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<p>Net price is almost always greater than EFC due to the expected student contribution (that is true for UCLA and Yale in this example).</p>
<p>However, where USC may be answering the CDS incorrectly is that they package $5,500 of loans, which presumably includes both the subsidized ($3,500) and unsubsidized ($2,000) federal direct loans, the latter of which is not supposed to be included in the CDS definition of “meet need”.</p>
<p>In any case, these examples show that claims to “meet need” (on the CDS or otherwise) are not very reliable. Students and parents should not relay on such claims and use the net price calculators to get better estimates.</p>