<p>Grants</a> Replace Loans for Neediest Students : Northwestern University Newscenter</p>
<p>If your financial need (as determined by NU) necessitates that you take out more than 20k in loans, NU will cap your loans at 20k (total for 4 years) and pay the rest through its endowment funds. This policy was implemented in 2008, but I don't know if prospective students actually know about it.</p>
<p>Dude. That’s 3 years old. It’s good to raise awareness, but at least make the thread title sound less like a headline.</p>
<p>Also - unless I’m mistaken, the $20k debt limit is for the STUDENT. They expect/allow many FAMILIES to assume higher debt than $20k to meet their EFC.</p>
<p>They don’t EXPECT families to have to take ANY debt to merely meet the EFC. That’s sort of the point.</p>
<p>I figured it was still news to people who didn’t know about it :)</p>
<p>wildcat alum - yes, its old news, but good news . I DID see somebody recently post about piling up debt at NU, so your point is valid.</p>
<p>I know from personal experience (we pay full tuition), based on how much we were offered in unsubsidized loans, that it is possible for a family to pile up FAR more than a $20k debt. ;-D</p>
<p>In establishing institutional EFC, the CSA Profile looks at many assets – not just income – so I can easily imagine that many families might be unable to meet their EFC without taking some loans. </p>
<p>This is true of all schools, not unique to NU.</p>