<p>the need based aid will fully cover room and boarding if under $60k right?</p>
<p>That’s right, basically. The financial aid office doesn’t look at tuition and room&board as separate things when giving awards, they basically just subtract what they consider your EFC to be from the “total” cost which is about $52k (and that number includes room and board, of course). So if they calculate your EFC to be 50k, you’ll get a full 50k from the school, no loans involved for families making less than 60k. Then you’re left paying 2k (or getting a work-study job, or whatever). They’re usually quite fair about calculating that EFC (the number will be similar to EFC from the FAFSA or CSS profile)</p>
<p>Just to clarify though, as far as I know Wustl only guarantees that families making under $60k won’t need to take out any need-based loans. Which <em>almost</em> translates into fully covered tuition, room, & board, but there are loopholes. My family, for instance, made significantly less than 60k every year but had a lot of money in certain kinds of savings (complicated financial situation, lol…). So initially, my FA award was something like 30k (none of which included loans, as per the policy). The other 20k, which it was expected that my family could pay without taking out a loan, was left to me. We ended up calling in to the FA office, explaining our situation, and everything worked out (I got a full ride, mostly need-based). </p>
<p>But yeah, just to clarify on that, while most students whose family incomes are less than 60k will get a full ride, it’s not <em>quite</em> guaranteed. The verbatim policy should be on the [Student</a> Financial Services](<a href=“http://sfs.wustl.edu%5DStudent”>http://sfs.wustl.edu) website (or else under Admissions).</p>
<p>Does anyone know if that holds true for transfer students as well? Also, since we apply later when there is less money available, how much will large financial need it impact my chances (non-need blind and all)?</p>