For class of 2019 accepted students and parents. I assume you also received a financial aid package with the acceptance letter. I have a question: Vanderbilt said they meet 100% of a family’s financial need without loan. Is it true?
Am I correct to assume that they will give you enough to cover tuition, fees, room and board minus FAFSA Ecpected Family Contribution and probably work study?
Thanks and Congratulation to all.
My D is a current freshman. Vanderbilt uses the CSS/Profile to determine a student’s EFC, which might or might not resemble the EFC obtained by filling out the FAFSA.
That being said, Vanderbilt does meet 100% of need (again, according to their definition) without loans.
Have you run Vanderbilt’s Net Price Calculator? We found the calculator to be very accurate. However, a more complicated financial picture (owning a business or farm, for example) usually reduces the accuracy.
We also found the financial aid department to be very helpful to us in determining how much aid we could expect.
Yes, they did in my D case. No loans up to EFC and a small amount of work study v. BU mostly loans and a small grant.
D hasn’t received any of her other FA packages yet. VU provided enough FA to make the COA a little more than our IS public option. 
Thank you all for the reply. That is awesome news! I hope next year will be the same.
Vanderbilt guarantees to meet 100% need without loans and that certainly won’t be changing.
So, if I work overtime to pay the EFC, will my following year EFC go up? If so, it’s like being on a treadmill–going nowhere fast.
@rednecktiger I think you’d be better off to take a loan. The more $ you make, the more income to report in next year’s fafsa and CSS profile. Maybe other parents can offer other advice?
I received no need based financial aid and am expected to pay the full 65K a year, is Vanderbilt worth it if my instate option is only about 15k (with scholarships) a year and considered a public ivy?
It can have some effect on your EFC, yes. I believe most of the student’s income is shielded from affecting EFC, but past a certain point, it would increase EFC. You’re certainly not better of taking a loan! That’s silly logic. The effect is small. Would contact the Office of Financial Aid for more details.
Yes I received quite a bit of aid as I had a unique family situation that would warrant this. I am still in shock about my admission, and now they are really luring me into attending. This changes everything. I have been set for years on going to Georgia Tech since it is IS and, I am doing BME. Will be visiting Vanderbilt soon to help me decide better.
Yes in my FA letter, all my aid was in the form of a grant.
You know, @pancaked is right, a student’s earnings would not rock the EFC boat much, especially at a school using the institutional methodology.
@top10grad2019
I would really say that Vanderbilt is not worth the ~50k/yr difference. In my opinion no school is. I would take the public school. I attend Vanderbilt because of the financial aid and because it is (a lot) cheaper (for me) than public schools. If your public school is as highly regarded as places like U of Illinois or better I wouldn’t even think about vandy.
My child got the Cornelius Vanderbilt Scholarship, but zero need-based aid. So that leaves us paying the 18-20k difference for room and board… He was offered full cost-of-attendance at our state’s largest university. We are so torn… Is Vanderbilt really worth it?
Need more info. What State? What program is he interested in? How much of a burden is the $18-20k. In any event, the Vanderbilt scholarship is very prestigious. Congratulations.
Vanderbilt is a great school, but we told our student that we would not pay for any university that was not better both academically and financially than our state flagship university (which is a good one and considered a “public ivy”). In our case Vandy gave enough grant aid that it was a better choice. If Vandy had not come up with that extra aid we would not have chosen it over the state school. I would not change the equation after almost 2 years at Vandy. It is a good school, but I wouldn’t pay much more (or go into debt) to choose Vandy over a good state flagship.
Our EFC for Vandy is much higher than at some OOS public Ivys that also use CSS Profile. Has anyone else experienced this?
That is unusual, might want to contact the FA office if the difference is significant, it is always possible that there was some error. In my experience, Vandy closely matched or exceeded offers from other 100% need met schools.
I didn’t receive anything. Wasn’t expecting much, but I at least got loans from other places, even my in-state university, which would cost significantly less.
You can still get loans - you have to ask for them (they’ll be unsub, $5500 freshman year).
One thing I want to point out: We never spent the full COA any year my D was at Vandy. I just happened to come across D’s junior year financial aid letter today while cleaning out my files … we spent thousands less than the estimate that year, even with study abroad. Careful budgeting can make the cost significantly less. We bought books used/online. D didn’t spend a lot on personal expenses. Travel costs weren’t that much (even though we live 9 hours away). We felt that the books/personal/travel expenses in the COA were high. Of course, I am sure there were students who spent that much … but you absolutely do not have to, and if you don’t, your costs will be less than the estimates.