<p>How generous is it? My family makes about $200k/yr.</p>
<p>Vandy’s need based aid is awesome. However, if you family makes $200k/year, you may not actually have any “need” as assessed by the university … but you definitely should apply for financial aid, because you never know. The good news is that Vandy also has excellent merit opportunities, so APPLY for those, too!</p>
<p>Fill out a general calculator. You can find these on the internet at the college board website, without having to do all the paperwork for the FAFSA if you don’t qualify. I say this because if your family has any assets on top of that income you probably won’t. My family is in the same range, we called and spoke with Vanderbilt, and they told us not to bother filling everything out as we wouldn’t qualify for any need-based aid. That being said, they did recommend to apply if I had any siblings in college at the same time, so if that is your situation you should.</p>
<p>Basically, do a general calculator. It will probably say you won’t qualify. After you get in and decide where you are going, speak with that school’s financial aid office. Vanderbilt was really helpful for my family. And kelsmom is right! Their NM scholarship is the most generous out of any T20 school (5K/year) and definitely fill out the application for the big merit-based scholarships, even if you think you won’t get them, because it gives you a leg up for smaller ones (15K/year or 1/2 tuition, 3/4 tuition, etc.). Good luck!</p>
<p>Whatever school you apply to you should fill this out. On the aid side, Vanderbilt is more generous than the majority of schools (even those with high standards and large endowments). Without this filled out you dont even qualify for a subsidized loan. If you have a sibling attending college, at 200k per year Vanderbilt should give a pretty good amount depending on your other financials. In any case, it will only cost you and your parents a few hours time and could be worth thousands of dollars. Good luck!</p>
<p>I remember Vandy sent me a financial aid brochure like three years ago and in the brochure, there was a table that had various income brackets and the average FA award granted per bracket. Even for the 200,000+ bracket, the average award was something like 18k.</p>
<p>cr1909, I find that statistic sort of surprising, and quite honestly it doesn’t correlate with anything I’ve heard through the grapevine. I just graduated from Vandy this May, and I’d say on average each year I had about 30k in need-based aid with a family income of around $50,000.</p>
<p>I think it’s really important to just apply. It’s impossible to know whether or not you’d get aid based on income alone. It can’t hurt (but it might help).</p>
<p>2008/2009 Vanderbilt Financial Aid Brochure…</p>
<p>Income Range Avg. Award<br>
-40k 50.5k<br>
40-60k 48k
60-80k 45k
80-100k 40k
100-120k 35k
120-140k 29k
140-160k 27k
160-200k 19k
200k+ 18k</p>
<p>Hmm, interesting. It seems I may have gotten the shaft, heh!</p>
<p>I wonder if that’s just considering need-based aid, or if it’s including merit-based in there too. It also may not include students who have zero aid, therefore inflating the averages.</p>
<p>Apply for all merit scholarships…you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Chances are quite remote of being selected among your equals…since the Vandy applicant pool currently has scores of kids who have the test scores and many kids with great back stories and other personal talents.<br>
Make sure your family addresses the FAFSA and CSS Profile fully…it is a big part of your final offer and every college handles this differently and has their own take on such matters. Special circumstances must be explained.</p>