<p>My son has just completed his freshman year at Villanova University and we received his financial aid award by email this week. His award is $18,000 less then last year. Our AGI has only increased by $4,000 and tuition had a 4% increase from last year.. I am posting this because if financial aid is a necessity to attend Villanova, please reconsider. I doubt he will be able to continue at Villanova and I can't help but feel we wasted close to $40,000 last year for him to attend. Academic standing is good, no other influx of money, circumstances have remained the same. I specifically asked Villanova prior to son enrolling if the aid would remain consistent for four years and was told yes. Son gave up other partial 4 year scholarships for more money, to attend Villanova. I will be meeting with the Financial Aid department on Monday and will post the results.</p>
<p>Hi, I am little worried after reading your post. In fact, i know a guy who goes to law school told me the same thing. I am a transfer student and they actually gave me a good grant. Now is the grant reduced due to the increase of family income only or there are other factors involved? I hope this doesn’t happen to everybody.</p>
<p>It’s unfortunate to hear that your aid was reduced for sophomore year. Looks like you had an incredible grant for freshman year.</p>
<p>For comparison, here is our four years of FA awards. This is for my younger son; his freshman year we also had an older son in college and so even though our FAFSA EFC was higher, it was split between the two of them and so our Villanova Grant was higher than in subsequent years. What we have found is that VU does expect an increasing contribution to college costs, but for us, the outlay remained fairly stable and as expected.</p>
<p>Villanova Financial Aid Awards</p>
<p>2010-2011 COA was $53,150
EFC = 21224
Grant = 20,030
Work Study = 3000 (did not accept)
Sub Loan = 3500
Unsub Loan = 2000 (did not accept)
Total “Aid” = $28,530 FA Gap = $3,396
Outside Scholarships = $6500 Actual Outlay = $22,323</p>
<p>2011-2012 COA was $54,500
EFC = 35359
Grant = 10,920
Work Study = 3000 (worked on campus, but not as FA work study)
Sub Loan = 4500
Unsub Loan = 2000
Total “Aid” = $20,420 FA Gap = -$1,279
Outside Scholarships = $3000 Actual Outlay = $33,476</p>
<p>2012-2013 COA was $56,615
EFC = 29876
Grant = 11,920
Work Study = 3000
Sub Loan = 5500
Unsub Loan = 2000
Total “Aid” = $22,420 FA Gap = $4,319
Outside Scholarships = $3000 Actual Outlay = $33,418</p>
<p>2013-2014 COA is $58,765
EFC = 29545
Grant = 11,920
Work Study = 3000
Sub Loan = 5500
Unsub Loan = 2000
Total “Aid” = $22,420 FA Gap = $6,800
Outside Scholarships = $3000 Actual Outlay = TBD (off campus living: $31,964 est)</p>
<p>If there was truly no change in your household financial circumstances, perhaps you may explore an appeal of the award package. I guess it’s always possible that a mistake was made?</p>
<p>No, I did not realize every college does this. I called to confirm prior to son enrolling last year and was told the grant would remain approximately the same. Just to be clear, the entire grant freshman year was 18,000. This year it is $0. We are appealing and have been told we may get an increase, but funding is never guaranteed regardless of the circumstances.
My husband and I are both educators, so our income remains consistent. No other influx of money.
I posted in case other students were dependent on their grants and other financial aid, they could make choices wisely. My son had guaranteed partial scholarships at other schools that would have been a better choice in hindsight.
Thank you for your input and I am hoping this is a mistake!</p>
<p>No every college does not do this. Allegheny increased our aid each with a nearly same EFC. My S just graduated and this a great thing each year. Good luck OP.</p>
<p>I sure hope that this does not happen to my D! She was given a lot of grant money and so she dropped a more prestigious institution to attend VU this fall. I don’t even want to think that this could happen to us! And yes, not all colleges do this bait and switch tactics! Mine didn’t!</p>
<p>Every university DOES NOT do this. I would have a conversation with the head of financial aid.</p>
<p>What is the outcome??</p>
<p>I am so sorry it has taken so long to update the final outcome. This has been an ongoing process and fortunately it has finally been resolved. My son’s grant has been reinstated! Initially it was thought to be an oversight by Villanova and after we submitted additional paperwork and it was reviewed by his financial aid counselor the grant was awarded for next year.
Very happy with the results, but we did have a good laugh thinking how happy we are to only owe almost $40,000 next month!!!</p>
<p>Glad it worked out! My D15 is thinking of applying to Villanova when the time comes but we can only handle it if she gets enough FA. Your story really had me worried!</p>
<p>I’m glad it was resolved in your favor. My son is a rising sophmore and his aid package also remained the same as last year. .</p>
<p>Every college does not do this. My older son attends George Washington Univ and our aid increased the second year.</p>
<p>TCU also does not do this. In fact, my S’s package has increased slightly every year to keep up with the tuition increases.</p>
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<p>Apparently Villanova does not do this either. Fortunately, OP says it was satisfactorily resolved. Good news.</p>
<p>I was just wondering, does every college do this?</p>