<p>Macaroni, your situation is not the norm. If you read CC, you should know that special circumstances can and should be brought to the attention of financial aid offices. Your situation would be one aid officers can review. You need to get all of your documentation of medical expenses together and submit them with a letter - it would be good if your mom could help you with this.</p>
<p>What many of you are suggesting is not financial aid, per se. You want MERIT aid. Need based aid is one thing … it’s based on demonstrated need calculated using a carefully thought-out formula (the Profile gathers a lot more info than the FAFSA). If you believe your child should be getting aid because he worked really hard, then that is merit aid.</p>
<p>TNVandyParent- you are absolutely right!! I don’t think I expressed my thoughts very clearly in my first post after many years of lurking on CC- I do not regret one penny spent at Vanderbilt for my daughters education. </p>
<p>macaroni870- I am interested to see if your appeal for financial aid is successful as Vanderbilt uses both the FAFSA and Profile. </p>
<p>I don’t think I would be out of line to say that students admitted to Vanderbilt are all high caliber students, who have worked hard to achieve their academic goals, no matter what their parents EFC is! My daughter & her friends have often commented on what it was like to go from being at the top of their class to being surrounded by everyone who also was at the top of their class- quite a transition:)</p>
<p>As to those who think that we have paid full tuition for “bragging rights”- well I guess we blew that one too- Vanderbilt may be a top 20 school but most here in California, not involved in academics, have never even heard of Vanderbilt. (Except for when the BB team made the sweet sixteen :))</p>
<p>There are many good points being made in this thread. Macaroni870, you seem extremely bright and I have no doubt you’ll attend Vanderbilt and go on to a very successful career someday.
We always need to keep in mind that there are people from all levels of income and opportunity that read and post on these boards. My kids would be hard pressed to name a boarding school, much less attend one.<br>
Character is really what we need to be concerned about as we raise our kids and send them on to great schools like Vanderbilt. You can have a box filled with VU diplomas, but if you lack character (a commodity that cannot be purchased), then I believe you have very little.
Sorry to digress in that way; during these tough times perhaps it is something to think about.</p>
<p>funny story… my mom called them and sort of bullied them into telling her my package. I ask her and she goes “30,000 in grants… or was it 13,000?” So, due to bad quality on her cell phone, we’re back to where we started.</p>
<p>Macaroni870 is very bright. I agree wholeheartedly. More people need to be a fan of her’s. :o</p>
<p>Am I blushing? :rolleyes: Feelin’ the love today, guys. Thanks!</p>
<p>I agree with you a zillion percent, TNVandyParent; character is WITHOUT A DOUBT the one thing that you just can’t afford to lose, no matter if you go to Vanderbilt or Montana State (my safety-of-safeties). College is always a good time to develop character, otherwise it’s a sink-or-swim game!</p>
<p>My best friend is also at boarding school, albeit a much more prestigious one. She attends one of those New England prep schools along the lines of Andover or Exeter (I won’t reveal her particular school for her privacy). Her parents are in a very similar situation to ours; while they look fantastic on paper, their family is struggling financially and trying to sell as much as they can. She often tells me that the other kids at her school kind of overwhelm her with wealth! Even though she’s in a community where a lot of people are ridiculously rich and sort of exude money from every pore, she’s still a middle-class kid struggling to get through her education. We’ve been besties since second grade, but we’ve found that this is something new we can bond over!</p>
<p>Kelsmom, I’m in the process of putting together a package of info to send to Vandy (maybe along with some cookies. :-P) We’re enclosing our medical and legal bills in the hope that their eyes will bug out as much as my guidance counselor’s did when she saw the numbers.</p>
<p>so sorry to read about your father’s health and illness, Macaroni! </p>
<p>however, since he is your Dad, he must be mighty proud of your admission to Blair, and happy to think about what wonderful friends and learning experiences await you in Nashville.</p>
<p>He is uber-proud. He and my mom are my best friends, so it’s sort of like having my own personal cheerleaders as parents. I’ll copy the text message he sent me:</p>
<p>“Sit down. Deee-eeep breath. We have received your letter of acceptance to Vanderbilt @ the Blair School of Music. I have no words of praise strong enough left to express how I feel about your accomplishments these past two years. All my love, [embarrassing nickname]! Dad”</p>
<p>All that’s left to do is to make him proud, and that’s exactly what I aim to do! He looks forward to seeing me perform at the Grand Ole Opry in the next few years. =P Thanks for your kind words, Faline.</p>
<p>I am curious to know, for people who just sent in their financial aid information (css profile and tax returns etc.) how long did it take to hear back? And how much did you get?</p>
<p>I may be a little late to this party, and this comment is not about Vanderbilt per se, but about financial aid in general.</p>
<p>As someone in this thread said earlier, we’ve been very conservative financially as the kids were growing up, to the point that the kids have asked if we’re poor. But even so, we still don’t have the cash to pay full freight at any college.</p>
<p>It was only in the past small number of years that we’ve been able to put a significant amount of money into retirement accounts (401K). Until recent years our income was not enough to do that. </p>
<p>I called one of the schools my kid was accepted to, to ask why they offered no need based aid. They said they saw our 401K contributions as “discretionary” money that could otherwise pay for college.</p>
<p>Say what? </p>
<p>How terribly, naively, short sighted of them. What they’re really saying is that I should borrow against the future to pay for the present. They’re asking me to forgo possible expenditures in my family’s future so I can give <em>them</em> the schools, my money now.
And they’re actually saying that seriously with a straight face.</p>
<p>What are they asking me to borrow against? If I were to pay for college out of pocket now by forgoing my current “discretionary” 401K contributions, then what kinds of “discretionary” things might I have to do without in the future? Oh, nothing big, just little things like:
Wedding(s)
Helping my kids get into their first homes.
Having some “rainy day” cash on hand, for my kids, during their first few years in the ‘real’ world.
Spoiling grandchildren.
Eating.
Being warm in the winter.
Having a roof over our heads.</p>
<p>Wedding(s)
Helping my kids get into their first homes.
Having some “rainy day” cash on hand, for my kids, during their first few years in the ‘real’ world.
Spoiling grandchildren.</p>
<p>The above most definitely are discretionary.</p>
<p>kentuckymom wrote something that I haven’t seen anywhere else in another forum, and I would like to quote it here:</p>
<p>
Very good point!</p>
<p>I would also like to say something about need-based aid. We own a business, and it has taken a hit recently. My son is being “punished” because his father started a company that he can’t get rid of at this point. He is being punished for his parents’ mistake. Yet the child of a parent who won’t work is not punished. That student gets grants handed to them and full rides, in essence being rewarded for their parents’ actions. My dh is contributing to the economy by providing jobs. And my son is being punished. </p>
<p>My son won’t be able to go to places like Georgetown, Notre Dame, and UChicago.</p>
<p>We definitely understand the demoralizing effect at our house. All students who have been accepted to Vanderbilt have achieved academically but they are deserving in different ways. Perhaps Vanderbilt should consider two “pots” of funding. Designate a pot for those who are truly need-based, and another pot for those who are not need-based, but still should be recognized for their achievements. It seems that there are students who received major scholarships, such as the CV scholarship, and also received need-based aid. Just a thought.</p>
<p>HS09Parent - “Yet the child of a parent who won’t work is not punished. That student gets grants handed to them and full rides, in essence being rewarded for their parents’ actions.” Please don’t make such broad generalizations. My parents work very hard, often working up to 12 or even 14 hours in order to give me and my brother good living conditions. We have a house but we have a big loan to pay off, and we also live on Long Island (suburbs of NYC), where you find taxes to be some of the highest in the country. We can’t just up and move in order for my parents to be able to pay more for my college education. Vanderbilt was VERY generous in terms of their finaid need-based grant, and it makes college affordable for me. Just because someone receives a lot of financial aid does not mean that their parents don’t work their butts off.</p>
<p>Your son is not being punished because you can afford to send him off to college. And if you truly can’t, then you should call the finaid office. If you choose to send him somewhere where he has a full ride, I’m sure somebody else on the waiting list will gladly take his spot.</p>
<p>^^^^ Certainly not your fault you’re in the situation you are in, and it’s hard for you to understand the frustration we feel. However, a big house on Long Island was a choice…a choice some of is didn’t make, so that we can have more money to send our kids to college.</p>
<p>Others get their 'cake and eat it too"… a big house in an affluent area AND need-based loans.</p>
<p>We don’t have a big house, and we live in one of the less-affluent areas of Long Island. It was a choice my parents had to make due to their jobs. As immigrants, my parents goal was to provide a house for us, and not live in some tiny apartment with rats. The last thing on their mind was the cost of college, which for one, neither of them was aware of.</p>
<p>^Don’t spend too much time on this.
I think it is hard for each side to understand the other sides reality. There is clearly much assuming going on here that is most likely incorrect on both sides. One being that if you were able to save for college, paying 50Kplus a year is easy (in truth we all know plenty of people living a lavish lifestyle claiming to be short on funds - funny how that second home they own comes up under granny’s name) and the other being that if you haven’t been able to save for college you have been foolish with money or made inappropriate lifestyle choices. I believe that in the vast majority of cases neither of these scenerios is accurate. The truth would be specific to the individual’s case.</p>
<p>Goodschoolhopefully, I’m glad you tried to be a voice of reason among some of the people on this thread. To insinuate that students with need-based aid have slothful parents is so offensive to me, that I can scarcely believe someone said that. I wonder if such parents will ‘allow’ their children to associate with students who receive (heaven forbid) need-based aid.</p>
<p>Remember, Vandy is also generous with MERIT AID. Regardless of your financial background (born rich, worked to be well-off, or worked very hard and saved every dime you could) every student has the opportunity to apply for those dollars. </p>
<p>Please try to state your opinions in a way that doesn’t degrade other people. Those who are able to express themselves and still show respect for others–those are the human beings I’d like to see receiving diplomas from Vanderbilt.</p>