<p>Please keep in mind that this change does not affect current students. </p>
<p>UVa will be following the same policy that is in place at 99% of colleges - you don’t receive need based aid until you take out federal Stafford loans. That is already the case for most UVa students.</p>
<p>As a new UVa parent, I guess I don’t see this as a significant change, or a “terrible” thing taken as a whole. As an OOS family with need, while I wish AccessUVA provided more, UVa still offered us one of the best overall financial packages of any my son was offered - including our own local in-state school. </p>
<p>To be overly simplistic, UVa’s formula seems to be: </p>
<p>COA - EFC - Ext Scholarships = AccessUVA$ + Federal Loans + Work Study</p>
<p>And they cap the loans (this year’s students) at $28K total over 4 years. </p>
<p>While I’d love to have a lower EFC, and no loans or work-study, I believe that coming out of school in 2017 with the equivalent of a car loan really isn’t that bad of a deal for a great education and the experience of a school such as UVa. This is not $100K+ in loans (as several colleges expected), it’s $28K - deferred (so why should current economic status effect the student’s ability to pay it back AFTER graduation?). Maybe we’re naively not worried because of our son’s major (Engineering) in which the expectation is that he’ll come out with a job and should be able to handle that $28K investment repayment without much difficulty. Just my opinion of course.</p>
<p>… and the federal government provides 10 years to finish paying off those Stafford loans, and you can defer payments if you go to grad school at least half-time.</p>
<p>I understand the $26 to $28K loan cap only applies to out of state students. In-state students have a smaller loan cap.</p>
<p>A lot of my friends are up in arms about this… They are convinced they could not have afforded UVA if it were set up like this. I guess time will tell (stats over the next few years versus what they are now with respect to low income kids).</p>
<p>@charlie: I believe the in-state cap is $14K</p>
<p>@hazel: I’ve talked to a few people who are upset as well, but I still don’t understand the argument that it will somehow affect low income students more. The loans are due after college, and if you’re fully low income (with an EFC of $0) then you still would pay nothing upfront, or while you’re in school. You would simply have the low deferred loan debt (28K) once you get out - same as a low/middle-income student who also had to pay an EFC amount. In fact, those middle income students receiving aid may be hurt more because many take private loans to cover their EFC amount. I’m not sure how anyone could say they could not afford it based just on the small federal loans amounts reducing AccessUVa, unless of course they are in a major that has no good job prospects after graduation - but that has nothing to do with income level before/during school.</p>
<p>I’m with GRP. Unfortuently, loans are the harsh reality for what seems like a majority of students. A student with a year of loans out of UVA is still in a really good place and by adding loans to the package, it’s possible that even more students can be helped by Access UVA. If the budget is only $500k every year and the cost per student the first year is $10k, that’s 50 kids that can be given support. If the next year it rises to $25k, that’s only 20 kids the program can support. Given the rising cost of tuition, AccessUVA the way it is may not be stable enough in the future. By adding on loans, UVA can help manage that per student cost and potentially reach a larger base (instead of 20 kids getting a full 25k ride, 50 kids can get 10k and put the rest of the cost in loans that can be deferred)</p>
<p>The U. felt something had to give, because the cost of the program was increasing too rapidly, and was crowding out other needs. </p>
<p>UVa will still be more generous in its financial aid than any other public college except UNC-CH. UVa is also more generous in its financial aid than 95% of private colleges. Very very few colleges do not expect all students with need to take out loans - even some of the richest universities now require loans for low income students. </p>
<h2>UVa is still need-blind in admissions. A number of other colleges that claim to meet 100% need are not need-blind in admissions - those colleges are very careful to only accept a limited number of high-need students. </h2>
<p>There are some people who make an argument that low income students need to take out loans for personal expenses that middle and upper income income parents are able to cover. They also say low income kids often have a harder time finding a full-time job during the summer, and have a harder time adjusting to college if they have to do work study during the year.</p>
<p>UVa will still be more generous in its financial aid than any other public college except UNC-CH.</p>
<p>Something they will be reminding all high stat applicants in Chapel Hill.</p>
<p>If the state of Va. provided the same funding per in-state student to UVa that NC provides to UNC-CH, then UVa would have no trouble continuing their no loan policy for low income students. </p>
<p>However, UVa only receives a fraction of the state funding that UNC-CH receives, so trade-offs need to be made.</p>
<p>Makes you wonder if one day, college graduates will be compared to those in the “Who’s who” books. If you pay enough money, you can have a one-day-meaningless-stigma-title attached to your name…</p>