<p>In addition to 'rent’s comment, also look into whether a college packages private loans into it’s definition of meeting “full” need. For example, Wake Forest (used to?) includes the standard federal Stafford loans as well as additional private loans in its package. Wake was trying to raise scholarship money to replace those private loans, but don’t know if they have achieved their goal yet.</p>
<p>And calmom is correct. Each college can and will calculate ‘need’ differently. Some may cap home equity for example, while others will use the full amount in their calculation of EFC.</p>