<p>I did. "In state publics". To be precise, UC Santa Cruz and UC Santa Barbara. </p>
<p>If your user name reflects where you live, and you want to save money, I'd suggest that you look at the SUNYs. </p>
<p>As to the other schools: Barnard gave my daughter the best aid for a private, much better than the offer she got from Chicago. All her other colleges were schools that did not promise to meet 100% need and included merit aid - so they aren't relevant to your question. Huge sample I've got here ... 2 whole schools.</p>
<p>"That's not how COFHE works. The 568 Group schools have an agreement in which they will treat certain assets & income similarly, but they haven't agreed on all things."</p>
<p>Right. Because if they announce publicly they agree on all things, they will have violated the terms of their agreement with the Justice Department. So the trick is to collude without the appearance of collusion.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Right. Because if they announce publicly they agree on all things, they will have violated the terms of their agreement with the Justice Department.
[/quote]
But the point is, they don't agree on all things. All you have to do is read some of their documentation of various unresolved issues to see all the stuff that is still on the table and being debated.</p>
<p>Amherst was extremely generous with me. I am paying $13,000 less per year than I would have to pay at my safety (another LAC). I have no idea why they were so stingy with curmudgeon's daughter.</p>
<p>I can only speak from my experience, take it for what it is worth.
My daughter was accepted by U of Chicago, Emory, Wake Forest, U of F, UNC Chapel Hill and UVa. UVa met need 100% without loans or work study. UNC Chapel Hill was the second most generous meeting 100% of need with work study of $2500/yr. Daughter is National Merit Finalist and IB Diploma Graduate, top 4% of class.<br>
The private colleges included loans and work study in the aid package.
She ended up at UVa and is very happy there.</p>
<p>I am with mini on this one as D applied to and was admitted at 7 need blind meets 100% demonstrated need colleges. there was a range of over $10,000 between the "best" and "worse" packages.</p>
<p>Overall, what really consitiutes the best? the school that gave D the most money (best package) was not the school which was her first choice to attend so the best financial aid package meant nothing. However there was a $4000 difference between her first and second choice (schools overlap in the same pool of candidates) and she used the package from her second choice to get a financial review from her first choice school. </p>
<p>What itstoomuch states is also true, it depends on how much the college wants the student.</p>
<p>My DD applied to 7 private schools and one public school. Public school offered a free-ride, but the other 7 financial aid packages were quite similar - no huge differences like others have noted. Most used the same EFC, though there was some difference in packaging of aid; some schools expected loans of less than $3000 and workstudy - others none. (Hmmm..I guess that, over 4 years, the student loan amount would have risen to equal about $20,000 - so that does end up to be a pretty big difference! That really is a problem with FA packages. You can't always tell what they will look like after year one!) DD picked the offer that was no loan and no workstudy for all 4 years and a parent EFC that has been equal to the FAFSA EFC. It means that she can work at a campus job on her own to pay for her own personal expenses.</p>
<p>Out of almost twenty schools that my twins applied to last year (combined) ... NYU gave the worst package (no surprise there) followed by Wesleyan. And both had nasty attitudes about it when we called to discuss their packages.</p>
<p>GOB - I'll answer your question to the point. Princeton has an incredible financial aid program! The calculator on their website is pretty accurate. Princeton was the first to replace loans with grants. In US News & World Report, Princeton is #1 for students graduating with the least amount of debt. Princeton met 100% of our need beyond the EFC! It is cheaper to send D to Princeton than to our state school, because of their generous financial aid policies.</p>
<p>Princeton's financial aid calculator gives my family an EFC of less than $5k, which is about a third of what we're actually able to pay (or an even smaller fraction if we stretch). I know I didn't make any mistakes typing in the numbers, but it seems almost too good to be true... because if that ends up being our final EFC, college is going to be ridiculously easy to pay for</p>
<p>"In US News & World Report, Princeton is #1 for students graduating with the least amount of debt. Yep, IMHO, Princeton is the most generous school in the country. And the laundry and printing there is free for students."</p>
<p>9th, according to my data (but best among the Ivies.) Note, that "students with least amount of debt" in many cases simply means that they accepted wealthier students, with PARENTS holding on and paying off the debt rather than the students. Also least amount of debt because they had among the highest percentage of students between $100-$160k income receiving small grants rather than loans.</p>
<p>Princeton IS very generous. But things aren't always as they seem.</p>
<p>Point well taken, mini, and yes, things aren't always as they seem. But it is a fact that Princeton is quick to replace loans with grants. A great many of the lower income students at Princeton have much of their expenses covered by grants and the fact that Princeton awards grants to the next level of $100 -$160K attests to the generosity of the school and their committment to being affordable. The OP asked where we got the best need based aid and that's what I'm responding to.</p>
<p>"9th, according to my data"
I was referring to page 65 of this year's (2007 edition, yellow cover) U.S. News & world report which lists Princeton as #1 among national universities for least amount of debt. If I missed something, then I apologize.</p>