Many families search for colleges that meet full need.
This gives parents confidence that the school will come through with need-based help to enable them to purchase college. Unfortunately, not every school which makes this claim really meets 100% of need, a minimum of as far as families are concerned.
Here's things to look for before your student pertains to a college that says they meet full need.
How Hard Is it to get involved with a “Meets Need” School?
Not surprisingly, schools that offer excellent aid are in popular. Consequently, they may be very selective. It's often very difficult to get into these schools.
For instance, the Ivy League schools often offer significant aid to lower-income students. If you have an Ivy League caliber student, that's great!
If not, however, your student might be sorely disappointed if they are counting on engaging in a college that provides this type of aid.
| College | % Admitted |
|---|---|
| Columbia University | 7 |
| Yale University | 6 |
| Harvard University | 5 |
| Amherst College | 14 |
| University of Chicago | 8 |
| Williams College | 18 |
| Colgate University | 29 |
| Princeton University | 7 |
| University of Southern California | 17 |
| Pomona College | 9 |
| Vassar College | 27 |
| Barnard College | 17 |
| Dartmouth College | 11 |
| Stanford University | 5 |
| Haverford College | 21 |
| Duke University | 11 |
| Smith College | 37 |
| Claremont McKenna College | 9 |
| Georgetown University | 17 |
| Northwestern University | 11 |
| Swarthmore College | 13 |
| Wellesley College | 29 |
| Hamilton College | 26 |
| University of Notre Dame | 19 |
| University of Pennsylvania | 9 |
| Franklin and Marshall College | 36 |
| Carleton College | 23 |
| Vanderbilt University | 11 |
| Middlebury College | 16 |
| Colby College | 19 |
| Pitzer College | 14 |
| Trinity College | 34 |
| Colorado College | 16 |
| Bates College | 23 |
| Cornell University | 14 |
| Washington University in St Louis | 17 |
| Harvey Mudd College | 13 |
| Grinnell College | 20 |
| Bryn Mawr College | 40 |
| University of Richmond | 32 |
| Wake Forest University | 30 |
| California Institute of Technology | 8 |
| Occidental College | 46 |
| Davidson College | 20 |
| Washington and Lee University | 24 |
| Brown University | 9 |
| Dickinson College | 43 |
| Lafayette College | 28 |
| MIT | 8 |
| Wesleyan University | 18 |
| Bowdoin College | 15 |
| Macalester College | 37 |
| Tufts University | 14 |
| Skidmore College | 29 |
| Connecticut College | 35 |
| Rice University | 15 |
| Oberlin College | 28 |
| Kenyon College | 27 |
| Reed College | 31 |
| Emory University | 25 |
| Union College | 37 |
| Johns Hopkins University | 13 |
| Scripps College | 30 |
| College of the Holy Cross | 38 |
| Northeastern University | 29 |
| Boston College | 31 |
| Mount Holyoke College | 52 |
| Augustana University | 69 |
| University of Virginia-Main Campus | 30 |
| UNC at Chapel Hill | 27 |
| SUNY Polytechnic Institute | 64 |
| Southern University at New Orleans | 12 |
How Is Need Determined?
Another important thing to think about before your student pertains to a college promising to satisfy full require is, how is that need determined?
Many times, the colleges offering to cover full need use the CSS Profile to find out that require, instead of the usual Expected Family Contribution (EFC) in the FAFSA. This means that the need numbers are proprietary and particular to the school.
As a result, you may find that these schools expect your family to be able to provide more financially compared to federal EFC. This will make the necessity gap smaller, and also the aid will be less too. For example, the CSS Profile can take into account your home equity along with other assets excluded from the federal EFC.
Make sure you're conscious of how require is determined – and whether a school uses the CSS – prior to you making financial plans about a particular college or university.
Do College Meet Full Need?
One concern many parents have is the fact that much of the aid offered for needy students is in the form of loans.
Federal loans are available to every student, however they have to be paid back. Because students can continue to graduate with 1000s of dollars of debt, this isn’t very useful help to many families.
You might want to concentrate on schools that provide a “no loans” educational funding package. These may apply to a lot of students or only to low-income students.
Fifteen schools around the country offer No Loans packages for all students, and almost 60 more have No Loans for lower-income students.
It’s vital that you keep in mind that although a college may have a “no loan” financial aid policy it doesn’t imply that all loans will be eliminated.
Colleges with “no loan” policies are attempting to reduce a student’s need for loans. A “no loans” award doesn’t mean that you won’t have to take on any debt, but hopefully the amount of debt will be lower at graduation than at schools without these policies.
Remember, the school determines what you are likely to pay. If you aren’t actually able to satisfy that level, you may want to take out federal loans or qualify for private loans to meet the difference.
For example, if your college has determined that your family are able to afford to pay for $12,000 a year, however, you can only manage $5,000 through savings and current income, then you will need to borrow (either through federal or private loans) to create up the difference.
Before you choose a college, use their net price calculator to ensure their determination of your need (and any expected student contribution) isn’t significantly greater than your EFC from the FAFSA. If it is, your student might be better off in a school that utilizes the FAFSA instead.
(Have more info on the schools that meet 100% of need. One of them list is average quantity of need award, % of scholars who don't receive need-based aid; and the average quantity of non-need money awarded to students without need.)
Download: Colleges That Meet 100% Need
Colleges Self-Report Meeting Full Need
The final thing to bear in mind when looking at schools claiming to meet full require is this is self-reported. Nobody checks on the school's fiscal reports to make sure it's correct.
Even when they make these claims, it's possible that not a lot of students have 100% of need met. For instance, at Brandeis University, 75% of scholars had their full need met.
We're not attempting to rain on anyone's parade. Instead, you want to help families have a realistic expectation of the items “100% of need met” or “meeting full need” really means.
Are you looking for colleges that can offer your student needs based aid or merit scholarships? We are able to help. Find colleges that may be the most generous to your student with merit scholarships. Use our College Insights tool to make the searching easily!
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