No Loan 100% Financial need Colleges

<p>Has anyone come across list of colleges that meet No Loan,100% financial need? I have done some search and have not come across consolidated list. Please let me know if anyone has come across it.</p>

<p>See [FinAid</a> | Answering Your Questions | No Loans for Low Income Students](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid)</p>

<p>Just be aware that policies change over time. Many colleges that established no loan policies before the Great Recession found they had to backtrack and now require federal loans for students receiving aid from the college. Therefore, don’t rely solely upon a list that may be a few years old. </p>

<p>It is mainly the richest colleges that can offer no loan policies. Many of those colleges have small enrollments and extremely competitive admissions.</p>

<p>I suggest the goal should not be to avoid all loans. The goal should be to only need loans that are federally subsidized. Some colleges have huge gaps between their costs and a family EFC, and they expect the parents to make up the difference with Parent PLUS loans. That can result in an enormous financial burden that should cause a student to look for a different college. </p>

<p>The vast majority of colleges do not meet 100% of need, and some of the colleges that do meet 100% of need are need-aware in admissions. In other words, if they accept you, they will meet all of your need, but they limit the number of accepted students with high need. </p>

<p>Some public colleges meet 100% of need for in-state students, but even those colleges typically offer extremely limited aid for out of state students. For top applicants, some public colleges will offer enough merit aid to bring down the cost to an in-state level.</p>

<p>“Meet full need” colleges do expect some student contribution, although those that claim to be “no loan” tend to have expected student contribution amounts on the lower end which they expect to be doable with work or work-study earnings.</p>

<p>Most “meet full need” colleges are highly selective, although some public schools “meet full need” only for in-state residents.</p>

<p>I’ve seen some hefty required student contributions that those who cannot find jobs have to meet, at least that first year with the loans. Though thankfully, they are not in the package and so the Direct Loans are there for theh student to borrow. Some of the no loan schools do have work study in their packages, so meeting that student contribution with part time work during the year is not as easy an option since work hours are already ear marked to be used in that financial aid package.</p>

<p>Work study should be no problem. Net out of pocket cost is all that matters.</p>

<p>Here is a problem when Stafford Direct Loans and Workstudy are in a financial aid package:</p>

<p>You get a package that includes those awards and that means you cannot borrow those auto loans to pay a portion of your EFC or uncovered costs. You can’t work as many hours to come up with that money either, because your hours are taken to pay up your financial aid. Workstudy means you are eligible to look for a job on the WS list and if you find one, can earn up the award amount. You don’t get the money till you earn it, usually in the form of a check every other week, and it’s not a guarantee that you get a job. You have to find one that fits your hours both award given and schedule wise. If none are there, too bad.</p>

<p>The real bottom line for an individual student considering a given college is:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>What is the net price after deducting financial aid grants (not loans or work-study) and awarded or guaranteed-for-stats merit scholarships from the list price? This is EFC + ESC (+ gap if the school does not “meet full need”). Among various “meet full need” schools, this can vary tremendously, based on different methods of calculating EFC, and different expectations of ESC.</p></li>
<li><p>Can the student and family afford the net price? I.e. is AFC + ASC >= net price, regardless of how the student and family distribute it between the actual family contribution and actual student contribution of direct loans and work or work-study earnings?</p></li>
</ul>

<p>When you run NPC you can see COA - grants/Scholarships = Net price </p>

<p>Is the merit Scholarship included in grants/Scholarship or it will be on top of this if you manage to get it. </p>

<p>Can one find out what criterion they use for merit aid?</p>

<p>If you do get merit scholarship, do they reduce the above grant/Scholarship amount?</p>

<p>

It’s depend on schools. You should find the criterion on the schools’ websites

Some schools do & some don’t. Grants and scholarships can be greater than the COA.</p>

<p>Is the merit Scholarship included in grants/Scholarship or it will be on top of this if you manage to get it.</p>