<p>“ISo here’s my question: is it possible for an average working middle-class family to flat-out NOT get financial aid? not even loans? Is this possible at all?”</p>
<p>Yes, it’s possible if when they filled out FAFSA, they indicated that they don’t want to be considered for loans.</p>
<p>As to whether average middle class students will get grants or scholarships…often times such students do NOT get any “free money,” even if their FAFSA EFC indicates that they have some “need”. Since most schools do NOT have much of their own money to give, once a student’s EFC is beyond Pell Grants (EFC about 5000), then the student might not get any free money.</p>
<p>As for merit scholarships… Not all schools give merit scholarships, and some only give a few. Some give a good number of merit scholarships, but generally the student’s test scores have to be within the upper 25% of the school…and have a high GPA as well.</p>