10 Colleges Where Upperclassmen Get Less Financial Help

It's the dirty little secret that can end up walloping prospective students in the wallet.

Experts call it "front-loading" -- when a university's financial aid department beefs up freshman aid packages with institutional money, in an effort to reel in admitted students, but decreases that aid in subsequent years.

"They are using aid as a recruiting tool," says Mark Kantrowitz, senior vice president and publisher at Edvisors, a higher education resource site. And at its worst, he says, this bait-and-switch technique can cause underfunded upperclassmen to overborrow, delay graduation or drop out.

[Learn more about front-loaded financial aid.]

To identify schools where upperclassmen may secure less aid, U.S. News examined a range of data points from its 2014 financial aid survey. The schools on the list below reported the largest drop in the percentage of demonstrated need met between first-year, full-time students and all full-time undergraduates.

Here's what that means: Percentage of need met is a measure of how a school closes the gap between the cost of attendance -- tuition, fees, room, board and other expenses -- and how much a family can pay, typically determined by the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and any institutional formulas.

Schools responding to the survey were asked to report the average percentage of student need met using institutional grants, need-based scholarships and subsidized loans, which are awarded based on need, among other types of aid. They were asked not to include need met through federal PLUS loans taken out by parents, unsubsidized federal loans or any private debt students took on. A large decrease in the percentage of need met for all undergraduates at a school indicates that aid tanked for upperclassmen.

[Discover the colleges and universities that claim to meet full financial need.]

U.S. News also asked colleges to provide the average dollar amount given to students in grant or scholarship aid, which does not need to be repaid. At the schools on this list -- with the exception of Montana State University -- the average need-based grant or scholarship for all undergraduates decreased by amounts ranging from a few hundred dollars to many thousands of dollars from the average award for first-time students.

If the difference is surprising, keep in mind that these numbers likely don't show the full extent to which freshmen see more aid than sophomores, juniors and seniors because aid to freshmen is factored into the overall average.

Overall, National Universities and National Liberal Arts Colleges met slightly more need for first years than for all full-time undergraduates -- 77.6 percent versus 75.5 percent. Almost 60 percent of colleges that reported data met more need for first-year students.

The 10 schools below reported the biggest differences between the average percentage of need met for full-time, first-time students and for all full-time undergraduates out of the 439 ranked National Universities and National Liberal Arts Colleges that reported the data.

U.S. News reached out to these colleges to ask about the reduction in need met and whether aid was used as a recruitment technique. Montana State and New York University did not respond to requests for comment.

Albright College, which reported meeting 97 percent of need for freshmen, compared with 79 percent for all full-time undergraduates, says this 18 percentage point drop is due to a relatively new policy. The college has begun meeting 100 percent of institutionally determined need for all incoming students but doesn't extend that guarantee to returning students.

Need for upperclassmen may continue to be met, said Greg Eichhorn, vice president for enrollment management and dean of admission, in an email. Upperclassmen can take on more in federal loans or rely more on personal resources, Eichhorn said.

Other universities pointed out that their undergraduate student body may include transfer students. For example, at American University, all full-time undergraduates "are a population comprised not only of the previous freshman classes, who are still getting their needs fully met, but it includes three years of transfer students, new aid applicants, students who appealed and may have changing circumstances and a myriad of 'other' students," said Brian Lee Sang, assistant vice provost for financial aid, in an email.

Several other universities, including Cardinal Stritch and the University of Texas--Dallas, also pointed to nontraditional and transfer students to explain the differences in percentage of need met.

Kantrowitz, of Edvisors, isn't buying it. "That's the usual excuse given," he says. Oftentimes, the number of transfer students is a small percentage of the undergraduate student body. Of the 7,341 students enrolled at American in fall 2013, 271 were new transfers, according to U.S. News data. UT--Dallas had 1,704 incoming transfers among its undergraduate population of 13,049 in 2013.

[Know how to measure a college's financial generosity.]

And if the source of the difference in aid met is transfer students, "it sounds like what they're admitting is that they give transfer students less money than those who started there," says Ben Miller, senior director for postsecondary education at the Center for American Progress, a Washington-based think tank. While it's a way to dodge the label of front-loading, he says, it still points to a less generous policy for upperclassmen.

Public schools may have factors outside their control contributing to this drop in aid, says Miller. Students who don't maintain the grades or complete other steps necessary to renew state-funded merit aid may skew the numbers. Low-income students, who earn a lot of need-based aid in their freshman years, may struggle more at college and drop out before sophomore year.

Some private schools pointed to different factors in explaining their numbers. At Northeastern University, a tuition-free co-op for upperclassmen means that some older students may require just one semester of aid per year instead of two, said Renata Nyul, Northeastern's assistant vice president of communications, in an email. The Northeastern Promise guarantees that need-based institutional aid increases at the same rate as tuition.

Students' changing circumstances can also play a role in decreases in the amount of aid awarded. For example, some students may see their family income go up, making them eligible for less aid, and others may fail to meet certain academic requirements. For example, a scholarship may require that students maintain a specific grade-point average.

When it comes to what students need to know about maximizing their chances of receiving sufficient aid throughout college, this list of schools is simply a starting point. It's important for students to investigate on their own, say experts. Students should ask whether their grants and scholarships will be renewed in future years -- and get the response in writing, if possible.

After all, when it comes to paying for college, "remember that you'll have to do this for four years," says Miller.

The financial need data above are correct as of June 16, 2015. For complete financial aid data, full rankings and much more, access the U.S. News College Compass.

Susannah Snider is an education reporter at U.S. News, covering paying for college and graduate school. You can follow her on Twitter or email her at ssnider@usnews.com.