<p>I recently visited WashU and fell in love with the school. However, when I did the net price calculator online, my family contribution came out to be about $35K/year, which is way beyond what I can afford. When I did it for other comparable schools (like Duke and Rice) using the same numbers, my contribution was from $5-20K/year. I realize that this is only a general estimate, but I'm kind of surprised by the difference in estimates. Given my family's financial standing, I'd like to go to a school where I have to pay a max of $15K/year (especially since this is only for my undergraduate education!)</p>
<p>I met with a FA counselor while on campus, and she should be getting back to me with a hopefully more accurate estimate. If it's low enough, I'd really like to apply ED because I absolutely loved everything about WashU, and every other school now pales in comparison.</p>
<p>Does anyone have a similar experience? Having an unusually high estimate but ending up with a much lower actual offer from the school? Or negotiating for a better offer? My problem is I can't think of any circumstances I have that would affect my ability to contribute that aren't reflected in my finances...so I can't imagine my contribution lowering that much. I'm hoping WashU would be open to offering more aid in order for me to be able to attend. All input is very appreciated, thanks.</p>
<p>I can’t really answer your question about how negotiable financial aid at the school is since we did not qualify, although I’ve heard that the school is usually very accommodating. There is one other program that you might find of interest if you are admitted to the school. They have a program called PEP where you can finance all of your education and lock in on freshman tuition and housing costs!(if they finance 100%, then you are shielded from 100% of the price increases- the rate is 6% payable over 10 years with no prepayment penalties). The only catch is that this is not a deferred loan, and the first payment is due after the first month of school.</p>
<p>^Yup. And housing too. Becomes a bit obsolete if you move off campus (you get refunded - it’s not as if you lose the money), but it’s rather nice to not have to worry about 6-10% tuition/housing/food increases.</p>
<p>There’s a surprisingly large % of students who pre-pay, fyi.</p>
<p>(And considering the economy crash in '08, my parents saved a boatload considering any investments they would have made would not have been anywhere close to the 6-10%).</p>
<p>Try running the EFC again? WashU’s EFC for me was taken directly off of my FAFSA (when I sat down to talk with my finaid counselor), and was far less than Rice’s EFC and a little less than Duke’s.</p>
<p>I did the general EFC on CB and mine came out to about $6K using the FM and $13.5K using the IM. So that is why the $35K from WashU is a little terrifying! I’m using the exact same numbers for all of these estimates so I just don’t understand why I’m getting such a different number from WashU. Hopefully my FA counselor will get back to me soon (with good news).</p>
<p>I learned that the CB IM is useless, more or less, because every institution calculates a little differently. Gl-- my WashU offer was actually my best one!</p>
<p>Hi-don’t want to take this thread off topic…but I thought you should only apply ED if you don’t have to rely on any type of financial aid from the respective university. My son loves WUSTL, but thought we would need to apply RD because we absolutely cannot make it work without aid. Did the Financial Aid counselor tell you something different?</p>
<p>I am working with WashU to get a good estimate of the type of FA I would receive if I were to attend. The FA counselor I’m communicating with has told me that an estimate directly from the school should be very close to the actual FA package I would get. If it ends up being a more reasonable number than what I got from the general online calculator, I will probably apply early. If it ends up that I probably wouldn’t get enough FA, I will apply RD.</p>
<p>If Washu is your number one school, I would apply ED regardless of your financial circumstances. If you get accepted, you will receive your financial award letter soon after. If the award will not be possible for you to attend and Washu will not change it, then you can rescind the acceptance offer with no problem. You just need to have your RD applications to other schools ready for submission because you will only have a few weeks between Washu ED results and RD deadline for other schools. My Washu EFC and Fafsa EFC was about the same number. Washu did met my financial need with scholarships, sub and unsub loans, and work study. I did not have to take out the loans because I got enough outside scholarships. Btw, Washu is one of the few schools that does not reduce the school financial award with the outside scholarships unless the total exceeds the COA. Washu also have a no loan award package if family income is less than 60K.</p>
<p>FLtoWashu, I had no idea WashU didn’t deduct for outside scholarships. That’s nice to hear. I had thought they allowed people to back out if the FA offer isn’t enough, it’s good to know that for sure though.</p>
<p>marcdvl- Wow that really does make a difference. Thank you!</p>
<p>The PEP program is great if you prepay. You save a bunch but you will have to fork out the cash now. That would be about 240K without scholarships. Even if I had the cash sitting around but it is invested, you have to figure out what you would lose cashing it out or how much interest you will make on it the next 4 years. There is the PEP loan option but it is 6% interest on the the day of payment. That would be 3K plus a year interest.
OP- it’s on their website and I experienced it.</p>
<p>Thank you so much, FLtoWashu and hville7. My son will only be a junior this year, so we have time. We have already visited WUSTL, and while things can change…he (and I) absolutely loved it. The amount we get when doing the NPC on the WUSTL site is do-able for us (otherwise we wouldn’t have visited this year). We will be sure to further communicate with the FA office. I was concerned about having to apply RD if this remains his top choice. Thanks again!</p>
<p>bjdkin that is awesome! I know WashU definitely considers interest (visiting and applying ED) so I believe it’s a great advantage to apply ED since it’s so hard to stand out in a large pool of applicants. I know when I visited everyone in the FA was so nice and cooperative! Best wishes to you and your son!</p>
<p>I ran my numbers through WUSTL Net Price Calculator and it comes around 29K but running via FAFSA my EFC is ~18K. Other schools like Stanford and Harvard it ~12K.
These numbers dont include any Work study, Loans …</p>
<p>Yeah I am in same Dilemma that which numbers are more realistic.
We did visit WUSTL last month and so far its our Sons first choice but we cant afford even 15k per yr… He is pre-med and we looking next 8 yr to keep paying for his School…</p>
<p>^ Have you looked into some free ride so you can save $$$ for med school? Some cc kids turned down Yale for Rhode College, Harvard for UNC-Chapel Hill, xyz for UAlabama etc. and end up getting to top medical schools after undergrad.</p>