<p>My daughter was accepted via Early Decision to William & Mary. Does anyone have any idea with whether or not the better financial aid packages are held for those students who have not yet agreed to attend so that they might entice competitive applicants? I was wondering if the Financial Aid Department has any idea that the applicant has already agreed to come.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Not sure what you are asking.</p>
<p>Did your D receive a FA package with her ED acceptance? </p>
<p>Are you asking if those who aren’t ED get better FA packages as an enticement, while those who are ED don’t need the enticement?</p>
<p>Don’t forget, if the FA package isn’t affordable, you’re not obligated to accept the ED acceptance.</p>
<p>What was in your D’s FA package? </p>
<p>W&M is a public U, right? If your child is OOS, then that could be the reason for an inferior FA package. What is W&M’s policy for FA for OOS students? Most publics don’t give much help to OOS students.</p>
<p>No, I’m anticipating her financial aid, that is all. We didn’t get a package with her ED offer because that was in December and we had not yet filed 2009 taxes or completed the FAFSA. We could have filled out the papers for an estimate from W&M, but we didn’t because it didn’t matter to us. She will go one way or the other.</p>
<p>So, yes I was asking if traditionally those students who are not ED get better packages as an enticement.</p>
<p>W&M is a public and very affordable relatively speaking, as we are in state. I don’t get the idea, however, that they are extremely generous with aid and I was wondering if the ED acceptance might further impact her aid. I know time will tell, but paying for college happens to be on my mind right now:-)</p>
<p>Congratulations on your daughter’s acceptance to W and M. You are so lucky to have such a wealth of terrific instate public universities in Virginia. W and M is a public university. I don’t know the extent of it’s institutional funding (that is what is given to students beyond what they are eligible for in federal aid). W and M does not guarantee to meet full need, I believe. That being the case, it’s hard to say what kind of financial aid package your kiddo will receive. If you completed the FAFSA, your child will get a Stafford loan at least. Beyond that…hard to say.</p>
<p>It is an interesting question, and I would love to know the answer too! Poking around the W&M website, it does say they have “a long-standing commitment to meet 100 percent of the demonstrated financial need of undergraduate Virginians”. That seems to say that it wouldn’t matter for a VA resident if you were ED or RD in terms of FA award.</p>
<p>Ok…so have you found out your EFC yet? If so, what it is? What is the COA for W&M for instate students?</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback everyone:</p>
<p>mamabear: I can’t count the number of times I’ve gone to the W&M website and I’ve never seen that before! That was encouraging! We are really hoping to avoid loans except for perhaps a small Stafford, so I really appreciate you pointing that out!</p>
<p>Thumper: Yes, we always hoped our kids would choose a Virginia public school. This is #1 of 4, so time will tell, but we’re off to a great start! From my understanding, the VA public schools are also getting more and more competitive. I’ve seen a lot of top notch students denied acceptance to UVA, W&M, VA Tech, and now even JMU, Mary Washington and CNU. It’s scary!</p>
<p>mom2collegekids: Thanks, as always, for your feedback and for helping me clarify what I was trying to say! Our EFC is around $7500 if I remember correctly and the COA is approximately $20,000 for in state. COA is everything, right? That number beyond tuition, room and board?</p>
<p>Gateway William & Mary is for Virginians who earn less than 40K. That is the only I help that I have ever heard of being given to in-state students, other than federal grants and loans.<br>
Tuition and fees will be around 11K next yet, which is almost twice what they were for my oldest DDs school in WA. It is the second most expensive in VA, after VMI.</p>
<p>Too bad Virginia doesn’t have a program such as Bright Futures.</p>
<p>so…you have a need of $12,500. </p>
<p>Do you know how good W&M is with meeting need of in-state students? Do they typically put large loans in packages (for in-state students)?</p>
<p>This is from college board:</p>
<p>Financial Aid Statistics
Full-time freshman enrollment: 1,386
Number who applied for need-based aid: 814
Number who were judged to have need: 393
Number who were offered aid: 393
Number who had full need met: 168
Average percent of need met: 82%
Average financial aid package: $13,454
Average need-based loan: $2,690
Average need-based scholarship or grant award: $13,088
Average non-need based aid: $7,396
Average indebtedness at graduation: Not reported</p>
<p>It does say that the average percent of need met is 82% which looks great to me, but it also says that out of the 814 who applied for aid only 393 were judged to have need.</p>
<p>I don’t know if this is helpful. It doesn’t break it down into in state vs. out of state so who knows? We got a little side tracked here. I really just wanted to know if early decision would impact financial aid, but I certainly wouldn’t mind if someone could make an educated guess on what our financial aid package would be!</p>
<p>Re: impact of ED…</p>
<p>It’s hard to know. Your ED case is unique because you accepted BEFORE seeing the package. One could argue that W&M doesn’t have to woo your D at all. </p>
<p>BTW…are your D’s stats in the high upper 25% for W&M? That seems to help, too.</p>
<p>*
It does say that the average percent of need met is 82% which looks great to me*</p>
<p>Percentages don’t tell you anything…a person could have an EFC of $15k and therefore a need of $5k, so they put a $5k Stafford in there and say they’ve met 100% of need. I’m sure many of their students do have EFCs high enough that only Stafford meets need.</p>
<p>All ED students accepted before seeing their package, though. ED letters went out on December 2, and we had two weeks to say yes or no, and of course everyone applying ED says yes! If you wanted a financial aid estimate, they included paper work that you could fill out but they were very clear that it would only be an estimate and that things could change. Since the estimate was based on the previous year’s income, we didn’t do it because my husband’s income was significantly higher last year and because as I said before our D was going one way or the other.</p>
<p>My D’s GPA is in the middle and her test scores are at the top. She did have outstanding EC’s, though, including Governor’s School, an extensive musical theatre resume including a four year performing arts scholarship at her boarding school, French exchange program and National French Awards, campus tour guide and prefect for her school, etc. etc. I don’t know if any of that matters with financial aid, but I thought I’d mention it.</p>
<p>All ED students accepted before seeing their package, though. ED letters went out on December 2, and we had two weeks to say yes or no, and of course everyone applying ED says yes! If you wanted a financial aid estimate, they included paper work that you could fill out but they were very clear that it would only be an estimate and that things could change.</p>
<p>Sure, but many use that estimate as a good guide to what aid they can expect. Most people don’t see a huge jump in income from year to year, so the estimate could provide a good idea of what loans/gaps to expect. I don’t know about W&M, but everyone doesn’t say “yes,” after getting accepted ED. Some see their estimated aid and say “no” because of gaps and big loans (we saw many kids on cc post their estimated aid packages from ED schools and some were awful - especially those from NYU). </p>
<p>My niece is at W&M as an OOS student. Her estimated aid package was bad (but she’s OOS). She still went to W&M because Grandma came thru with some $$$.</p>
<p>My D’s GPA is in the middle and her test scores are at the top. She did have outstanding EC’s, though, including Governor’s School, an extensive musical theatre resume including a four year performing arts scholarship at her boarding school, French exchange program and National French Awards, campus tour guide and prefect for her school, etc. etc. I don’t know if any of that matters with financial aid, but I thought I’d mention it.</p>
<p>If her test scores are in the top of W&M, that should help because those are numbers that get figured into a school’s reporting numbers.</p>
<p>Are her ACT/SAT scores above the below numbers?</p>
<p>W&M Middle 50% of First-Year Students<br>
SAT Critical Reading: 620 - 730<br>
SAT Math: 620 - 720<br>
SAT Writing: 610 - 710<br>
ACT Composite: 27 - 32</p>
<p>Oh, dear, well I guess she isn’t looking so great after all! She didn’t submit SAT Scores, because her ACT Scores were better and I’m pretty sure she came in with a 31 (Math and Science 26-27ish and English and Reading 33-34ish). She did submit SAT II Scores for French and perhaps English Lit (?) that were over 700, but I guess those don’t mean much:-( Also, her school doesn’t rank or submit GPA’s so she doesn’t have anything to offer there either. I believe she has around a 92 average, unweighted.</p>
<p>Oh, well, time will tell. I will definitely post back here once she gets her financial package and let you all know how it turns out! She will certainly be an example of how an “average” ED student fares with regard to financial aid at W&M!! Keep your fingers crossed!</p>
<p>So, I promised to post once we got our financial package and here it is:</p>
<p>COA: 22,505
Direct Subsidized Loan 3500
Direct Unsubsidized Loan 2000
Perkins Loan 3050
VGAP 4481</p>
<p>Question: Which of the above loans are student loans? Does anyone know? I did some checking around and it looks like they all are. We definitely won’t accept the unsubsidized loan…not sure about the others. Any information would be appreciated!!</p>
<p>I think VGAP is a grant. The others are student loans.</p>
<p>Yes, thanks, I just picked up the phone and called W&M’s FA office. I’m kind of surprised that they would offer a student loan packages totaling $8550. Doesn’t that seem like a lot? I asked why there wasn’t any parent loans in the package and I’m not sure what the answer was. She said we could choose to take out parent plus loans but the interest rate would be higher.</p>
<p>Direct Subsidized Loan 3500
Direct Unsubsidized Loan 2000
Perkins Loan 3050</p>
<p>The first two are Stafford loans
Is Perkins sub or unsub? </p>
<p>I would wonder if they will increase the Stafford loans each year to 6500, 7500, 7500. If so, your child could end up with about $40k in loans. </p>
<p>What is VGAP? Is that a Virginia grant?</p>
<p>IME, the parent plus loans are not considered part of the package, but are mentioned at the bottom of the letter.</p>
<p>I copy and pasted this from W&M’s website:</p>
<p>Perkins Loan
From among those students with financial need, the Financial Aid Office at William & Mary selects students who are eligible to receive a Perkins loan. Funds are repaid at 5% interest beginning nine months after you complete full-time school. Interest does not accrue while you are in school or during your nine month grace period. Undergraduate awards are usually restricted to $3000 or less per year.</p>
<p>Perkins Loans are administered through Student Accounts.</p>
<p>If you have been awarded a Perkins Loan, please follow the instructions on our loan application page to apply</p>
<p>We have enough in her 529 plan to cover about 13-14,000 per year. We’re just trying to figure out the best way to cover the rest. We will minimize the loans because we do not want her or us to be debt ridden when she gets out. We have 3 more kids to put through school and we’re no spring chickens!! Oh, and yes the VGAP is a Virginia Grant.</p>