Every school visits or information session that I went to, the speakers always proudly boast that their school fully meet demonstrated needs and that no low-income student will get left behind. It seem like the phrase is used to trick students into falling in love with the school and then have to take out loans to pay after their acceptance because they already obsess about the school. Personal example, all three of my schools cost roughly the same, but one says my EFC is $25k/yr, another $20k, and the third $6k. What is the point(beside trying to fool students) of making such a phrase when all the school have to do is meet 100% of their arbitrarily calculated number of demonstrated need.
What do you guys think of a standardized equation across the nation to calculate demonstrated needs? This will lead to schools competing against one another to see who can actually meet 100%(or more if the school has large endowment) demonstrated need.
For example, the standardized equation says a family can only pay $5k. One private school can say they meet 100% DN and make the family pay $5k, but another school can meet 110% DN and make the family pay less than $5k.
I totally agree with you. the demonstrated need is based on their own methodologies. Many will use the CSS profile to help them gain a better picture of your financial health. Some schools look to house equity and say you have money there to use. One only has to take out a home equity loan. But this is debt!
The trick is to temper your emotions until you receive the actual award letter in the mail. All this talk and NPC is just estimates. Until you open the envelope and see it in writing, you just don’t know.
Well, the closest thing to a standardized formula for EFC is the FAFSA one used to calculate federal aid. However, colleges that claim to “meet full need” do not use it to determine EFC for their own aid. As you saw, different colleges can produce very different EFCs and resulting net prices.
It will help if you put yourself in the position of the school, and YOU are deciding where your FA budget should go. It makes sense that the things YOU DECIDE to asses to raise or lower the EFC are in play, not things arbitrarily determined by others.
Another beef that I have is that ‘meeting need’ includes the use of loans - unless the school specifically states that they don’t package loans. And the degree to which schools rely on loans varies a great deal. So among the 70 or so 100%-need-met schools, the level of financial friendliness varies a great deal. I really hate that this has become the accepted standard.some schools; a better option would be to split it out two ways: a) % need met with scholarships and grants, and b) % need met (as it is now). At least some schools break out the scholly/grant aid in the award letters and do the loans separately; but sadly that is not usually the case. most schools just lump it all in and call it your ‘aid package’.
Note that a school’s inclusion of loans when meeting need means that more students can afford to attend. E.g., if 10% of a package includes loans, 10% more students split the available aid budget. So your admission with need met may be only because you’re getting loans.
My nephew was just accepted to three colleges that meet 100% financial need. One wants him to take out 4K a year in loans, the other 8k a year in loans and we haven’t received the financial package from the other. So, they really do vary. Of course, both private school packages were vastly better than the state school to which he applied- they wanted him to take out 15k a year in loans.