Schools That Say They Meet Full Need

"Meet your need?" Hardly!

Our daughter was ecstatic when she got into Smith College. We assumed the school would honor their promise on their website, to award scholarships and aid to Phi Theta Kappa students, which our daughter was. Instead, the fin aid counselor told us we would get virtually nothing -- not because of our income, but because out house, according to Smith, was worth so much! -- and he advised us to take out equity on our home, and even to sell our home, to finance the $52,000 tuition. This, despite the fact that the officer himself admitted he understood that with our low income we would never be able to pay back such a huge loan.

What Smith calls "meeting a need" is obviously an attempt to lure as many applicants as possible, and then to eliminate those who aren't wealthy enough to meet full tuition.

It is certainly a curious scam, to encourage low-income parents to ruin themselves over college tuition.

International Students

Does this 100% need apply also for international students? I mean, do these universities meet full need of internationals students too?

An Application for Admission.

FOPA DOUANLA WILLY CHRISTIAN

P.O.Box 1058 Mankon

North West Province

Bamenda 237 Cameroon

19/06/2009

The Office of admission

Gentle people,

This must be the greatest opportunity for me to be honoured as I express to you my profound gratitude for the good job that you undertake on the behalf the the US Government and the entire world community.

My name is Fopa Douanla Willy Christian, I am a young Cameroonian of age 19, and also a student in the Government Bilingual high school Bamenda .I would like to write my Advanced level inin Physics in your school . Sir, this mail to your institution is also to request the brochure for application or the student's manual if there is any. I downloaded and printed those I found in your website but my father never took them as real because when one of our relatives applied into Pomona College, he was sent a brochure like that so my father thinks that the brochure makes the thing more real. If there is none, please do send me at least the forms for admission and the list of all the documents that I will have to provide in other to have my admission complete.

I shall be extremely happy if this process could go very fast , such a way that I could obtain my F-1 type Visa as early as September in other to start shool there in October. I look forward to hearing from you soon , mostly as per your conveniant. Please, do accept my warmest regard and above all, I wish you God's protection.

Sincerely yours , Fopa Douanla Willy Christian

Middlebury College - VT

My understanding is they somehow slip into the mix, after the fact, that they expect all students themselves to "contribute" nearly $2,000 minimum annually towards the cost of their education. This is in addition to any EFC, even if EFC = $0 by any methodology. This is also in addition to any work study and/or loans. Not such a good deal when compared to other colleges that actually meet 100% of need, without loans and without the "oh, by the way" surprises. In all reality, it should not be included in this list.

It isn't that this is their policy, the problem is nowhere on their website or information brochures I've seen where this is stated. Unfortunately, seems like bait and switch and totally unnecessary considering all the other great things Middlebury has to offer. It's a great school, otherwise. Disappointing. :(

School in PA

We found Seton HIll College in Pa. to be very generous. My daughter is a pre-med student there, 2nd year. It is a smaller private colege with more money and less students to dish it out to. She loves it there, approx. 1000 students.

Cornell

Cornell calculates their own EFC, but I know in my case it is still pretty accurate and so far I have not needed any student loans. Cornell offered me better financial aid than UNH and UVM.

Please do not try to market your school falsely on this site

I will try to monitor the comments here and remove those which provide inaccurate information about schools' generosity and practices of meeting students' full need with grants, as opposed to expensive loans.

To give readers an example of how incorrect some commenters' information is: Wesley College of Delaware, which one commenter mentioned, reports in the "common data set" information it forwarded to US News last year that it met 0 percent of any undergraduate's full need with grants in 2007. Other commenters mentioned Walla Walla University, even though it reported that it was able to meet the full need of only about 20 percent of its undergraduates in 2007. Santa Clara University reported it was able to meet the full need of only about 70 percent of its students in 2007.

But some commenters have made valid points. Vanderbilt met more than 90 percent of the full need of its students in 2007 and has since improved its aid packages.

Those of you, such as Chris of WA, who are skeptical of our research can do their own digging by asking to see your college's "common data set," in which all of this information is reported annually. Our premium site allows you to research all of the important financial aid statistics in hundreds of colleges' common data sets, as well as admissions data, and rankings details.

It's more than just the FAFSA need folks!

Don't forget, many of these colleges rely on the CSS PROFILE to determine the family's ability to pay. This is a much more extensive financial analysis than the FAFSA. There is often a difference of many thousands of dollars.

Be smart and start your planning (and family contribution estimating) early on in the process... say your student's freshman year in high school.

Just my two cents,

Jenn

Putting in another good word for Vandy

Seconding Vandy's good value here.

Missing a few..

Vanderbilt in Nashville TN should be added to the list