<p>I know that Tufts admission is need blind but does anyone have any first hand knowledge whether their aid package is mostly loans or do they provide a substantial amount of grant aid? How do their packages compare with the new iniatives of schools like Colby, Bowdoin and some of the Ivy's.</p>
<p>My info. is two or three years old, but Tufts is not known for the generosity of its financial aid program. Most Ivies are far more generous. Not sure about Colby, but Bowdoin is actively seeking socio-economic-diversity. Tufts may, in fact, be a "need aware" school as opposed to a "need blind" admissions policy.</p>
<p>You might want to ask over on the Tufts board. I know when we visited Tufts last fall they said they "try" to limit loan amounts to $4500/yr. I know that's not unreasonable, but it's something to consider depending on one's other options. It also was a bit of a wobbly way to answer the question. It wasn't like they came out and said, "we cap loans at $4500" the way some schools will state clearly their own loan caps.</p>
<p>I have also heard different things on its needs-blindness.</p>
<p>My son liked the school very much, but I left with the feeling that it probably would turn out to be very expensive for us even with the best package they might routinely offer people of our circumstances. As it turns out, he didn't end up applying.</p>
<p>Financial aid policies are changing right and left now, though, and there may be better aid coming soon from Tufts too. I mean, who knows, but it's possible.</p>
<p>Thanks all. I will post this on the Tufts Board.</p>
<p>Tufts did meet our need, but there was a much larger loan/work study portion than our packages from other schools. I don't know if they are doing things differently this year, though. I should add, though, that they DID give us quite a bit of grant aid ... it was not all loans.</p>
<p>Colby meets 100% of demonstrated need and they recently eliminated loans and replaced them with grants for students on financial aid</p>
<p>After our son received his package last year we felt they had not fairly evaluated our "need" so we met with the director and they ended up increasing his grant by 6k---that was really nice</p>
<p>there was an article recently about a new Tufts initiative, like those with an income lower than $45,000 won't have to pay anything. you might try going to their fin. aid website and search for it.</p>