<p>My biggest fear is that I’m not going to be able to pay for college, so financial aid is my biggest concern. Finding the actual cost for a college is hard because comparing tuitions seems futile sense they all give financial aid packages in different amounts.</p>
<p>ACT:31
SAT:1960…800 on the Math
EFC: Roughly 6,000.</p>
<p>I live in New York state. I could probably make due with a school that just matched my EFC if I took a part time job but that would make Double Majoring or getting a jump start on Grad School impossible. I’d like to major in Economics with a move to Grad for MBA. </p>
<p>Anyone’s opinion would probable help, i feel so lost.</p>
<p>If you’re content with schools meeting your EFC, then look at schools like Claremont McKenna, who GUARANTEE to meet 100 percent of your need, and whose financial aid packages include no student loans in them. Essentially it’s a new policy where they replace student loans with more grant/scholarship money.</p>
<p>If you look up on Wikipedia “need blind” you should see a list of schools that offer to meet 100 percent of your need. There’s very few schools that actually meet 100 percent of your need, and these are usually top Universities or top liberal art colleges.</p>
<p>Then there are schools like USC who offer extremely good packages, and are aware of student’s needs. I find the schools that give most need based aid tend to be the ones who require or recommend submitting a CSS Profile in addition to FAFSA. I may be wrong, but in general with schools that don’t guarantee to meet 100 percent of need, it’ll vary by student, not to say that it wont happen… So don’t rule out privates until you actually get accepted and look at the financial aid packages. If you’re applying to out of state publics, know that most of those schools will rarely shell out need based aid.</p>
<p>BTW Claremont McKenna is extremely strong in Econ, has strong grad placement. FYI if you plan on going to Grad for an MBA, realize that most top MBA programs will require you to have some sort of work experience for a couple of years before you go on to pursue your MBA. In addition, there are other schools taht are doing no student loans, i believe amherst may be doing this…</p>
<p>Remember that even schools like Claremont, which “GUARANTEE to meet” 100% of need may not use only the FAFSA definition of need (which is what most people use as their EFC). If a school uses the Profile, they recalculate your need using information not considered by FAFSA, such as home equity, non-custodial income, business value, etc.</p>
<p>You may want to start looking at schools that are known for giving generous merit aid (there are threads about those schools at the top of the Financial Aid forum).</p>
<p>Sometimes you may have to apply and then see what happens.</p>
