30 Colleges That Meet All Financial Need

Posted on Friday, December 11, 2009
Category: Choosing a College, Money, Paying for College

How do you get the most from your financial aid package? Look at schools that pledge to meet all of your college financial need!

Some colleges offer need-blind admission, meaning they don’t look at your financial need while reviewing your application. But if these schools accept you, there’s no guarantee that they’ll meet your college financial need if you are eligible for financial aid.

But there are some schools that claim to provide all the financial assistance to meet the demonstrated financial need for accepted students. Although they are more the exception than the rule, these colleges take the extra step toward helping you graduate debt-free.

Check out this list of 30 schools who are known for their college financial assistance, and for meeting 100% of financial need.

Colleges and Universities	City and State
Amherst College	Amherst, MA
Bowdoin College	Brunswick, ME
Brown University	Providence, RI
California Institute of Technology	Pasadena, CA
Claremont McKenna College	Claremont, CA
Colby College	Waterville, ME
Columbia University	New York, NY
Connecticut College	New London, CT
Cornell University	Ithaca, NY
Dartmouth College	Hanover, NH
Davidson College	Davidson, NC
Duke University	Durham, NC
Emory University	Atlanta, GA
Harvard University	Cambridge, MA
Haverford College	Haverford, PA
Lafayette College	Easton, PA
Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Cambridge, MA
Northwestern University	Evanston, IL
Oberlin College	Oberlin, OH
Pomona College	Claremont, CA
Princeton University	Princeton, NJ
Rice University	Houston, TX
Stanford University	Palo Alto, CA
Swarthmore College	Swarthmore, PA
Tufts University	Medford, MA
University of Pennsylvania	Philadelphia, PA
Vassar College	Poughkeepsie, NY
Wesleyan University	Middletown, CT
Williams College	Williamstown, MA
Yale University	New Haven, CT

How is Your College Financial Need Determined?

Although all of these colleges claim give you enough financial assistance to meet your college financial need, remember that your “need” is determined in different ways.

Through the information on your FAFSA, the federal government calculates an “expected family contribution” that it believes each family can afford to contribute toward tuition each semester.

Schools that claim to meet full demonstrated college financial need often pledge to give financial assistance that covers the rest of tuition. But some schools calculate their own expected family contribution for each student, which can be higher and less affordable.

The 30 schools on this list promise to pay for the cost of tuition left over after the expected family contribution. Although the schools listed here provide this money almost exclusively through work study programs and grants, which you don’t have to pay back, many others make up the difference with loans.

There are other schools besides these 30 that pledge to meet all demonstrated college financial need for their students. Check out the financial aid policies at the schools on your college list to see what financial assistance they offer!

Bookmark this Page