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Here at Scholarships.com, we connect students with scholarships that can help alleviate the amount of student loans they need to take out to pay for college. But there are colleges out there that offer students such generous financial aid packages that they need to take out very little in loans if at all. These “no student loans” colleges replace student loans in financial aid packages with additional scholarships and grants to help fund a student’s tuition. Students accepted into these schools will pay much less than the cost of tuition and thus will not be as burdened with student debt.
If you’re aiming for the Ivy Leagues, you’ll find that many of these prestigious colleges offer robust financial aid that covers nearly all of tuition. Brown University instituted a policy in 2018 that replaced all student loans in financial aid packages with scholarships for both new and returning students. Columbia University pays in full the tuition for students coming from families at or below a $60,000 annual income, and Dartmouth College offers the same for students from families at or below $100,000. You’ll find similar generous financial aid packages at Ivies like Harvard, Princeton and Yale.
For students interested in attending a large university, they’ll find comprehensive financial aid at schools such as Texas A&M, Northwestern, Michigan State, the University of North Carolina and more. Those that interested in a liberal arts education may want to check out Amherst College. Their need-blind admission policy means that the majority of their students will pay less than the total cost of admission, and just this year they announced that over half the student body will receive more than $50 million in scholarship aid.
There are also schools that are completely tuition-free. Rather than charge tuition, these schools require a commitment from their students – often in the form of on-campus employment. If you’re interested in tuition-free education, check out our article that goes over some of the stand-out examples.