<p>Okay, so my family is most definitely low income (live in low income housing, etc) but i have around a 3.85 unweighted gpa (7 ap classes and many honors) and around a 1960 on my sat... and I'm a first generation immigrant/ethnic minority</p>
<p>At rutgers, how much do you guys think I could get in merit, and if our efc is 0 (it probably is seeing as how we have no assets, make less than 50,000, rent, and have one working family member out of 5) how much do you guys think I could receive in financial aid (loans, grants, etc)</p>
<p>I also really like Tufts but it's just not worth taking out so many loans. But the guy I talked to from their said it "meets full needs"... what does that exactly mean? Anyways, sorry if I sound extremely ignorant about this whole process... any help would be welcomed. Thank you!</p>
<p>full need means that if your EFC is 0 then they will essentially pay all of your tuition in either grants or loans. but make sure to look at grants vs loans. some schools will meet full need in loans…which is not really meeting full need. usually private schools with a large endowment are able to give more in grants.</p>
<p>for instance, if i look up tufts on college board…it states that it meets 100% of need and about 17% of aid is met through loans/work study, which is pretty good. 83% of your need is met through grants or scholarships that you won’t have to pay back.</p>
<p>whereas, if i look up rutgers, which is a public state university with a lower tuition, they only meet 34% of need (you will get very little from them) and 54% of aid is met through loans. so you will probably be paying more and receive less grants.</p>
<p>As you noted, your EFC is not $0. With the EFC you quoted here, you would get a portion of the Pell grant which would be in just under $4000 with the EFC you quoted here. You would also get a $5500 Stafford loan. Beyond that, at Rutgers, nothing would be guaranteed. </p>
<p>Are you an instate resident for Rutgers? You also need to find out if there is any state aid you might be eligible to receive with your family income…there might be…I don’t know a speck about NJ. If you are not instate for NJ, I would suggest you look at other schools, ones in YOUR state.</p>
<p>Re: Tufts…Tufts does meet full need as they calculate it to be. However, personally I do not see admittance to Tufts as a “sure thing” for you. (Ditto Northwestern which you inquired about on another thread). Tufts (and Northwestern) have become competitive for admissions…very much so.</p>
<p>Do you plan to study foreign languages? Are you fluent in the three you know? If you plan to study in this area, and you are fluent in the three languages, that could help you with admittance.</p>
<p>Tufts and Northwestern do not give merit aid, so your grades would not matter there for anything but admission. These schools give need based aid only.</p>
<p>NJ offers both a grant and a loan program for residents. The grant program is called TAG, so you might ask your guidance counselors or inquire about it on the Rutgers forum. The only info I found on it is here and it doesn’t specify what the income cutoffs are:</p>