Schools that Meet 100% of Demonstrated Need
Elton Lin
When you’re a high school senior looking at college, it seems like there are a thousand factors to consider. Well, okay, a thousand and one. And the one that is the most critical for a lot of people is whether or not your family can actually afford to pay for your dream school.
It’s heartbreaking that the cost of tuition needs to be a factor in picking a college. But it does. Some schools – as good as they may be – are just not affordable for many people. Maybe they don’t offer sufficient financial aid to meet what your family would need to send you there and continue to live in their current home. Maybe the only aid that they do offer is exclusively merit-based, and your GPA – even if it’s because you had to help out with the family business rather than study – just isn’t as high as that of other students.
However you look at it, not being able to attend your dream school because of financial reasons – and nothing else – just isn’t fair. It’s one of the biggest problems in the current U.S. college system.
For most students, obtaining financial aid is a matter of filling out the FAFSA. Each school uses this form to determine how much you can pay – and if they accept you, they send you a financial aid offer. You can see all your offers before you select the school that you’ll attend. But, often, these offers will include loans – often federal loans with a period of deferred interest, but loans nonetheless. You will graduate from college and immediately need to start working to pay the government back.
But colleges – and many of the top ones – are looking at solutions, and several have come up with an answer that’s almost too good to believe: they’ll meet 100% of a student’s demonstrated need.
Which begs the question: what is “demonstrated need”? It’s simply how much money a student needs to pay for college (tuition, room and board, fees; supplies like textbooks; and even “personal expenses”) minus what the school decides that your family can contribute. The expected family contribution (EFC) comes from the data you filled out in the FAFSA.
For a school to meet 100% of this means that they’ll offer a financial aid package to all students. Here are some schools that will meet 100% of a student’s “demonstrated need” without resorting to any loans assuming your EFC is low enough. (The money comes from grants, scholarships, and work study programs.) They include top schools like Brown, Columbia, Harvard, MIT, Northwestern, Princeton, Stanford, the University of Chicago, West Point, and Yale. However, there are only a handful of schools nationwide that offer this.
The 22 Schools that Meet 100% of a Student’s Demonstrated Need Without Loans
| College or University | Ranking on US News | Location | 2020-2021 tuition |
|---|---|---|---|
| College or UniversityAmherst College Education | Ranking on US News#2 in National Liberal Arts Colleges | LocationAmherst, MA | 2020-2021 tuition$60,890 |
| College or UniversityBowdoin College | Ranking on US News#6 in National Liberal Arts Colleges (tie) | LocationBrunswick, ME | 2020-2021 tuition$56,350 |
| College or UniversityBrown University | Ranking on US News#14 in National Universities (tie) | LocationProvidence, RI | 2020-2021 tuition$60,696 |
| College or UniversityColby College | Ranking on US News#15 in National Liberal Arts Colleges (tie) | LocationWaterville, ME | 2020-2021 tuition$59,430 |
| College or UniversityColumbia University | Ranking on US News#3 in National Universities | LocationNew York, NY | 2020-2021 tuition$64,380 |
| College or UniversityDavidson College | Ranking on US News#15 in National Liberal Arts Colleges (tie) | LocationDavidson, NC | 2020-2021 tuition$55,060 |
| College or UniversityHarvard University | Ranking on US News#2 in National Universities | LocationCambridge, MA | 2020-2021 tuition$54,002 |
| College or UniversityJohns Hopkins | Ranking on US News#9 in National Universities (tie) | LocationBaltimore, MD | 2020-2021 tuition$57,010 |
| College or UniversityMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) | Ranking on US News#4 in National Universities | LocationCambridge, MA | 2020-2021 tuition$53,818 |
| College or UniversityNorthwestern University | Ranking on US News#9 in National Universities (tie) | LocationEvanston, IL | 2020-2021 tuition$58,701 |
| College or UniversityPomona College | Ranking on US News#4 in National Liberal Arts Colleges | LocationClaremont, CA | 2020-2021 tuition$54,774 |
| College or UniversityPrinceton University | Ranking on US News#1 in National Universities | LocationPrinceton, NJ | 2020-2021 tuition$53,890 |
| College or UniversityStanford University | Ranking on US News#5 in National Universities | LocationPalo Alto, CA | 2020-2021 tuition$56,169 |
| College or UniversitySwarthmore College | Ranking on US News#3 in National Liberal Arts Colleges | LocationSwarthmore, PA | 2020-2021 tuition$54,656 |
| College or UniversityUniversity of Chicago | Ranking on US News#6 in National Universities | LocationChicago, IL | 2020-2021 tuition$59,298 |
| College or UniversityUniversity of Pennsylvania | Ranking on US News#8 in National Universities | LocationPhiladelphia, PA | 2020-2021 tuition$60,042 |
| College or UniversityUS Air Force Academy | Ranking on US News#28 in National Liberal Arts Colleges (tie) | LocationUSAF Academy, CO | 2020-2021 tuitionN/A |
| College or UniversityUS Military Academy (West Point) | Ranking on US News#15 in National Liberal Arts Colleges (tie) | LocationWest Point, NY | 2020-2021 tuitionN/A |
| College or UniversityUS Naval Academy | Ranking on US News#6 in National Liberal Arts Colleges (tie) | LocationAnnapolis, MD | 2020-2021 tuitionN/A |
| College or UniversityVanderbilt University | Ranking on US News#14 in National Universities (tie) | LocationNashville, TN | 2020-2021 tuition$54,158 |
| College or UniversityWashington and Lee University | Ranking on US News#9 in National Liberal Arts Colleges (tie) | LocationLexington, VA | 2020-2021 tuition$57,285 |
| College or UniversityYale University | Ranking on US News#4 in National Universities | LocationNew Haven, CT | 2020-2021 tuition$57,700 |
Source - US New Rankings
A number of colleges do offer to meet 100% of a student’s demonstrated need, but they include loans in the financial aid package. Thus, students get a diploma (and an education) from a world-class university, but exit college with debt, which means that they have to immediately delve into the workforce. This can make ventures like graduate school – or the ever-popular “gap year” – incredibly difficult. To further complicate this, some schools (such as Emory and Northeastern) only offer this aid to U.S. students and not to international students.
Certain schools actually offer a better option. About fifteen of them do offer loan-free aid, but only to students whose families are below certain income limits. While far from perfect, this strategy can save the poorest students from graduating with debt.
Here’s a partial list of those schools:
Schools that Meet 100% of Demonstrated Need Using Loan, But Offer Aid Without Loans for Some Incomes (partial list)
| College or University | Ranking on US News | Location | No loans if your parents’ income is less than: |
|---|---|---|---|
| College or UniversityCornell University | Ranking on US News#18 in National Universities | LocationIthaca, NY | No loans if your parents’ income is less than:$60,000 and total assets are less than $100,000 |
| College or UniversityDartmouth College | Ranking on US News#13 in National Universities | LocationHanover, NH | No loans if your parents’ income is less than:$100,000 |
| College or UniversityDuke University | Ranking on US News#12 in National Universities | LocationDurham, NC | No loans if your parents’ income is less than:$60,000. Families making more than this threshold can expect small loans ranging from $1,500 to $3,000 a year. |
| College or UniversityLafayette College | Ranking on US News#40 in National Liberal Arts Colleges (tie) | LocationEaston, PA | No loans if your parents’ income is less than:$100,000 |
| College or UniversityWashington University in St. Louis | Ranking on US News#16 in National Universities (tie) | LocationSt. Louis, MO | No loans if your parents’ income is less than:$75,000 |
Source - US New Rankings
And here are a few off the others:
Schools that Meet 100% of Demonstrated Need Using Loans (partial list)
| College or University | Ranking on US News | Location | No loans if your parents’ income is less than: |
|---|---|---|---|
| College or UniversityCaltech | Ranking on US News#9 in National Universities (tie) | LocationPasadena, CA | No loans if your parents’ income is less than:$56,862 |
| College or UniversityCase Western Reserve University | Ranking on US News#42 in National Universities (tie) | LocationCleveland, OH | No loans if your parents’ income is less than:$52,948 |
| College or UniversityEmory University (US only) | Ranking on US News#21 in National Universities | LocationAtlanta, GA | No loans if your parents’ income is less than:$53,868 |
| College or UniversityNortheastern University (US only) | Ranking on US News#49 in National Universities | LocationBoston, MA | No loans if your parents’ income is less than:$55,382 |
| College or UniversityOccidental College | Ranking on US News#40 in National Liberal Arts Colleges (tie) | LocationLos Angeles, CA | No loans if your parents’ income is less than:$56,576 |
| College or UniversityUCLA | Ranking on US News#20 in National Universities | LocationLos Angeles, CA | No loans if your parents’ income is less than:$42,980 (out-of-state) / $13,226 (in-state) |
| College or UniversityUSC | Ranking on US News#24 in National Universities (tie) | LocationLos Angeles, CA | No loans if your parents’ income is less than:$59,072 |
Source - US New Rankings
Granted, loans offered as part of a financial aid package are often better than your typical student loan. But a loan is still a loan, and eventually has to be paid back. It also accrues interest until it’s paid for. In short, it defines the first decade – at least – of a new graduate’s life. And many of these schools do include PLUS loans in their packages, which are not subsidized, and accrue interest even while a student is enrolled.
There are other problems, too. Maybe these schools cover 100% of “demonstrated need,” but just because an outside arbitrer says that your family can afford, say, $20,000 a year, it doesn’t mean that they can without facing serious hardship!
Overall, schools offering to cover 100% of a student’s “demonstrated need” sound great. And in a lot of ways they are great. For example, if you are accepted to one of these top schools, you won’t have to worry that your family can’t afford to send you there. You will get your diploma from Stanford or Harvard!
But at most schools you will have student loans that you have to pay back soon after graduating. This will very much affect your options after getting your diploma.
Here’s the bottom line: if a school offers to cover 100% of demonstrated need, it means that anyone can go there. But, unfortunately, it does not mean that the college is free. Whether through work that you have to do while attending school, or loans that will bite you after you graduate and take a chunk from your paycheck, these schools do have a cost. They just make sure that it’s not a cost that will stop you from going there.
We encourage students and parents interested in building a financial aid friendly college list to do a free consultation with us to learn more about other options, including merit-based scholarships!