So I'm new to this process. Trying to wrap my head around the meanings behind the terminology. I understand need vs merit, or at least I thought I did. But then I looked up one school's stats (Vassar) and it says:
% of aid need met 100%
Average need-based aid $43,094
Average non-need-based aid $0
How does the school define "need" in this instance?
Is it the total cost of attendance, minus the expected financial contribution?
Or is it different for every school?
And, just looking at that stat, you'd think, wow, it costs ~$65k a year at Vassar, but they give you $43k so it would really cost $22k to go there, which (in my state) is cheaper than State U. Pretty good deal. Or is it?
When it says 100% of need met, I'm just confused as all get-out. What am I missing? Could it be all loans? That's not aid, not in my book. That's what I'm trying to avoid :)
Sorry for what I'm sure are questions that have been answered a zillion times. I have been reading a lot in the last couple of weeks but it's still very unclear to me.
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