<p>I have this list from Wikipedia, but are there any other colleges that should be included? Or perhaps taken away as their policies may have changed? This list can be extremely helpful to students like me, whose financial aid and EFC situation is very serious and precarious.</p>
<p>For all applicants:</p>
<p>Amherst College
Dartmouth College
Harvard University
MIT
Princeton University
Yale University</p>
<p>For U.S. applicants:</p>
<p>Beloit College
Boston College
Bowdoin College
Brandeis University
Brown University
California Institute of Technology
Carnegie Mellon University
Claremont McKenna College
College of the Holy Cross
Columbia University
Cornell University
Cooper Union
Davidson College
Denison University
Duke University
Emory University
Georgetown University
Grinnell College
Hamilton College
Haverford College
Knox College
Lawrence University
Middlebury College
Northwestern University
Pomona College
Rice University
Stanford University
Swarthmore College
University of Chicago
University of Miami
University of Notre Dame
University of Pennsylvania
University of Richmond
University of Rochester
University of Southern California
University of Virginia
Vassar College
Vanderbilt University
Wake Forest University
Wellesley College
Wesleyan University
Williams College</p>
<p>Keep in mind that for “full need” schools, “need” is what the school determines, not what the family thinks it needs, and is based on consideration of factors beyond what is included in the FAFSA EFC. </p>
<p>While it it useful to have a list such as the one above, it is also potentially misleading to individuals who don’t understand the financial aid process. </p>
<p>It is often possible for students with strong stats to get better need-based aid at colleges that do not guarantee to meet full need, because those schools have more flexibility in their financial aid budgets and may offer preferential packaging geared toward their strongest applicants.</p>
<p>Another thing to investigate when looking at these schools (it’s a good list!) is their policy of packaging loans with financial aid. A few don’t package loans at all, others have published and reasonable loan caps. Some will max out on the loans and still call it “meeting full need.”</p>
<p>It lists schools with no loan policies and what income levels qualify, etc. I’d use it as a starting point and check the websites of schools in which you’re interested to make sure you have the latest info. Note that the schools listed overlap quite a bit with the schools in your first post.</p>
<p>In addition to 'rent’s comment, also look into whether a college packages private loans into it’s definition of meeting “full” need. For example, Wake Forest (used to?) includes the standard federal Stafford loans as well as additional private loans in its package. Wake was trying to raise scholarship money to replace those private loans, but don’t know if they have achieved their goal yet.</p>
<p>And calmom is correct. Each college can and will calculate ‘need’ differently. Some may cap home equity for example, while others will use the full amount in their calculation of EFC.</p>
<p>Having financial need may disadvantage you for admissions to Colby, but if you are admitted, then yes, they will meet full need without loans. They have adjusted their need-blind admissions policy to some degree – that is, they may be technically need-blind in the first round of admissions but are admitting more students as transfers, from the waiting list, and internationals which are applicant pools that have traditionally not been need-blind.</p>
<p>Doesn’t mean that Colby wouldn’t be a great option for students with need to apply to. If you get in, it’s great. And they say they are not seeking to admit fewer needy students. That suggests to me that they feel strongly about meeting need and eliminating loans, but they don’t want that policy to swell the ranks of high-need students since they don’t have the massive endowments of some other schools with such policies.</p>
<p>Colby is in Maine, and is one of the NESCAC schools. My understanding is that it’s still need-blind for RD & ED applicants, but (like many other schools) are not for waitlist, transfer, etc. That’s what’s so problematic about waitlists for students with financial need–schools tell you ahead of time that by the time they go to the waitlist, they can’t guarantee if they’ll have any financial aid money left. BUT–that said–Colby does a GREAT job with aid for those with financial need who are accepted!</p>