Financial Aid

The institutions of ABAFAOILSS are committed to making an outstanding education available to any qualified student, regardless of economic background. Therefore, the financial circumstances of your family should not be a factor in your decision to apply to one of our schools.

Because our member institutions go to every possible length to ensure that financial need is the single factor determining financial assistance, countless deserving students from modest backgrounds are able to attend our schools. More than half of all students enrolled in an ABAFAOILSS school receive some form of financial aid; indeed, with the addition of financial aid, the tuition costs of an ABAFAOILSS school may be comparable to those of a public institution.

If you believe you will require financial assistance to attend college, it is important to bear in mind that the administrators making financial aid decisions are committed to your ability to attend the school: they will do whatever possible to make adequate assistance available to you. However, in order for this to happen, the student must take the critical first step of applying for financial aid.

Financial Aid and Financial Need

Your eligibility for financial aid and the amount of aid you are offered is directly related to your financial need. Need is determined to be the difference between the total cost of your education and the amount of money you and your family can contribute toward that cost.

The Cost of Your College Education

When evaluating the expense of enrollment at any college or university, there are three distinct areas that require consideration. The first is the direct cost: tuition, room, and board charges, and special fees such as for health insurance. The second are indirect expenses, such as the cost of books, clothing, social activities, and other personal expenditures. Finally, you must consider the cost of travel, especially if the school to which you apply is located some distance from your home.

How Much Can You and Your Family Pay?

College expenses can be met from a variety of sources: funds supplied by you and your family and those supplied by scholarships, grants, and loans. Because nearly half those students enrolled at Ivy League or Sister School colleges are unable to meet the full cost of their education through family resources, these students receive some combination of scholarships, grants, and loans to make up the deficit.

How Do We Estimate Your Share?

As a part of the application process, students submit a variety of forms: the college’s own financial aid application, the College Scholarship Service’s Profile (CSS), and the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The method used by the CSS Profile and the FAFSA to evaluate family finances is uniform to all applicants and allows schools to calculate the amount of money you and your family should be able to contribute to your educational expenses. Factors determining the figure include both parental contribution as well as your own assets, such as personal savings and projected summer earnings.

In determining parental contribution, your family’s complete financial circumstances are reviewed. These include factors such as parental earnings, family size, the number of dependents already enrolled in college, as well as special considerations such as unusual medical expenses. Each college or university carefully reviews the analysis before making a determination of financial need.

For information on the specific financial policies of each member institution, please visit individual websites.