<p>I'd like to alert unsuspecting parents and students about Emory's so-called commitment to meet the demonstrated financial need. Emory does not practice what it preaches.</p>
<p>Emory's "Affordability" section and brochures state that "We have "need blind" admissions, meaning applicants' ability to pay is never a consideration in admissions decisions, and we meet 100% of EACH student's demonstrated need through a generous program of financial aid." [Notice the word EACH]</p>
<p>The real truth is that Emory does not follow through on its own commitment and promise. Clearly, the basic principle of truth-in-advertising does not mean anything to them. </p>
<p>My son was accepted but when the financial aid award came in, it included a measly grant of $1893. Our EFC is 7185 so the demonstrated need was close to $30K!! However, no attempt was made to bridge the gap either through loans or through what seems like a bigger lie--the Loan Replacement Grant. </p>
<p>How much aid to offer is certainly Emory's choice but it is highly irregular to suggest that they will meet EACH student's demonstrated need when the reality is that they do not. </p>
<p>If you've a similar experience with Emory, please share with all of us. Together, we should try and stop such empty promises coming from schools like Emory that show you the dreams but then show you the door if they want you but not badly.</p>
<p>I think there has clearly been some sort of a mix up on Emory’s part…but I am of course not an expert on financial aid. However, you should definitely call Emory FA and get it sorted out</p>
<p>Ranting online really won’t do much to solve the problem. As many have said on here, a simple phone call to the financial aid office could go a long way towards getting this sorted. Either they will up the fin aid offer or they will explain why your family didn’t qualify for more aid. I’ve also found Emory’s aid very generous in my experience. Hope it works out.</p>
<p>My post is not a rant; it is meant to alert others.</p>
<p>Yes, we did talk with the Financial Aid Office. We too thought there was a mistake because our EFC is not terribly high. We were asked to fill out a “Special Circumstances” form in order to appeal the initial award.
In response, here’s what they emailed:</p>
<p>=====</p>
<p>We have received your Special Circumstance / Appeal Letter and our Appeals Committee has thoroughly reviewed your Financial Aid file as well as your familys individual financial situation. At this time we feel we have met as much of your familys financial need as possible and are unable to offer any additional aid. </p>
<p>You didn’t make it clear in your original post when you said “Emory” that you were referring to Oxford. My experience has only been with Emory’s financial aid office, NOT Oxford. Unfortunately, there seems to be some reason that you’ve been denied further aid. It may take some effort to uncover exactly what that reason is. However, I don’t know your specifics, and I don’t know the Oxford procedures. Therefore, I couldn’t comment further.</p>
<p>Just FYI - The two colleges are completely different and separate, and the funding of both come from different sources (As one might expect, Emory College happens to have a much larger endowment, as well, thus more aid in dollar terms. Though, there are also many, many more students. Nonetheless, I believe Emory still has more dollars per student in endowment). I can’t comment on specifics of Oxford’s financial aid program, because I’m not familiar with it. Emory makes a lot of effort to make it seem as if Oxford and Emory CAS are cut from the same cloth, when in reality, the two are completely different schools and have totally different rules and procedures. To be clear, I’m not talking about quality of education or campus life. I’m only talking about how they’re run.</p>
<p>The financial aid policies for both Oxford and Emory are the same based on what I read on their websites. You’re probably right about different funding sources and perhaps Oxford’s is smaller. If they cannot meet 100% need then at least they should not make such promises. And that’s the real issue here. </p>
<p>Oxford explicitly says that they’ll meet 100% of each student’s demonstrated need. In our situation, the Oxord FA office didn’t even bother to share the specifics of how they calculated the EFC. Despite several requests, all they came back with was vague statements like “we do a careful review”. No numbers, no claculations, no explanation, no transparency at all. And get this, they’d even offered a Pell Grant when the FAFSA clearly says that we don’t qualify for one. A vilolation of federal rules, maybe? Either something is really messed up with their process or they’re simply playing games with student careers. Anyway, we’ve decided to cut Emory from the possibles list. Let this be a lesson for others: Some schools might not do what they say they will do.</p>
<p>Emory’s financial aid department is elusive as hell. When I called to ask them, they gave like really really short answers. I had to really dig in and ask the details for them to budge. Even then, they won’t bother to elaborate. All I sense is that they’re hiding something.</p>
<p>I called them about Emory Advantage 'cause my family’s income is below $50,000. Asked them why I’m taking out loans and having to pay $8,000 when my EFC is $3700. </p>
<p>Know what they said? They said they take into account your assets, owning a house, etc. etc. was like “wait, wow, look, if we have a DAMN HOUSE don’t we have enough LOANS already!!??” That’s it. No elaborations on how that pushes us past the $50,000 limit. At the end, they emailed me a freakin’ appeal form, which I think will be useless to fill out, but whatever. </p>
<p>After they told me that that’s what “pushed” me past the $50,000 line (wth!?). … See, I knew that there was this “student contribution minimum of $25,000 for freshman” rule. They didn’t tell me straight up. I had to ask specifically if that’s part of the reason why I’m paying a lot more than the EFC indicates. They said, “yeah, <<<probably>>> that’s the reason.”</probably></p>
<p>I’ll agree with rimzim on this one. They’re sneaky. I’m willing to pay to go to Emory, at least, because I think it’s worth it despite this bull*&^%. Can’t be selfish here. Put yourself in their shoes, think in their terms, blah blah… Works out in the end.</p>
<p>Beretta9mm, looking on the positive side, I think that it’s inspiring that one can attend a fabulous, elite college like Emory for $8,000 per year.</p>
<p>OP are you looking at your FAFSA EFC or CSS Profile EFC, the fafsa doesn’t take into account assets, My fafsa efc was only 20K, but my CSS profile EFC was like 45K (My parents have a ****ton of assets)</p>
<p>I don’t know anything about the FA for oxford, only Emory College…</p>
<p>^^^ Because no matter what happens, EDII kids HAVE TO GO TO EMORY, whereas RD kids have more flexiblity…as a result, many RD kids use their financial aid packages as a method to make their decision, but EDII kids, once accepted, HAVE TO GO TO that school…makes sense…</p>
<p>I was offered full tuition with an EFC of about $6000, and the rest was mostly loans. They also told me that the same thing about “assets” pushing me over the $50,000 limit. For the other program of 50k-100k where they limit loans to $15,000…be warned that they only limit ONE TYPE OF LOAN-one of the federal loans. This limit is normallly not reached until about senior year.</p>
<p>I’m not complaining about my full tuition offer, but I think everyone should be aware of some of the subtleties of their aid programs.</p>
<p>We are in the same situation as RIMZIM, our child has been accepted at Emory, being local here in the metro Atlanta area, this would have been our first choice but the fin. aid package that they sent us was the worst (not even close to what we had received) from the other 5 colleges equally good if not better schools. Yes, I agree Emory does not practice what it preaches.</p>
<p>^ gohurricanes, what you seem to not understand is that there are PLENTY of cases where Emory offers good aid to students but the same students do not get aid from other colleges… things like this happen. Its unfortunate that you didn’t get the FA package that you wanted but that’s how it is sometimes.</p>
<p>Emory says if total income which are annual income+ assets is <50,000, you are eligible for LRG program.
My question is, what are counted as assets? (specifically)</p>
<p>my Emory financial aid package only gave me $7500 in loans, no grant, no work study, nothing else, me/my family has to pay rest ---- full of BS. worst package among all the schools i was accepted in – cheaper schools or more expensive schools. Emory is the 1st school i tossed out of my choices.</p>