>

<p>True, IU SE only meet full need (whatever they mean) of ~90% student. They don’t guarantee to meet need for all students particularly out of state students. The sad thing is, whatever they call full need is not what the student/parent expected even if they guarantee it.</p>

<p>IU-SE could be primarily a commuter school, as well as mostly instate, so those going there might not have that much need or cost for that matter, so most of their need is met. I’ve seen a number of community colleges and small local state schools where the need is nearly completely met, because the tuition is low, most of the students commute so that PELL, State aid, Loans and work study, with a smattering of grants can cover most need.</p>

<p>Yes, for commuters, it would be much easier to meet their need. The CoA including room/boarding at IU SE is only $17k in state ($8k for commute student). The cost is so low that it is very easy to meet the need of in state students. They have 30% oos students though. Average aid per student is $8k. </p>

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<p>A claim to “meet full need” for all students, or the class of students that the prospective student is in, still says very little. See the example in the first post where a school claiming to “meet full need” (USC) gives higher net prices than the in-state price of a school that apparently does not make such a claim in its Common Data Set even for in-state students (claims on the Common Data Set to meet full need of about 25% of students, which is much lower than the in-state percentage).</p>

<p>It does appear that the Common Data Set definition of “meet need” in section H2h and H2i means that subsidized federal loans and work study (i.e. expected student contribution) may be counted, but PLUS loans, unsubsidized loans, and private alternative loans may not be counted.</p>

<p>That may mean that a school which expects students to take the full $5,500 federal direct loan (including the $2,000 unsubsidized portion) would not “meet need” by this definition. It looks like both USC and UCLA expect the student to take the full $5,500 federal direct loan (try net price calculators for a $0 income California resident student). So UCLA technically does not “meet need” since the unsubsidized federal direct loan is used, while USC is filling in the “meet need” answers incorrectly (claims that average percent of need met is 100% in <a href=“http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg03_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1138”>http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg03_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1138&lt;/a&gt; , which presumably gets it from the Common Data Set that USC does not publish).</p>

<p>Of course, the technical definition of “meet full need” in the Common Data Set may not necessarily be the same as what colleges claim on their own web sites.</p>

<p>Bottom line: “meet full need” claims mean very little. Use the net price calculator instead.</p>

<p>Don’t confuse “full need” aid with “full want” aid</p>

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<p>Absolutely agree.</p>

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