I was recently accepted to University of Richmond. For context, Richmond guarantees to meet 100% of its students’ demonstrated need. I was wondering if I should expect to take out personal loans on top of work-study and the need-based scholarships that they provide. Richmond states that they try to keep loans to a minimum based on your EFC, however it seems unlikely that I will not have to repay anything. Any clarification specific to Richmond would be helpful, however if anyone has information about other colleges that meet 100% of demonstrated need while having an EFC of 0, that information is also helpful.
Is $0 your FAFSA EFC? Richmond is a CSS profile school so the FAFSA EFC is not what matters. What did the Richmond NPC say you would receive?
I worked with a young man with EFC of $0 who is attending the University of Richmond. His package included work study and subsidized loans and mostly grant money. Those were expected to cover his entire cost of attendance. He will likely not even need to take out all of the subsidized loans, given his summer employment. The maximum he will take out in loans is the $23,000. That is for everything - books, travel, tuition, room and board for the four years. His parents are contributing nothing.
The college’s net price calculator should show estimated student self help (student loan and student work).
Richmond does include a “self-help” portion so even if your EFC is zero, there may be work study and a subsidized loan for about 5 percent of tuition so about 3k… remember your parents may be able to get this money back in their tax refund.
Also remember that 100 percent need is only promised for us citizens. It’s not promised for international.
@turtletime , I’m not sure your last point is correct. The Richmond website says this:
“Richmond is need-aware when reviewing admission applications from international students, non-U.S. citizens and non-U.S. Permanent Residents. We will meet 100% of demonstrated need for all admitted students. The average financial aid award (need-based, merit, etc.) to international students in 2019-20 was $47,520.”
I take this to mean that financial need can be considered in making the admission decisions for international students, but Richmond will meet 100% of demonstrated need for admitted international students.
That could be, or something newer (we have a graduate and a sophomore there now.) I know we ran into a few international students whose need was not met in a comparable way of other schools.