DD is considering Tulane and we think she will be competitive for merit aid (she is finishing soph year of HS, so we can’t be sure just yet). I’m wondering if Tulane allows need-based aid on top of merit – or how they handle the combination, if they do, and how the EFC factors in.
Thanks!
Merit awarded by the school gets awarded first, then if the school has aid to give, then they look at remaining need.
For example (not using real numbers)
$70k COA of school
$40k of “need”
$40k of “need”
$10k of remaining need.
$5500 student loan
$2500 remaining “need”.
I dont’ know if Tulane promises to “meet need”. If it does, then it might give her a $2500 grant to cover that remaining need.
If Tulane does not promise to meet need, then it may gap her the $2500…so your family contribution would suddenly be $32k, not $30k.
If you’re wondering if EFC would be reduced…no, it wouldn’t. The only way EFC would be reduced (in this phony example) is if the merit award was so big…more than $40k…so once applied, the remaining costs would be less than the $30k of EFC.
I agree with mom2collegekids. My DD applied to Tulane and got merit aid. They factored that in when calculating our need and basically left our EFC to pay. Also, while they were one of the lowest out of pocket costs for us, the package included loans (Direct and Perkins) so it really wasn’t the lowest when that was factored in. It was still a very generous package and we could have made it work, but definitely still would have been paying EFC or close to it plus paying back loans.