<p>Where did your son or daughter get the best NEED-Based aid? Ie. lower loans and higher grants</p>
<p>Did this school claim to meet 100% demonstrated need? How much did some schools "gap" you between your need and EFC? thanks!!</p>
<p>getotta:
Have you subscribed to the US News premium site for only $15/year? I'm really NOT advertising it on here, but nearly every school has that information on there and it seems like the easiest place I've found to research it. It might be the best way to analyze the schools on your list and not have it just be hearsay.</p>
<p>I don't know why you'd want that information from this list. We are clearly an unrepresentative sample. We could easily mislead you one way or another, and the plural of anecdote is not evidence. You are better off with published sources.</p>
<p>i'd like to hear personal stories vs stats. if u dont feel like that would be helpful to me, then just dont feel like you have to reply. there will be others who will offer their experiences, which is what id like to hear.</p>
<p>My d. only applied to "100% of need schools". The difference between the lowest and highest was $47k over four years, with loans varying from $0 to $17.9k. All claimed to have met all need. Ours was a simple FASFA - no outside businesses, no real estate other than our inexpensive house, no significant medical expenses.</p>
<p>As I remember, Curmudgeon's experience was even more extreme than ours.</p>
<p>what schools specifically were the best to you? worst?</p>
<p>Sorry. I have published that once, but in hindsight I think it is too easy to give wrong impressions that way.</p>
<p>My kids best offers of need-based financial aid came from our in-state publics. </p>
<p>After that, the best offers for my son came from private colleges which combined need-based with merit aid and schools that did NOT promise to meet full need of all students. </p>
<p>My daughter is attending a 100% need private college with what I think is an excellent financial aid package, but they expect our family to contribute $10K more than the FAFSA EFC amount. I think this is typical because the private colleges define "need" differently, taking into account factors such as home equity, and income & assets of noncustodial parents. </p>
<p>But I think that distinction is important, because with my daughter, the UC's "gapped" us by $5000 in terms of meeting the FAFSA EFC, but the aid was still better than the private college, which claims to meet full need -- but they get to redefine need. My experience with both my kids was that there was at least a $9000 differential between the highest/lowest out-of-pocket contribution private schools expected from us.</p>
<p>GOB,
As has been explained in other posts, please keep in mind that schools make up their aid packages based on the students they want to attract. Those they consider most desirable (for whatever reason--adding geographic diversity, stats, talent, etc.) will get the most desirable packages. </p>
<p>For 2000-01, a friend's S applied to 14 Us & needed a lot of $$$. He got his best need + merit awards from Ripon (in Wisconson) & USoCal. None of his awards were purely need, all were need+merit. He chose USC, tho he got a full-ride + one way plane ticket from Ripon.</p>
<p>
I'll name names. ;) On pure need packages (I agree that there is really no such thing) Colgate to Amherst, $56-$60k+ over 4 years depending on how you figure it. Colgate was exceedigly generous on their calculations of need as was Hamilton and Scripps. Yale and Amherst were the least generous.</p>
<p>This is tough, because my D received merit aid offers that exceeded calculated need. But Hamilton and Carleton were the most generous with need-based aid, Macalester was the worst.</p>
<p>Of the schools to which my son applied last year, 3 provided for 100% of financial need. These offers varied by $5,000. </p>
<p>It really comes down to what the colleges use in their calculation of "need". Some use home equity as a source of funds, others do not. Some allow for a deduction for private school tuition for other siblings, others do not. Further, it also depends upon what they include in the expenses calculation. One included health insurance (the one that provided the most) the others did not.</p>
<p>At the end of the day, it is best to ask what is included in the calculation. Most schools will tell you and then you can get a better feel for what you could expect.</p>
<p>Hmmm...I thought Mac had strong financial aid and it is currently on my d's list.</p>
<p>Macalester looks like it has good need-based aid, less so for merit money (6% getting only $3800). Also, within need based average packages were 22% loans/work study.</p>
<p>Could you please tell me where you found such detailed information? I didn't see this on the Mac web site.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>momfromme, I think a point of most of us are trying to make is that financial need is different school to school BUT it is also different within the same school for some kids. Mac may indeed produce the best FA package for you. For FF it was not. From what others have shared I believe all schools , whether they admit it or not, engage in preferential packaging of need based aid for students they want the most. </p>
<p>The first time I heard about this was a parent saying that Bucknell found need where no other school did, and the need was $15K a year. What it meant to me was that it was O.K. for D to dream about need only schools because hey - it could happen. She applied to 3 need only's and sure enough Colgate was one of her most affordable schools.</p>
<p>There are two things that affect the strength of aid at a college that purports to meet 100% need:
1) The policies concerning self-help aid (loans and work study). These policies tend to apply across the board, so colleges that require heavy loans or large work study awards will usually impose these requirements on all students. However, in some cases merit aid is used to offset the self-help portion of the award.
2) The specific policies the college has as to how to treat various family resources, types of assets, unusual sources of income, and/or expenses. These policies will tend to be uniform, but it will have very disparate impact depending on individual circumstances. For example, if the college subtracts out expenses for tuition for private school for younger siblings, that is only going to help famlies where such tuition is being paid. These factors can result in extreme discrepencies in the award amounts and the way that individuals perceive their package. </p>
<p>For example, Curmudgeon is self-employed. So when he says that Yale and Amherst were the least generous, it may be that those colleges had specific policies related to self-employment income and/or deductions that ended up hurting him. But some other applicant who is not self employed might end up with a more generous award. </p>
<p>I would highly recomment reading the "Professional Judgment" section at <a href="http://www.finaid.org/educators/pj/%5B/url%5D">http://www.finaid.org/educators/pj/</a> to get a sense of the types of factors that can affect aid determinations, and the reasons for wide variations in awards.</p>
<p>To the OP:</p>
<p>The differences of opinion & experience already arising here perhaps demonstrates what mini was getting at, as to variations & complexities which can be difficult to generalize.</p>
<p>For example, my D's aid award differed significantly from a couple of points made by curmudgeon & calmom. (Same & similar schools, diff. students, diff. families.)</p>
<p>As Eagle says, the methodology for figuring need & for figuring EFC, & further how the U will be distributing that, differs by school.</p>
<p>For example, our public calculated some equity based on assessed (not appraised) home value, & so included that amount in "assets," while nevertheless the EFC remained low. The privates did not count equity as an asset; EFC was calculated even lower than the public. </p>
<p>All the privates were comparably generous; there was a difference of like $500.</p>
<p>Edit: I agree with most of what calmom and epiphany say but must add that 3.) is how much they want your kid. ;)</p>
<p>momfromme:
I picked it up off the US News Premium edition. $15/year to subscribe. Lots of info on every college.</p>