Financial Aid at AU?

Colleges and Universities A-Z American University
1

<p>I just visited AU and was extremely impressed, and could absolutely see myself fitting right in on campus. The only questionable thing is the cost. The percentage of students receiving financial aid is fairly high, but does any one know how substantial the average financial aid award is, or could share their own amount of financial aid from experience? Would my chances of receiving financial aid increase if I apply ED? What if I would find the aid insufficient–would it be difficult to get out of the ED agreement?</p>

<p>I was also curious about merit scholarships at AU. What academic/extracurricular/volunteer scholarships are there? I’m not sure if this will help, but here are some of my stats, as well as my various activities, so that if you are knowledgable, you can mention any scholarships that I might qualify for: </p>

<p>Weighted GPA (school didn’t give me UW): 4.1</p>

<p>Percentile: Top 3% </p>

<p>AP US: 5</p>

<p>AP Comp: 5</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:</p>

<p>-Features Editor of multi-award winning school newspaper. I have written about a wide variety of topics including the effects of the recession on the local economy/educational system, technology’s role in helping the English language evolve, and the process of Amish integration into mainstream society. In each of these pieces, I have interviewed at least one professor with national recognition. This upcoming year, I will be Opinion Editor of the paper. </p>

<p>-I was selected by my principal to participate in a regularly-meeting committee of students who suggest changes to school policy and evaluate the current offerings of the school.</p>

<p>-I am a member of a nationally-recognized environmental organization at my school, and this summer, am serving as a group leader for their children’s environmental awareness camp. </p>

<p>-I played a comedic role in my school’s play, a satire of several popular theatric works.</p>

<p>-I was the public relations manager for my school musical which entailed organizing/completing paperwork, creating a musical webpage, photographing musical rehearsals, and designing musical advertisements. </p>

<p>-I am the founder and leader of a cultural awareness club, which I created (as a high school student) for my local middle school. Participants have the opportunity to play multicultural games, enjoy international food items, discuss current events, and learn about cultural mores.</p>

<p>Employment:</p>

<p>-Pool refreshment services </p>

<p>-Supermarket cashier</p>

<p>Awards:</p>

<p>-First place in my county’s science fair–I completed a project assessing the effects of age and gender on natural and artificial sweetener preferences. I also evaluated the toxicity of these substances, determining which the best sweetener based on both taste and safety.</p>

<p>-Three-time winner of my school’s geography bee, two-time state geography bee participant.</p>

<p>-My artwork was chosen to appear on a health-awareness calendar for a national corporation. </p>

<p>Other:</p>

<p>-I am currently planning a community-wide international festival which will feature local vendors selling ethnic foods and crafts as well as multicultural folk acts. All proceeds will benefit an international charity (which I am in the process of choosing).</p>

<p>-I am a graduate of my state’s Free Enterprise education week.</p>

<p>-I am volunteering at a local archaeological site.</p>

<p>-I am the co-founder of a freelance greeting card company. I am using my drawings, paintings and photography to create greeting card designs, and I am sending them to nation-wide greeting card companies looking for freelancers</p>

2

<p>I can’t speak to need-based aid, but my D was awarded the Dean’s Scholarship of $20K per year with a lower GPA and rank than you, but with quite high SAT scores (you don’t reveal your own). The Presidential Scholarship is higher–I think $25K? You seem like a good candidate for one of those awards.</p>

3

<p>@svenskan - glad to hear of your interest and enthusiasm for AU! However, I did want to provide some insight/corrections to a few of your questions…</p>

<p>As a University we do not release “average” financial aid award figures, as each and every financial aid situation is different and there is truly no “average” family situation when dealing with financial aid. I know this can be confounding for prospective students and families, which is why I generally direct folks to finaid.org to utilize some of their online tools. If families can at least understand what their EFC (Expected Family Contribution) is, then you can start to understand what financial aid eligibility you would have. We do not preference Early Decision applicants by way of financial aid. Also, while we can and do release students from our BINDING Early Decision round because of financial aid, I actively discourage students from applying via Early Decision if your enrollment at AU is contingent upon financial aid or scholarships. Releasing a student due to financial aid is one of the worst possible outcomes (if not the worst) of our Early Decision system, as it means that you miss out on your top school (we will not reevaluate you for Regular Decision) and we miss out on a talented student. If you’re concerned about financial aid as it relates to Early Decision, I would encourage you to reach out to our Financial Aid Office directly at (202) 885-6500 to discuss funding options. That way you can make the most informed decision possible when it comes to ED!</p>

<p>As to your questions regarding merit scholarships at AU, all of our merit scholarships look primarily and overwhelmingly at academic performance (meaning high school grade results, curriculum rigor, and standardized testings results, if applicable). Non-academic contributions play only the slightest role in selection for merit scholarships. So while your non-academic involvement will certainly aid you in an admissions round, it will not play anywhere near as big a role when it comes to merit scholarship awarding.</p>

<p>Hope this helps clear up discrepancies for you and any future applicants!</p>

4

<p>That was an excellent post by KBJandAUandADMIS - such a great resource!</p>

<p>I just wanted to throw out there that I had slightly lower stats than you, and received a $15k/year scholarship plus significant need-based aid (definitely check out your family’s EFC on finaid.org). However keep in mind this was 3 years ago - since then the admissions rate has dropped 10% and the average SAT score has increased about 20 points. Still, I think you’re a great candidate for merit aid so definitely give it a shot!</p>

5

<p>Thank you everyone for your insight into AU’s financial aid program. I took the SAT once, and intend to take it again, with hopes that I can raise each category by 50-100 points. My scores were: 700 CR, 540 M, and 650 W. I am aware that my math scores are rather low. I have a math LD, which has always made math a difficult area of mine. Would I be unable to receive a merit scholarship due to my lackluster math SAT? Would it help if I explain in my application why math is such a challenge for me?</p>

6

<p>@svenskan - my pleasure to assist! I wish I could be more specific regarding merit scholarship awarding, but it’s near impossible for me to predict based on this information alone where you might fall in scholarship awarding. I can tell you that we’re not as nuanced when it comes to scholarship awarding and test results; meaning that we’re generally looking at your overall score as opposed to subscores on either the SAT Reasoning exam or the ACT with Writing exam. If you feel that it is pertinent to your application, I would encourage you to address your LD or have a guidance/college counselor address it for you in a recommendation letter. I can tell you that our average SAT Reasoning results for the admitted class of 2010 was 1300 (CR and M only), so even if you were to raise your math result by 50 points you would only be posting our average SAT result.</p>

<p>Given what you defined as struggles in the math portion of the exam, you may want to look further into our Test-Optional admissions round!</p>

<p>[Test-Optional</a>, Undergraduate Admissions, American University](<a href=“http://www.american.edu/admissions/testoptional.cfm]Test-Optional”>http://www.american.edu/admissions/testoptional.cfm)</p>

7

<p>Thank you KBJandAUandADMIS for your insider expertise. It sounds as if Test-Optional Admissions might be a good possibility. Would it limit my chance of receiving a scholarship, however, if I don’t submit my scores?</p>

8

<p>@svenskan - nope! All Test-Optional applicants will have equal access to merit scholarship and University Honors Program consideration!</p>

9

<p>Perhaps this is a dumb question, but as a parent, I am perplexed at the varying costs of different schools. For example, compare American versus Elon. American is at $52,000 a year while Elon is at $35,000 for out-of-state residents. Why is that? Both are approx. the same size school, and it can’t be the size of the endowment because Elon has a pretty small one. And both are approx. the same level of difficulty to get admitted to, so there is not a prestige gap. Any ideas? Thanks.</p>

10

<p>Nervous - you really don’t expect a detailed answer on this do you? AU is school is in NW Wash DC ( very nice, but expensive area) and Elon is in rural NC. That alone will account for a huge difference. Then there is the cost of living, cost of doing business (elec, gas, A/C, etc), professor salaries, research, etc. I could go on, but these school are not comparable in cost -mainly due to the expensive environment in Washington D.C.</p>

<p>Note - some colleges provide an annual report that they post on their website. You can usually peruse the report and look at the income/expense accounting reports if you want details.</p>

11

<p>If you got those numbers from collegeboard, they’re slightly off. For some reason they list room and board as more than $13k, which is only true for the most expensive possible room on campus. For a freshman double, it is only $9k. I was seriously wondering about the 13k figure, as GW is only listed as 10k, and there is no way (considering the relative real estate values) that ours costs more than theirs - they list our highest rate and GW’s lowest rate (using GW as comparison point instead of Elon because they are also in DC).</p>

<p>So that being said, the correct comparison would be about 36k (room + board) for Elon, and 48k (room + board) for AU. Still a big difference, which comes mostly from AU’s higher tuition. This was pretty much already explained with the cost of running a University in NW DC versus NC. However, some of the comparisons of the two schools by NervousParent only scratch the surface. Is “prestige” only measured as a function of the admit rate? Certainly AU has much stronger programs in some areas than Elon does, and the reverse is true as well. </p>

<p>For reference, AU’s financial information is made available on its web site:
AU’s FY 2010 & 2011 Budget: <a href=“Error retrieving uploaded document”>Error retrieving uploaded document;
AU’s 2008-2009 Annual Report: <a href=“http://american.edu/finance/upload/2008-2009-Annual-Report.pdf[/url]”>http://american.edu/finance/upload/2008-2009-Annual-Report.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

12

<p>Can a student only apply for scholarships their first year at the school? I’m a transfer student this fall, I didn’t get any scholarshops, if I do really well this year, can I apply for them next year?</p>

13

<p>^ NervousParent</p>

<p>And perhaps more than anything else regarding the expense issue - some schools (like Elon) have made a commitment to remaining affordable as part of their mission. </p>

<p>Elon is finishing the last of a very successful 10 year plan, and has just approved the next 10 year plan. Both state the importance of affordable tuition, and a renewed commitment to remaining a “Best Value” university while continuing aggressive improvements and innovation… That might be to bold a vision for many schools, but Elon has easily done it for the past 10 Years - so I would expect they will continue to deliver.</p>

14

<p>@jsajjan - the vast majority of our merit scholarship are awarded at the time of admission. There are a limited number of restricted or endowed awards available once you have enrolled at the University. You can find out more information here:</p>

<p>[AU</a> Freshman Merit Scholarships, Financial Aid, American University](<a href=“http://www.american.edu/financialaid/freshmanscholarships.cfm]AU”>Freshman Scholarships and Merit Awards | American University, Washington, DC)</p>

<p>@ncmentor - American University is in a very good place with the completion of our latest development campaign “A new AU” where we were able to raise over $205 million for the University. Plus, our enrollment numbers have gone up by strong percentage points over the past four years with a 92% retention rate from freshman to sophomore year for this last year’s class. We have consistently enrolled bigger, stronger, and more selective classes (our admit rate was down to 43% this year) over the past four years. Plus, when you are consistently ranked in the top 20 for career centers by “The Princeton Review” and where, on average, 80% of our students do at least one internship before they graduate, we feel that the cost of our education is certainly an investment in one’s personal and professional growth!</p>

15

<p>@CJMadison ““AU is school is in NW Wash DC ( very nice, but expensive area) and Elon is in rural NC. That alone will account for a huge difference. Then there is the cost of living, cost of doing business (elec, gas, A/C, etc), professor salaries, research, etc. I could go on, but these school are not comparable in cost -mainly due to the expensive environment in Washington D.C.””</p>

<p>Well, that doesn’t explain why other schools in rural areas such as Lehigh University ($50,300) are so much more expensive than Elon. In addition, the University of Tampa is in downtown Tampa and costs only $31,808 a year, tuition fees, room and board</p>

<p><a href=“http://www4.lehigh.edu/admissions/undergrad/tuition/costs.aspx[/url]”>http://www4.lehigh.edu/admissions/undergrad/tuition/costs.aspx&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://www.ut.edu/tuition/[/url]”>http://www.ut.edu/tuition/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“Elon University - America’s Top-Ranked Teaching University”>Elon University / Undergraduate Admissions / Tuition & Aid;

<p>@iamsirjoshua ““If you got those numbers from collegeboard, they’re slightly off.””</p>

<p>I got them right from the school’s website itself. American says their cost is $52,121</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.american.edu/financialaid/freshmanprospects.cfm[/url]”>http://www.american.edu/financialaid/freshmanprospects.cfm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

16

<p>@ncmentor “And perhaps more than anything else regarding the expense issue - some schools (like Elon) have made a commitment to remaining affordable as part of their mission.”"</p>

<p>Shouldn’t they ALL have that commitment?</p>

17

<p>Well, you certainly can’t compare DC’s real estate costs, taxes, and cost of living in general to that of Tampa! There are so many factors at play in determining tuition–history, endowment, location, caliber of staff, philosophy of educational approach (size of classes, use of TA’s,), physical amenities, etc. There’s no way to compare.</p>

18

<p>We found that financial aid at AU seemed to have no relationship to our EFC whatsoever, and when we queried the Financial Aid office about that, they basically confirmed it.</p>

<p>Which isn’t to say we’ve been displeased. My d. has gotten a GREAT education.</p>

19

<p>@NervousParent - you’re right, I wasn’t factoring in the cost of a meal plan. My apologies for the error.</p>

20

<p>^ NervousParent -</p>

<p>Re; “some schools (like Elon) have made a commitment to remaining affordable as part of their mission.”</p>

<p>“Shouldn’t they ALL have that commitment”?</p>

<p>I certainly think they should - Some schools have affordability as part of their “core values” and I suspect many schools just give it a lot of lip service. And this year a lot of schools appear to be throwing everything that isn’t nailed down overboard in an attempt to appear (hold for this years marketing term) affordable.</p>