Colleges That Claim to Meet Full Financial Need

Don't be dissuaded by a college's high sticker price. It's a common mantra in the higher education community, given the vast array of financial aid options schools offer to admitted students to help pay for college. 

[Estimate your net price of college.] 

Some schools make a concerted effort to keep their final prices within a student's ability to pay, based on what's formally known as your expected family contribution (EFC). Your EFC aims to estimate what your family can reasonably spend on one year of college, calculated using your family's income, number of children, amount of assets, and more. A minority of schools report to U.S. News that, on average, students who qualify for need-based aid won't have to pay more than their calculated EFC. 

[Find out the drawbacks to EFC calculations.]

Among 1,171 institutions that reported the statistic to U.S. News, 62 colleges claim to have met, on average, 100 percent of their admitted full-time undergraduate students' financial need for fall 2010. That means the average gaps between a school's total cost of attendance—tuition, fees, room and board, books, travel, and other expenses—and every student's EFC was filled with some combination of aid. 

It's up to the schools to define what they use to meet students' need. Some colleges may use subsidized loans to help make up the difference, for example, or will factor work-study funds into the calculations. (Both scenarios would shift some of the onus of the aid gap onto students.) Eligible students may also receive aid such as merit scholarships or federal grants. 

[See what changes are coming in 2012 for federal aid.] 

A few schools, including Vanderbilt University, made this list after falling short last year. Johns Hopkins University narrowly missed the mark this year, reporting that students had, on average, 99.7 percent of their full need met. 

Other schools, including Grinnell College and Yale University, are long-time reporters of meeting full need. "I have been here 20 years, and we've never failed to meet full need of all of our students," says Arnold Woods, Grinnell's director of financial aid. 

At Yale, it's an institutional policy outlined on the school's website to "meet the full demonstrated need of every student including international students for all four years." While U.S. News expects that schools include all full-time undergraduates, including international students, in their reported statistics below, this data may not be universally applicable to international students, who are increasingly expected to shoulder the financial burden of their education. 

All schools listed below report they met, on average, 100 percent of their full-time undergraduates' financial need in fall 2010. Keep in mind, though, that schools that didn't make this list may ultimately be more affordable for you, based on residency requirements, regional tuition breaks, and other factors. 

For complete financial aid data, full rankings, and much more, access the U.S. News College Compass.