Probably the biggest shock families experience as they consider their college options is finding out how much they’re expected to pay for college. But I think a close second would be how few colleges are actually able to meet the family’s admittedly flawed calculated need. According to CollegeData.com, only 80 colleges and universities claim to meet 100% of a student’s financial need.
If a family is able to show financial need, good luck in finding a school that will actually cover it.
And ultimately, they aren’t very likely to get into one of these select few because, well, most of them are one of the select few. Half of the colleges have acceptance rates of 20% or less. Only three are over 50%. Not surprising, only eight of the schools weren’t ranked in the top 50 for US News Best College Rankings for National Universities or Liberal Arts Colleges.
You just can’t help but think, “wow, prestigious and generous too, no wonder they’re such great schools!”
Actually, I have to admit, I can help myself.
What meeting 100% of need looks like
Why? Because of the 75 schools with 500 or more full-time undergraduates, 38 had an average net price after gift aid of over $8,000 for families with incomes of $30,000 or less. Stanford and Duke don’t report any average for this category. Only 17 had an average of less than $5,000 for this category.
I use $8,000 since virtually all students will qualify for the $5,500 Direct Federal Student loan. When you add it the mandatory student contribution many of the schools require, I can see where an $8,000 average net price is reasonable. However, we are talking about the lowest income category. I’m sure these kids have plenty of expenses that won’t fall under the Total Cost of Attendance which is why I mentioned the number under $5,000 as well.
There are 221 other colleges and universities that have an average net price of $8,000 or less for the lowest income category but only 38 among the 75 schools claiming to meet 100% of need. Does that sound like meeting full need to you?
Colleges get to define demonstrated need
Chances are that most of the schools claiming to meet 100% of need are using their own special definition of demonstrated need since 69 require students to submit the PROFILE as part of their financial aid application. That’s the financial aid application that wants to know your home equity which the FAFSA doesn’t and maybe the year and make of the car you’re driving. Of those using the PROFILE, 65 also require the Non-custodial supplement. It’s their money, they get to decide how to distribute it.
Furthermore, the PROFILE is the form that low-income students don’t find out if they qualify for the fee waiver until after they submit their application. Maybe that’s why there are so few freshman receiving Pell Grants at these schools. In fact, at least half of the schools wouldn’t meet the Education Trust’s proposed bottom-line standards for the minimum percentage of freshman with Pell Grants.
It’s really about priorities
Now I know that some would argue that colleges simply can’t admit more poor students if they’re going to meet 100% of financial need, no matter how they may decide to define it. Well then, how about we just compare these elite schools among themselves? And let’s avoid the entire income category issues. Let’s take a look at the percentage of freshman receiving Pell Grants compared to the average endowment per student (see the list below.)
Wake Forest University and Bates College are tied for the second lowest percentage of freshman receiving Pell Grants at 8% each. Bates College has an average endowment per student of $176,597 and Wake Forest’s is $157,364. Southern University at New Orleans has the highest percentage of freshman with Pell Grants at 90% and an average endowment per student of only $1,461.
Southern University at New Orleans too much of an unknown school for you to use for comparisons? Then how about looking at the seven colleges were 18% of freshman are receiving Pell Grants? Three of the colleges have average endowments of less than $200,000 per student. Two of them, Harvard and Stanford, have endowments of over $1,000,000 per student. Maybe they should visit the other schools and learn something about doing more with less.
College | % Pell Grant | Average Endowment per Student |
Barnard College | 18 | $129,250 |
University of Southern California | 18 | $138,068 |
Franklin and Marshall College | 18 | $152,501 |
Wesleyan University | 18 | $307,423 |
Columbia University | 18 | $365,083 |
Smith College | 18 | $611,178 |
Harvard University | 18 | $1,422,130 |
Stanford University | 18 | $1,496,715 |
They aren’t meeting need if you have to pay it back
One last thing to know about colleges claiming to meet 100% need. They aren’t reporting this to the federal government. It’s information that is collected as part of the Common Data Set (CDS). Publishers like US News use the CDS information to create their rankings and college search websites.
The reason I’m telling you this is because the CDS does not use the same definitions as required by the federal government. The government defines average net price as the amount families pay after gift aid. It doesn’t include any loans or work study funds.
However, the CDS definition allows colleges to count subsidized loans as meeting need. Even though it’s only the interest that the government is subsidizing, the schools get to claim the entire amount in their calculations. So you really need to check with the individual schools to find out if it’s using loans as part of the financial aid award to meet 100% of need.
Now you know why this is a list of colleges as those that “claim” to meet 100% of need and why I’m not necessarily impressed with their generosity. You can find information on all of these colleges and more in the DIY College Rankings Spreadsheet.
Colleges that Meet 100% of Financial Need
(Self-Reported through the Common Data Set)
Name | Type | State | Full-time Undergraduates | % Freshman Receiving Pell Grants (18-19) |
California Institute of Technology | Private | CA | 938 | 12 |
Claremont McKenna College | Private | CA | 1,343 | 19 |
Harvey Mudd College | Private | CA | 895 | 14 |
Occidental College | Private | CA | 1,965 | 20 |
Pitzer College | Private | CA | 1,064 | 10 |
Pomona College | Private | CA | 1,621 | 20 |
Scripps College | Private | CA | 1,078 | 11 |
Stanford University | Private | CA | 6,996 | 18 |
University of Southern California | Private | CA | 19,537 | 18 |
Colorado College | Private | CO | 2,098 | 12 |
Connecticut College | Private | CT | 1,824 | 16 |
Trinity College | Private | CT | 2,129 | 11 |
Wesleyan University | Private | CT | 2,927 | 18 |
Yale University | Private | CT | 6,092 | 20 |
Georgetown University | Private | DC | 7,062 | 14 |
Howard University | Private | DC | 6,265 | 45 |
Emory University | Private | GA | 7,047 | 20 |
Northwestern University | Private | IL | 8,248 | 21 |
University of Chicago | Private | IL | 6,822 | 11 |
University of Notre Dame | Private | IN | 8,732 | 10 |
Grinnell College | Private | IA | 1,698 | 22 |
Southern University at New Orleans | Public | LA | 1,383 | 90 |
Bates College | Private | ME | 1,820 | 9 |
Bowdoin College | Private | ME | 1,835 | 16 |
Colby College | Private | ME | 2,003 | 14 |
Johns Hopkins University | Private | MD | 5,756 | 16 |
Amherst College | Private | MA | 1,839 | 30 |
Babson College | Private | MA | 2,386 | 12 |
Boston College | Private | MA | 9,703 | 13 |
College of the Holy Cross | Private | MA | 2,933 | 14 |
Harvard University | Private | MA | 7,145 | 18 |
Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Private | MA | 4,485 | 19 |
Mount Holyoke College | Private | MA | 2,146 | 16 |
Northeastern University | Private | MA | 14,202 | 11 |
Smith College | Private | MA | 2,531 | 18 |
Tufts University | Private | MA | 5,730 | 11 |
Wellesley College | Private | MA | 2,393 | 23 |
Williams College | Private | MA | 2,052 | 20 |
Carleton College | Private | MN | 2,094 | 13 |
Macalester College | Private | MN | 2,077 | 19 |
St Olaf College | Private | MN | 3,041 | 20 |
Washington University in St Louis | Private | MO | 7,118 | 14 |
Dartmouth College | Private | NH | 4,414 | 15 |
Princeton University | Private | NJ | 5,314 | 21 |
Barnard College | Private | NY | 2,578 | 18 |
Colgate University | Private | NY | 2,980 | 13 |
Columbia University in the City of New York | Private | NY | 7,728 | 18 |
Cornell University | Private | NY | 15,043 | 16 |
Skidmore College | Private | NY | 2,609 | 17 |
Union College | Private | NY | 2,167 | 13 |
Vassar College | Private | NY | 2,415 | 19 |
Davidson College | Private | NC | 1,837 | 15 |
Duke University | Private | NC | 6,583 | 12 |
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | Public | NC | 18,579 | 22 |
Wake Forest University | Private | NC | 5,234 | 9 |
Case Western Reserve University | Private | OH | 5,222 | 13 |
Denison University | Private | OH | 2,270 | 21 |
Kenyon College | Private | OH | 1,733 | 10 |
Marietta College | Private | OH | 1,061 | 31 |
Oberlin College | Private | OH | 2,818 | 8 |
Reed College | Private | OR | 1,413 | 12 |
Bryn Mawr College | Private | PA | 1,375 | 15 |
Franklin and Marshall College | Private | PA | 2,315 | 18 |
Haverford College | Private | PA | 1,317 | 16 |
Lafayette College | Private | PA | 2,635 | 10 |
Swarthmore College | Private | PA | 1,594 | 22 |
University of Pennsylvania | Private | PA | 10,447 | 13 |
Brown University | Private | RI | 6,802 | 14 |
Vanderbilt University | Private | TN | 6,817 | 15 |
Rice University | Private | TX | 3,949 | 17 |
Texas Southern University | Public | TX | 6,028 | 80 |
Middlebury College | Private | VT | 2,554 | 17 |
University of Richmond | Private | VA | 3,010 | 16 |
University of Virginia | Public | VA | 16,330 | 13 |
Washington and Lee University | Private | VA | 1,841 | 14 |
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