<p>Hi, I’m a rising senior, and I was wondering how stingy/generous BU is with aid? Merit/need-based? I would really love to go to Massachussetts for school, but money is a huge issue. (isn’t it for everyone though?)</p>
<p>Thanks. :)</p>
<p>Not as generous as they once were, a lot of schools were hit pretty hard by the recession, but as for need-based and merit, I’m pretty sure it’s still fairly good. Some kids get better packages than others.</p>
<p>I, myself, didn’t get a very good package, which is why I decided not to go to BU. I only received about 10K in both loans and grants. Not very good at all. But not as bad as NYU.</p>
<p>With scholarships and loans my package came out to 36k. I think I lucked out there because I know a lot of people who got minimal packages. Apply and hope for the best.</p>
<p>^How did you get so much?
was it because of your grades, EC’s or did you apply for a lot of the BU scholarships?</p>
<p>BU has basically a sliding scale of need and merit when they give out grants. Obviously, since BU is so large, and lacks a gigantic endowment on the size of the Ivies, they cannot possibly meet the need of everyone who gets in. Instead, the better an applicant you are, the more need-based aid they will give you (Completely excluding all of the merit based scholarships, just speaking of grants).</p>
<p>If you are above average for BU, then its a lot more likely they will meet your full need with grants and the standard federal loans -Stafford, Perkins etc, usually 8k per year I max I think, as well as a 2k workstudy. </p>
<p>For example, I received a 26k and the other 10k, basically meeting my entire need. My act was a 35 and I had a decent gpa, so, not that I’m better than the average BU student, but in all honestly BU was mostly safety for me in terms of admissions. If you’re barely able to get in, well…they might not be as generous, unfortunately. </p>
<p>[Boston</a> University - Office of Financial Assistance - Applying for Financial Aid](<a href=“http://www.bu.edu/finaid/apply/incoming_probability.html]Boston”>http://www.bu.edu/finaid/apply/incoming_probability.html) - A chart that shows how they calculate the merit vs need. It varies a lot more depending on the exact situation though.</p>
<p>I don’t know why they count workstudy as aid. That’s not going to help come August 5, which is the biggest priority. But on the question, there’s a lot of variables that go into it so it all depends. They can be very generous, it’s a hit or miss.</p>
<p>You all have been really helpful- I don’t know anyone who goes to BU so I didn’t have any inside info. I plan on applying because it’s a good match for me, but it looks like I’ll need to look at more generous schools in MA…</p>
<p>BlackRose: I applied for scholarships, got work study, and loans. I had good SAT scores and GPA… wrote a really unique essay (in my opinion 
). I think I got lucky in the end.</p>