Does anyone know of or have attended traditional Catholic colleges that offer great financial aid pacages? I’m hoping to attend a Catholic college that’s traditional and liberal arts focused in its approach, and know of many, but most of them seem out my reach financially. I will be receiving no EFC(Expected Family Contribution) and will have to pay my way through college myself. I do have a relatively good GPA (3.72) with some advanced courses, and many other assets that may make me eligible for numerous merit scholarships, if I enrolled at such a school that offers them. I’d love to attend a great Catholic college such as Ave Maria University, but colleges like those offer not nearly enough financial aid that I need 
Thank you for your help!!
Not sure what this means. If your EFC 0 or are you parents refusing to pay anything for your college education?
When you say pay your way yourself, how much do you think you would be able to pay? It’s difficult enough to get aid to cover full tuition, even hard to get aid that covers costs beyond that such as room and board and books. Are you anticipating receiving need-based aid or looking for merit programs? Knowing your stats (gpa, standardized tests, class rank, and so on) would help.
They will be unable to pay anything towards my college education. And for EFC, usually colleges deduct a certain amount based on parents’ income that they expect the parents will pay towards the student’s college education, but there will be no existing contribution from my parents once I enter college.
I’m hoping to receive both need based and merit aid, and participate in work/study programs to help pay my way. Outside of all of that, everything will probably have to be paid by student loans, which I’m hoping to seek the very least of to keep my debt when I graduate college at aminimum.
My GPA is 3.72, and I’m a student at a private Catholic high school program that is accredited, and known to have classial challenging curriculum. I have not taken the ACT or SAT yet. And my school does not reveal its class ranks.
Thank you for your help!
What is your EFC? You can only borrow $5500 your first year. Any other loans will have to be Parent plus loans of private loans that your parents would have to cosign.
Male or female? If female, maybe take a look at St. Mary’s College in South Bend.
I believe my EFC is around 3000.
I’m female. Thank you for that suggestion!
Look for colleges that “meet full need”. The financial aid package will include the $5500 in federal loans and maybe work study. Summer work may cover the rest.
Providence, Catholic University and Loyola Maryland offer merit. Villanova has some nice scholarships too, though they are harder to come by. College of the Holy Cross meets full need
I know that Siena College (NY) and Fairfield (CT) have some nice merit scholarships.
Just want to make sure you understand that just because your EFC is calculated to be $3,000, that does not guarantee you’ll get enough aid from schools to mean that’s all you have to pay. That’s why one of the above posters pointed to “meets full need” schools. Schools that don’t meet full need will “gap” you - for example, our EFC was $35,000, but Villanova, who stated when we toured does not meet full need, offered a package that would have had us contributing $50,000.
Also, if you receive both merit and need-based awards, some schools will not allow you to “stack” the awards - they will apply the merit to your need-based award.
What attracts you to Ave Maria? If it’s the level of conservatism, then you should look to schools on the Newman guide: https://cardinalnewmansociety.org/recommended-colleges/ and then look up their scholarship policies.
Many of the Jesuit schools offer great scholarships: http://www.ajcunet.edu/institutions/
Not so much the tippy-top ones like BC or Georgetown, ones like Scranton, John Carroll, St Joseph’s give good merit awards.
I’ve seen Dayton give good awards to kids coming out of Catholic high schools.
Are you a senior? If so, you need to take the ACT and SAT soon!
[QUOTE=""]
believe my EFC is around 3000.
[/QUOTE]
What are you basing that on???
EFC is a calculation based on income and assets.
Edit…looks like you’re a JUNIOR. Are you signed up to take the PSAT in October???
There are FEW Catholic univs that are affordable when parents won’t pay anything. Even those that give nice merit scholarships will still often have a remaining cost that is much higher than a $5500 loan and some WS.
Once you have test scores, we can better advise you.
What is your home state?
Why does the school have to be Catholic?
You can find active Catholic communities at many colleges with strong financial aid. You may want to consider broadening your search.
You may want to look into the University of Dallas. It is fairly conservative from a Catholic perspective and has significant aid available. D1 was offered 1/2 a ride there and her stats were solid but not stellar. I know people who went there with very little debt.
Thank you for the suggestion! I have heard good things about that school, and will have to look into it more 
@mom2collegekids Thank you for your comments! I’m sorry to say I do not have any test scores as of yet. I live in the Midwest. And the school does not necessarily need to be Catholic; but it would be great if I could attend a Catholic college. I’m looking into schools that are either Catholic or have active Catholic communities, like good Newman Centers, and that are affordable.
@siliconvalleymom i have begin doing that, looking at public or non-catholic schools that have good Catholic communities and also good financial aid. If you know of any you’d like to suggest (that may lengthen my current list of options) I would appreciate it.
@student899 : prepare for the PSAT since it’s like a giant scholarship competition. It’s likely a couple weeks from now at your school.
Have you calculated your actual EFC? If it truly is $3,000, it means you really need to target a “meet full need university” and hope their calculation isn’t too far off the federal system (each college is free to calculate what the contribution should be, and then they may or may not meet the need as they calculated it!)
Look into Holy Cross, Notre Dame, Boston College, Georgetown (Catholic colleges that meet need), St Olaf (not Catholic, but religious and with lots of Catholics) - these colleges meet need.
John Carroll, St Mary’s Indiana, St Michael’s, St Anselm, Siena, St Bonaventure, UScranton, UDayton, Xavier OH, Seattle U, UPortland, Catholic U of America all offer some merit aid, but without a test score we can’t tell you whether you’d qualify.