<p>Yes…there ARE test optional schools. I don’t know of any that award merit aid, however, without those standardized test scores. So your GPA might get you accepted to a test optional school…but if you hope for merit aid, those scores might be needed!</p>
<p>I just want to make sure I understand this right. </p>
<p>Net price = COA - gift aids</p>
<p>Gift aid include grants and scholarships.
Gift aid does not include loans and or money earned through work study.
I believe I have seen somewhere where it said, net price is fuzzy especially if it includes loans which will have to paid back.</p>
<p>If I’m not mistaken, net price is cost of attendance minus aid (which can include grants, scholarships, work study and student loans).</p>
<p>There is NO guarantee that all of your financial aid will come in the form of grants and scholarships. The vast majority of financial aid packages include the Direct Loan. Some include Perkins Loans. Some include work study. These are ALL forms of need based financial aid.</p>
<p>Yes need based aid can include scholarship, grants, loans, work study etc. I think this net price is gray area. Whether or not it includes LOANS will determine your out of pocket real(net)cost. They can meet 100% of need and 70% of that amount can come from loans.</p>
<p>NO BELLA! I said STUDENT loans. The max student direct loan is $5500 for freshman year. The max Perkins is about $3000 or so. </p>
<p>Any other loans would be either parent loans or cosigned by parents. Those loans would or could be taken to cover costs not covered in your need based financial aid package.</p>
<p>I know, I was separating loans from grants, scholarships which is “free money”. Loans whether student takes it or parent takes it, it needs to be paid back. The way I like to look at net price is what is your out of pocket expense.</p>
<p>When you use the net price calculators, I believe student loans CAN be included in your aid. </p>
<p>Bella, really, the MOST important question you need to have clearly answered is how much your parents WILL pay for you annually. That is critical. If you get enough aid…plus your parent contribution…to attend a college, you are fine.</p>
<p>If your parent contribution isn’t able to pay the balance after any aid YOU receive (and I’m including YOUR student loans in that), then the college is unaffordable…period…and you cannot attend.</p>
<p>^ The other side is that parents need to be willing to sign any loan papers as needed.</p>
<p>She has said they’ll pay $20,000 a year, I believe.</p>
<p>But because we don’t know a state/GPA, we can’t really tell her where she can get an education for that.</p>
<p>Oh well.</p>
<p>So ran some NP calculators. For e.g. Boston University, Boston college, George Washington, University of Richmond, University of Virginia they show me need based scholarship/grant @ $27K-$32K. I thought scholarship was hard to get. How come they are showing that big of a grant with COA @55K- 61K?</p>
<p>Estimated net price for above schools is between $25K-$30K</p>
<p>University of Richmond, UVA and Boston College meet full need of all accepted students. It is very possible that the bulk of the “scholarship/grant” you are seeing is need based aid, not merit.</p>
<p>Thumper I appreciate your help</p>
<p>On CB there is a filter you can use to search colleges by ( % Of Financial Need A School Can Meet) </p>
<p>I want to exclude loan component sneaking in financial need. So If I set that value to 80 to 100%, I should be able to find colleges that would meet full need. Is that correct or this can include the loan component?</p>
<p>Unless the % of need met is 100% for ALL accepted students, you are wasting your time.</p>
<p>What good does is it to know,that a school meets 85% of need on average? You have NO IDEA whether you will receive a lot of aid, or very little. That % is an AVERAGE.</p>
<p>Bella. The schools that guarantee NO loans in their financial aid packages are amongst the most competitive for admissions, some accepting only 5% of applicants. Do you have the SAT/ACT score and GPA to be a competitive admit for these colleges? Their generous no loan financial aid will do you NO GOOD unless you get accepted. These schools are often called “lottery schools” because your chances of acceptance are like buying a lottery ticket. There are tons of well qualified applicants who do NOT get accepted.</p>
<p>Also, at some colleges, the NO loan provision is only for very low income students. If your computed family contribution is $20,000 a year…you are NOT low income.</p>
<p>Over and over folks here have offered to give you assistance. It is impossible to help you find affordable schools to which you would gain acceptance without knowing your SAT/ACT and GPA.</p>
<p>Too late to edit…but even some colleges that guarantee to meet full need include STUDENT loans in their packages.</p>
<p>"I thought scholarship was hard to get. "</p>
<p>There is definitely a missing ingredient here.</p>
<p>NPC calculators don’t admit a single student or give them money. Whatever they promise is not a grant either.</p>
<p>They are only an indicator of what it might cost and they are not very good at it either unless you have exact details of parental assets, tax returns etc. What they promise is a package which may or may not include loans. Only way to know that is by finding out what that particular school does.</p>
<p>Many a student are baffled by the actual aid letter that shows up asking them to borrow 10k, workstudy of 5k, family contribution of 25k and school contribution of 10k in scholarship money when the aid letter shows up.</p>
<p>****They are only an indicator of what it might cost and they are not very good at it either unless you have exact details of parental assets, tax returns etc. What they promise is a package which may or may not include loans. Only way to know that is by finding out what that particular school does.</p>
<p>I inputed everything specific to my situation on CB NPC. Net price estimate did not include loan/work study. Loan/Work study amount was after NP estimate. </p>
<p>Net price estimate clearly show COA (which includes fees, transportation, housing) - need based scholarships / Grants.</p>
<p>Bella. Folks have said this over and over. The Net Price Calculators on each college website are the ones to use. In addition, until you actually GET admitted to a college and RECEIVE your actual aid letter, you will not really know what a school is going to give YOU for aid.</p>
<p>There are lots of factors. First, most schools DO include loans in their packages. Second, many schools package something called preferential packaging. This means that you could get more or less grant aid/ more or less loan aid depending on the schools’s desire to have you in their freshman class. Third, most schools do not meet full need. </p>
<p>You are a senior. Here is my distinguished opinion. I think you are doing this college search backwards. Create a list of colleges,you like based on your current SAT/ACT and GPA numbers. These should be schools that you like for one reason or another…courses of study, location, size, etc. this will likely be a rather lengthy list. Then run the NPC for these schools. Some schools will drop off of the list because they are unaffordable. This happens to everyone.</p>
<p>Then create a list of schools from those that remain to apply to. This should include TWO safety schools…schools that you like, will definitely be accepted to, and are affordable. Pick these schools first. Then add a few match schools. These are schools that you think you have a good chance of being accepted to and a good chance of affording. Then pick a couple of reaches…schools that are not likely admits or where the %of admitted students is so low that there are no guarantees.</p>
<p>It seems like you are picking your colleges by looking for expensive schools where you will receive sufficient aid to attend. Personally, I think that is not the way to choose a college.</p>
<p>You absolutely should be looking at your instate public universities which probably will be affordable with a $20,000 a year parent contribution and YOUR Direct Loan each year. I’m not sure why you are so adverse to taking this Direct Loan.</p>
<p>Here is what your posts imply…that you only want to attend expensive OOS private or public universities. Is that the case? </p>
<p>Also, one another thread you discuss applying early. May I suggest that you apply only early ACTION, and not early DECISION? It seems that finances are an issue. That being the case, the ability to compare multiple offers would be a good idea.</p>
<p>"I inputed everything specific to my situation on CB NPC. Net price estimate did not include loan/work study. Loan/Work study amount was after NP estimate. </p>
<p>Net price estimate clearly show COA (which includes fees, transportation, housing) - need based scholarships / Grants. "</p>
<p>It is a TOOL. It does NOT offer anything in writing.</p>
<p>Also, one another thread you discuss applying early. May I suggest that you apply only early ACTION, and not early DECISION? It seems that finances are an issue. That being the case, the ability to compare multiple offers would be a good idea.</p>
<p>Absolutely, once I learnt about early decision binding criterion, I dropped that idea altogether. I’m thinking about Early action to one or two schools.</p>
<p>bella, to quote a passage:</p>
<p>
[quote]
put citation here[/ quote]</p>
<p>just take out the space</p>