CWRU scholarships & financial aid

Colleges and Universities A-Z Case Western Reserve University
1

Hey CCers!
Okay, so I used the net price calculator for Case and my estimated financial aid award is a whopping 50% of the total cost of attendance. These were my results:

Total cost of attendance: $68,104
CWRU Gift Assistance: $33,892 (??!.. yes, per year)
Work study: $2,500
Federal direct student loans: $5,500
Estimated cost after all aid: $26,212

I mean seriously? How accurate is this net price calculator? I got about $9,000/year of need-based aid from Baylor using their net price calculator. Case’s is telling me I’d get $33,892/year. Yes, I’m sure it’s at a per academic year rate (I called their financial aid office and confirmed).

I was of course excited when I first saw this, but it warrants some skepticism. I was reading about CWRU scholarships given to previous applicants on CC and I’ve read a lot of $20,000-$25,000/year cases. Best case scenario $30,000.

Anyone else wondering about their financial aid? I’m about ready to pull my hair out. PLEASE, if someone- anyone- can give me some clarity on what to expect from Case in terms of financial aid and scholarships, bless you.

Also, here’s a breakdown of me:
Asian-American female
SAT: 1500/1600
GPA: 4.0 unweighted, 4.413 unweighted
Top 1% class rank
National Merit Commended
APs: Psychology 5, world history 4, chemistry 3, statistics 4, us history 3, English lang 4 This year’s- English lit, Art history, Spanish lang/culture, Calculus bc, US Gov

And my ECs:

Volunteer at INTEGRIS and the Children’s Hospital
Co-founder of Homeless Outreach Club
Treasurer of Spanish Honor Society
VP of Spanish Club
Senior Rep. of NHS
Member of city and state Youth Leadership class
Section leader in chamber and symphonic orchestra, many awards
Advanced piano player, many awards
Swim leader and coach in American Energy Swim Club
FIRST Robotics Team member

2

Oops, that should say 4.0 unweighted and 4.413 weighted :slight_smile:

3

I think it’s possible, judging from students I’ve known. A few years ago the University Scholarship maxed out at $30,000 a year, but it seems to have gone up little by little.

4

I guess the question is: Can your family afford $26,000 a year?

Also, are you getting need based aid in that $33,000 or is that merit based aid?

5

The 33,000 is totally possible. I, for example, received approx. 51k with the merit scholarship in the EA round.

6

@chelseag89 I think the numbers on CC you are quoting, max $30K per year, are most likely just the merit portion of the package. You can get merit and financial aid from Case. To keep the financial aid portion, you have to submit new financial information each year, for all four years. The merit portion, you will have GPA requirements, but its a four year award, so no variability. If your parents income goes up, your financial aid portion goes down, once Case catches up with the new tax year. So each year, financial aid is awarded, so it can and will vary. If your income goes down, your financial aid should go up. If you have younger siblings, once one of them is in college, the EFC is divided in half, so that will boost financial aid in most cases, if you overlap any sibling in your family in college.

Note that jobs are so plentiful at Case, you do not need the work study designation to earn money there, as a TA, or research assistant too. So merit only scholarship students can work as well, but financial aid students are EXPECTED to work, to make that money. If you happen to have $2500 in cash you can choose to not work in freshman year, and pay that part in cash from your own summer savings etc.

7

Case Western is a full needs meet school as of 2018. So if you entered your information in the NPC correctly then the information should be fairly accurate.

8

Looks like they want you. Congratulations.

9

@bopper Yeah my family can afford $26,000 a year. And, the $33,00 was need based aid, excluding potential merit scholarships.

10

@Blazchkowski123 Wow that’s amazing, congrats to you! How much of the 51k was need based aid and how much was from merit based scholarship, if I may ask?

11

@ColoradoMomma When you say financial aid students are expected to work, do you mean that students getting need-based aid are required to work at Case Western as a TA, research assistant, etc?

12

Need based financial aid can be any combination of grants, loans, and work study. Some schools net price calculators are very accurate, some are wildly innaccurate. Case’s NPC was very accurate in our case but we do not qualify for need based aid so it only had to estimate the merit scholarship.

13

@EDHDAD Does the NPC estimate merit scholarship amount as well? I called Case’s financial aid office and I was told that the NPC only estimated need based aid, which excludes merit scholarships

14

@chelseag89 Before my son applied, we ran the net price calculator and it estimated our “gift assistance”. That amount turned out to be almost identical to what our son actually received as a merit scholarship. I’m very sure that their NPC system was estimating that amount of “gift assistance” as a merit award and not need based aid for a couple of reasons. The first is because the NPC asks for your income and as a result it knows our EFC is way to high for us to receive $28k in need based aid. The second is that the NPC system asks you for your GPA, ACT, SAT, how many AP’s etc. Those are questions that NPC’s only ask if they are trying to estimate merit aid.

15

@chelseag89 Most financial aid packages from most universities include a work study amount. So
in other words part of the package is a salary you earn on campus during the semester. If you chose
not to work, then the aid package is lower by the amount of work study awarded. So you have to work to
get the work study money. Its a small salary. If you are on a merit award, you do not have to work, but many merit
students do in fact work. There are jobs as TAs which pay well and those jobs are not guaranteed work study jobs
but competitive jobs. So you need an A in the class, and you need to apply for the job and get selected based on
a resume, interview etc. Work study is guaranteed work for a set pay that is part of your package, but then, you earn
as you go, so I am not sure how that helps, exactly, its usually a small amount, though, or maybe work study is payed out in advance, I don’t know as my sons did not qualify for financial aid at Case.

16

@chelsea89 This explains Federal Work Study programs. They exist at all major US colleges, and apparently the awards are based on the FAFSA , the federal financial aid form.

http://case.edu/financialaid/studentemployment/

Well paying TA jobs at Case is not federal work-study. Its just a job that you get by applying, anyone can apply.