<p>Would anyone like to share their story with Elon's finaid? Common Data Set from 2008-2009 states 100% of those with need received some aid, average need met 77%, average award about 15,000, with about 1/3 of that self help. How do awards compare to FAFSA EFC and CSS Profile data? Were you surprised, disappointed, or in-between when you received your finaid package?</p>
<p>Fin aid at Elon? The tuition is already SO reasonable!</p>
<p>It’s often hard to interpret e-mail language correctly, especially if sarcasm is intended, but I would not characterize Elon’s cost as unreasonable or otherwise. It is what it is, as is the “product” they deliver. Hard fact is that COA is $37,000/yr. For most of us, that is serious money, no matter how good the education is. Consider what a middle class family with another child in college must earn before taxes in order to pay that amount per year. If you are in a position where 37,000/yr is a bargain, congratulations.</p>
<p>So yes, finaid at Elon.</p>
<p>So true! Elon may be less expensive than some of it’s northern competitors but coming up with the tuition is still no picnic. I hope the financial aid will make it affordable.</p>
<p>Exactly. Maybe some current parents or students can enlighten us as to what we may expect.</p>
<p>I do have a kid at Elon and another college as well. I also am a middle classer. The tuition is 33,750 ( still “serious” money of course) not sure where 37,000 comes from. I can only tell you what Elon tells in their info sessions and such…they give you the cost savings upfront–even their scholarships may be considered on the lower side (between 4-5K from what I’ve heard). You’ve done the federal aid calculations so you know what your getting there. As far as grants I haven’t heard of any–anyone else have? ELon does not have the endowments that other institutions are blessed with. For a private school, with ALL the amenities, I do think its a bargain.</p>
<p>I was surprised to see that Elon’s endowments were 86 million compared to Allegheny (a school half it’s size) which has 157 million in endowments vs Quinnipiac U (similiar size) which has 278 million</p>
<p>You’re right- Current COA is 33,725. Error on my part; I’m feeling better already. Any comments based on EFC and “average” non-self-help award of about 10,000, per common data set? I can imagine that Elon’s endowment has taken a hit along with everyone else’s in last couple years…</p>
<p>Scoutmom9-Elons endowments are lower because 41% of their total graduates graduated in the last 10 years. Therefore–very young alumni without as much giving capacity yet.</p>
<p>Merkur-I wish I could comment on the non-self help awards given. i can’t as I do not know of anyone who got one! although I wish we received one! 23,000 would be a lot bette than 33,000 for sure! I’m just not sure who gets those!</p>
<p>I understand “self help” aid to be loans and work-study; how did that go for your child? Did you have “need” after comparing your EFC to Elon costs? If so, how was that met? Does anyone know how Elon combines self-help aid and non-self-help?</p>
<p>I understand the “self help” aid to be loans/work study as well–(we did not receive a work study)- grant $ to be gifts. We did not receive any other $ besides self help (small 2,500K loan). Maybe someone else has? (hopefully!)</p>
<p>Just found this info on Elon Pendulum website regarding grants:</p>
<p>Of the 4,995 undergraduate students at Elon, only 411 received a Pell Grant, which is about 8.2 percent of the student body.
In 2007-2008, 13.6 percent of students at four-year institutions received Pell Grants in 2007-2008, according to the Federal Pell Grant Program End-of-Year Report.</p>
<p>The overlying issue at Elon is money, as indicated by the school’s number four ranking in the “students dissatisfied with financial aid” list produced by The Princeton Review.</p>
<p>I think Pell Grants are for students who qualify as low income through FAFSA and federal methodology. That will neve happen for us, but I wonder if our EFC will result in need for institutional aid, and whether Elon is particularly conservative with grant/gift aid. CDS says they gave some aid to 100% of those with need, with average award of about 15,000, and w/ 5,000+ in self-help.</p>
<p>Elon is about $10,000 less than than similar schools. when comparing final costs Elon is often less expensive even with lower amounts of FA.</p>
<p>D is a junior. Elon was her first choice school, and for her program it is one of the best in the country, so we sent her. Yes, Elon’s tuition is reasonable compared to other privates, but honestly their financial aid is rather dismal. Our D received the maximum Presidential scholarship as an entering freshman, but that was only $3750 at the time, and it does NOT increase each year as the tuition does. Her department does not offer any scholarships except to a couple of incoming freshman and she did not get one of those. Once there, despite a 3.8+ GPA, there is NO availability of a departmental scholarship. Athletic money is separate, and she’s not an athlete, so nothing there either. We sent our D with the understanding that she would receive more aid the next year when her younger sister started college. Our EFC would then be cut in half. Well when the financial aid package came for sophomore year, her aid had gone up less than the increase for tuition, room and board, so we were actually further behind, even though we now had two kids in college! After many phone calls, all the way to a VP in the fin. aid dept, they raised her grant about 3 grand, but it has been a struggle every year and the gap between EFC and actual cost is big and ugly! We (both our D with Stafford loans and us with PLUS loans) have had to borrow quite abit to keep her there. Despite this, it is a wonderful school, her program is everything we had hoped for with excellent training, and the people in the fin. aid department have honestly tried very hard to do the best they could. They just have a very small endowment and with more and more folks needing more and more aid with this economy, it is difficult for them to provide the aid that they would LIKE to.</p>
<p>merkur I can’t believe those statistics. We were told our D has one of the largest grants on campus, and it doesn’t approach the $10000 your figures would calculate to. Yes, they probably do provide some sort of aid to 100% of those who qualify, but MUCH of that will be in the form of Stafford loans, either subsidized or unsusidized, or PLUS loans or other non-grant money. Your figures would seem to say that with an award of $15000, $5000 in self help (loans/work study) would leave $10000 in grant/scholarship. Not gonna happen, unless you are an honors fellow or an athlete I don’t think. My younger D was admitted in 2008, as an honors fellow with maximum Presidential scholarship and at the time, that did add up to $12500. But that applies to very few. She turned it down, Elon wasn’t what she wanted/needed for her particular interests, and is attending one of our state universities which obviously is much less expensive for us. But her needs were different than our D who is at Elon. She’s where she needs to be. We’ll just be paying for it for a LONG time!</p>
<p>nydancemom said…“Our EFC would then be cut in half. Well when the financial aid package came for sophomore year, her aid had gone up less than the increase for tuition, room and board, so we were actually further behind, even though we now had two kids in college!”"</p>
<p>Is that true that your EFC is cut in half when you send your second kid off to college? I recall that when I did the practice FAFSA for D2, that wasn’t the case.</p>
<p>Yes, I was briefly excited when I completed FAFSA for college student no. 2, and saw that EFC was about half of last year’s. Then I did FAFSA for student no. 1, and realized that EFC is not so much cut in half as it is now shared by 2. (Some differences due to differences in student’s assets.) So, as a family, EFC stays about the same. CSS Profile (for Elon) elicits details about expenses for other students in family, which is more complete, if not helpful.</p>
<p>My kids don’t have any assets to speak of, each having a minimal amount of savings from PT jobs at the time, so yes, our EFC was cut in half (for each kid, our total EFC when you added the two kids together stayed about the same as the year before since our income was about the same) which SHOULD have increased the aid our D1 was eligible for at Elon, and which is what the fin. aid counselor at Elon we met with before D1 started there had indicated would happen. Unfortunately, it didn’t help much and D1 will owe a lot more money when she gets out of Elon than we had hoped, but we’ll help her with the debt as best we can, same as we’ve done for our older kids.</p>