<p>We’re sorry you had difficulty receiving financial aid. Keep in mind that FAFSAs may simply be rejected without our office being able to determine why. And because W&M does not require any additional application forms they have no other documentation with which to compare your FAFSA to so our process is simply different than other schools. We hope that requiring only the FAFSA to apply for aid simplifies the process but it’s not perfect.</p>
<p>Additionally, once the FAFSA is submitted we do have all of the information we need until we have a chance to review the FAFSA information. It’s only at that point when we know whether or not we will be required to get additional information from a family and if FAFSA materials are submitted after the deadline or corrections are delayed that of course delays our ability to review the information and communicate with families.</p>
<p>Again, we do apologize for any delay and frustration on your part but likely the delay did not impact the amount of aid received. We simply hope to illimuniate the process a bit more.</p>
<p>W&M reports they “generally” meet 80% need (need=Cost of Attendance - EFC).<br>
OOS students that received approx. 80% financial aid please post! It would make the W&M claim a little more believable. Anyone?</p>
<p>I do not have the numbers in front of me but give me a day or so to try and locate them. Keep in mind though that this OOS graduated in 2009.</p>
<p>Chessie, what do your parents earn? Are you dependent?</p>
<p>Chessie, we promise we do not make claims invalidly. Do all OOS students receive 80% of demonstrated need, nor do all Virginians receive 100% of their need but these are, as we say, some general guidelines.</p>
<p>We do hope people respond to your post but students may not feel comfortable posting their financial aid awards and personal financial information. Anecdotally we have had W&M students who are very pleased with our aid packages (who are OOS students) and felt that what W&M offered was the best offer they got financially.</p>
<p>When both me and my parents emailed the Financial Aid office (with different emails), inquiring about the tiny financial aid we received, we got completely ignored. Not even an offer to reconsider, not even a reply. I wouldn’t even be so disappointed if we got an apology and an explanation.</p>
<p>There’s no point denying that your financial aid system and staff isn’t flawed, because there are plenty of people complaining about it.</p>
<p>I felt like I should chime in on this conversation because I’ve had a completely different experience with the FA aid ofc. Mr. Irish has helped me on several occasions and he has been very kind and patient with me. Also, I have an OSS student and I feel our FA package was good. It did not meet 100 percent but that’s why my student applied for tons of outside scholarships.</p>
<p>Mr. Irish isn’t the one that replies to all of your emails. As far as I can assume, there were different people replying to each of my emails instead one person focusing on my case, because they were all repeating the same thing in every email.</p>
<p>We knew from the start that W&M was not going to meet all of our need so my student applied for over 40 outside scholarships and was awarded 12 of them. It was a lot of work involved but we knew it had to be done. Its really important for students and parents to know the importance of applying for outside aid. Our outside aid made it possible for my child to attend W&M.</p>
<p>you need to find out the person in the financial aid office who is in charge of your “case” – I believe it has to do with your last name initial – this person is your contact person.</p>
<p>If you have extenuating circumstances, you should fill out the form and provide documentation about special circumstances.</p>
<p>If your emails are not answered in a reasonable period of time, I suggest calling and asking who you should be emailing.</p>
<p>At many schools, outside scholarships get subtracted from the calculated “need,” making them ultimately unbeneficial to students financially. Is that not the case at W&M?</p>
<p>Hauteclere, we’re sorry you’ve had a frustrating experience. We know our colleagues in Financial Aid are responsive to phone calls and emails but we certainly admit we are not perfect and there are certainly instances when something may fall through the cracks though that’s certainly not our intent. We’re not sure who you emailed but mom4college is right, each financial aid counselor is responsible for a part of the alphabet and your particular financial aid counselor is a great point of contact for you. </p>
<p>As for outside scholarships, it depends on the individual student. If there is any unmet need, scholarships are applied towards that. If all need is met, scholarships are used first to reduce loan amounts.</p>
<p>We are new to W&M and to the financial aid process but it has been interesting to read this thread. W&M is my daughter’s dream school, but unfortunately we are not Virginians. I used the W&M online aid calculator to try to determine if it would even be in the ball park. We have an annual household income of about $75,000 but that tool suggested an annual family contribution of $32,000 which would of course be impossible for us. Should we just give up and look for something in our own state? Or could our actual award be higher? Thanks for any help or advice. We really love W&M and hope our daughter can go there.</p>
<p>@Tim5Cents, the estimated family contribution that the calculator estimates should be the same for W&M or any other school. An EFC is pretty standard. What’s different from school to school is the cost of attendance and what they may be able to offer in aid. Might be worth rechecking to see if you entered a figure wrong or misunderstood a question as that EFC does seem high based on the income you’re reporting.</p>
<p>I wonder if there is a coding error in the calculator. I ran the same number (75,000) and got almost the same outcome (assuming a single parent with 1 child). I went to a comparable school’s net price calculator and got a net price of $16k. I think perhaps the calculator should be checked. I have a daughter at W&M and based on the last 2 years of FA awards the calculator is not working properly. It seems to be awarding the exact same amount of grants ($12,950) regardless of the data input - please get this checked. I would hate to see someone discouraged from applying to W&M because of an error in the NPC!</p>
<p>@NewEnglandMother, the grant amount seems right. Out-of-state students can get up to 25% of the cost of attendance (around $12,000) in grant aid. Unfortunately, we are limited in the amount of out-of-state aid we can provide and the grant aid does have a cap. You can certainly double check with Financial Aid but the particular calculation you sited sounds correct.</p>
<p>I got a grant of $20,500 as an out of state student for this year. Was this a recent change in policy?</p>
<p>@soccersara, we are in the process of reworking the packages provided to incoming out-of-state students.</p>
<p>Hopefully to give more money to out of staters? :)</p>
<p>Unless a family is prepared to fund the entire amount of OOS tuition, they should not even waste their time applying to OOS state schools. It is very rare that state universities will lavish $$ on OOS students, no matter the state.</p>
<p>For those students wanting a Liberal Arts education at reasonable rates in VA, why not consider the many private colleges in VA? These schools don’t care the state from where you come. Ample financial aid will be awarded, both merit and need based. We know this from experience.</p>
<p>For example, Roanoke College is one of the hidden gems in the state. And, they will provide enough financial aid to make the cost competitive with an in-state university.</p>