<p>I have an EFC of 0. I just read on another thread that private colleges give good need based aid. True or False?</p>
<p>Some privates have great endowments (i.e. Yale Harvard) and generous FA. Others don’t. Obviously those with deeper pockets also get more applications.</p>
<p>You should also look to your instate publics too.</p>
<p>Maybe also repost on the Financial Aid sub forum?</p>
<p>And many of those colleges with the huge endowments and the generous need based aid are also amongst the most competitive for admissions. If you have the stats for possible admittance to those schools, you might also want to consider other schools where you might garner significant merit aid…and perhaps need based as well. </p>
<p>Depending on where you are or what kind of school you are looking for, your options will vary.</p>
<p>Only for top students. And then it’s only some privates. The vast majority of private colleges look for kids who can pay in full or close.</p>
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<p>She’s right. Others, however, don’t – and by others, that’s almost all of them, really. Harvard and Yale are outliers. Exceptions. Miracles, really. You should apply to them if you want to go, but you shouldn’t based your financial aid plans around getting into them. There are also publics that have good aid; I’m thinking here of the Universities of Virginia, North Carolina (Chapel Hill), and Alabama (mostly merit though).</p>
<p>*I have an EFC of 0. I just read on another thread that private colleges give good need based aid. True or False? *</p>
<p>False. Most private colleges have little or no funds to give. </p>
<p>There are a very small number of schools (like the ivies) that give a lot of money to all of its students who have need. </p>
<p>There are some other privates that give lots of money to top students (such as the students who are in the upper part of their top 25 percentile - usually kids with top, top stats).</p>
<p>Most do not have the money to give. Most privates gap.</p>
<p>However, with a 0 EFC you will get the best financial aid as well as state grants and all qualifiable school-based grants. It might not be enough, which means that you will have to draw from past, present, and even future earnings through loans, working, and savings. No one’s going to hand you a free ride to any college; even Ivy Leagues ask you to pay your calculated need, and working for it gives you some skin in the game that should, hopefully, keep someone like you from slacking off and squandering the opportunity.</p>
<p>List of Schools for Financial Aid Pledges to Reduce Student Debt.
[Project</a> on Student Debt: Financial Aid Pledges](<a href=“http://projectonstudentdebt.org/pc_institution.php]Project”>http://projectonstudentdebt.org/pc_institution.php)</p>
<p>Click on the school name to view the detail of specific school’s financial aid pledge. It is necessary to go to the school’s Financial Aid website to verify the possible latest update.</p>
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<p>I believe the OP said the EFC is $0. If the OP gets accepted to an Ivy…and the family contribution per CSS Profile is also $0 (most Ivies use the Profile or a school form that asks for basically the same info) then this student would get aid to support the difference between the family contribution and the cost of attendance…and that would be a full ride. I will qualify that by saying that most of these schools do ask for a student contribution…but this is often earned through work study awards and/or summer employment.</p>
<p>Exactly. In either case, high school is over; no one is going to carry your water for you, and students who are too lazy to work for their educations won’t have them. No one bankrolls laziness in the real world, and colleges who offer a full ride do a good job of making sure that students understand this by requiring them to contribute something to the process.</p>
<p>Bedouin…I take offense at your previous post. Your implication is that if students don’t contribute financially, they are lazy, good for nothing jerks. Sorry, I don’t subscribe to that broad generalization.</p>
<p>I should have added that private colleges can cost about $35k-55k per year, so any federal or state aid is not going to make them affordable.</p>
<p>Until you get some test scores back, it is hard to advise you about where you should apply.</p>
<p>Private colleges aren’t “giving” anything. This is the common venhicular that they would like to propagate that they gave $xxx million in finanial aid to students. They aren’t writing a check, so that is where the endowment analogies. Yes, colleges with endowments have more financial flexibility. Private colleges have a budget and they assume that they will need $20K (assumed number) per student to come in at budget. If the sticker price is $35K then they tell the admissions office that they can give away AT MAX $15K per kid. </p>
<p>So I would argue that WHAT REALLY MATTERS is the spread with how much the financial aid office has to give away, getting to the Financial Aid office early and being a desireable kid. I don’t think just being a poor kid gets you very far.</p>
<p>OP: It’s sometimes true; look for schools that “meet full need.” With 0 EFC you’ll likely get (if admitted) what some commonly call a “free ride” but that might include a bit of campus work and even some loans (e.g., ~10% of COA is still considered aid).</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Yes, it would be good if the OP stats were high enough for schools that meet full need. Right now, her GPA is not high enough and she hasn’t taken an ACT or SAT yet. </p>
<p>I don’t mean to be harsh, but unless she somehow pulls off an amazing SAT/ACT score, it’s not likely that she would get admitted to a 100% need school.</p>
<p>Therefore, until we know what her SAT/ACT score is, we can’t really advise.</p>
<p>LonghornChick…</p>
<p>What math classes have you taken & what grades did you get? What math class will you take next year?</p>
<p>What science classes have you taken and what grades did you get? What science class will you take next year?</p>
<p>I’ve taken all maths except cal and i got an A or B in all of those
I’ve only taken IPC and Biology A in IPC B in bio.</p>
<p>What will you be taking next year?</p>
<p>Cal, Physics, Chemistry</p>
<p>top ten rule doesn’t apply with privates- correct?</p>
<p>Most private schools gap: they do not meet need; a few do</p>
<p>Elite schools tend to give no merti aid, do all need-based</p>
<p>two ways to go:
1- elite that has a big endowment see example here
<a href=“https://financialaid.brown.edu/Cmx_Content.aspx?cpId=333[/url]”>https://financialaid.brown.edu/Cmx_Content.aspx?cpId=333</a></p>
<p>2- go with a school that offers good merit aid, too:it’s the whole package that matters,because each school will decide what your “need” is - and how much of it they will meet - based on their own criteria</p>
<p>Examples of differebnt merit aid at different schools :<br>
Grinnell - 32% of students receive merit aid with an average award of 10k
Bard - 3% get an average of 11k
Dickinson - 9% get an average of 10k
Colorado - 6% get an average of 10k
Carlton - 8% get an average of 3k</p>
<p>P.S. what’s the top ten rule:guaranted admission if you’re in the top 10% of the class?</p>