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In a postscript to its recently released “Best Colleges rankings” — in which Thomas Aquinas College ranked within the top third of the top tierU.S. News & World Report has included the College in its list of just 66 schools nationwide that promise to meet students’ full financial need.

“Financial awards from colleges and universities use a combination of loans, scholarships, grants and work-study to cover the gap between the total cost of attendance and the amount a family is expected to pay,” the magazine explains. “A school that claims to meet 100 percent covers the gap entirely.”

At Thomas Aquinas College students and families who qualify for financial aid must first make a maximum effort to pay for as much of their tuition, room, and board as they reasonably can. This effort includes taking on a modest amount of student-loan debt — currently capped at a total of $18,000 over four years — after which students help pay for their education by working part-time during the academic year, usually through the Service Scholarship Program. Thanks to the generosity of its benefactors, the College is able to cover any remaining cost through grants.

As a result of these efforts, the College meets students’ financial need while leaving its graduates with debt loads far below the national average. Indeed, of the schools that U.S. News highlights for meeting students’ full financial need, Thomas Aquinas College belongs to a distinguished subset that can claim to offer a “need-blind” admissions process, which the magazine defines as one that “judges students on their merits, not on their ability to pay tuition.”

Earlier this month U.S. News ranked the College No. 8 in the country for “least debt” and No. 26 on its national liberal arts colleges Best Values list. The Princeton Review likewise includes Thomas Aquinas as one of only 20 “great financial aid schools,”  and Forbes has named it one of the country’s “Top Colleges” for “return on investment.”