I’m a recent international applicant who was just accepted this week.
I have not yet received a formal email notification that my financial award was available to view, as some apparently have, but was able to access the Student Financial Services page anyways.
Under My Award, I noticed I received the Thomas Eliot Scholarship for 28k. To my knowledge, my parents requested a bit more aid, and I was under the impression Wash U met 100% need for all accepted applicants. Does this scholarship serve as the entirety of my need-based financial aid, or is my aid package just not yet fully updated (hence no formal email notification from Wash U about my financial aid)?
Also, under “TOTAL FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE AWARD”, the amount of aid is only listed for Fall 2015 and Spring 2016. I’m mostly assuming it’s renewable, but part of me is worried this financial award only goes towards my freshman year. Any clarification…? Does it show up like that for everyone?
Just a bit paranoid/naive about the whole process here.
Definitely excited to have been accepted!!
I’m also an international student and I have only received the Hudson Scholarship for 6k which definitely cannot meet my need. I have sent them an email to ask about how they calculate our need.
I’m also an international student who got in and finally got the financial package today. In my case, I also received the Thomas Eliot Scholarship, which fortunately meets my need (considerably high). Under “My Award”, I also got the same announcement about my grants only for the first year, but I think that as long as we maintain good records and there are no drastic changes in our family financial situation then we can reapply every year and the amount of aid will remain the same
@mhuelvis - Thank you; please tell me what they say if they respond! @DougNguyen97 - Ah, I see.
Also, after digging through some past posts here, I hear conflicting opinions about Thomas Eliot Scholarship either being a purely need-based package named to sound like a merit scholarship or being a legitimate scholarship with some basis in merit and aid amount varying according to financial need. Anyone know which of these is more accurate…?
If there is a merit component to it, wouldn’t it be safe to say there would be a somewhat strong case for the rest of my stated need to be met through other need-based aid packages?
@korboy i’ve heard that there are people who got work-study as a part of their package. After researching the posts on this forum, I’ve learned that the Eliot scholarship is need-based, not merit-based like some would interpret
My son is a junior this year, getting need-based fin. aid since his freshman year. Our experience is that aid is renewed each year, adjusted for increases in tuition and (potentially) changes in family resources. For us that has meant his aid has increased a little each year to keep pace with increased costs. Last year, S was also awarded one of their named merit scholarships, intended for high-performing students in his chosen field. The fin. aid office simply used that money to offset some of his need-based aid, so his overall package remained the same (believe me, I an not complaining–his aid package is very generous and we are so grateful that WUSTL has made if financially possible for him to attend!).
Eliot scholarship is basically need-based, but I get the impression that they can adjust the amount if they really want you. My only evidence for this is that back in 2012 when I ran their net price calculator, I came up with a much lower aid amount, and was very pleasantly surprised when we saw the actual award. Obviously this is only one data point, and I have no knowledge of the internal workings of the fin. aid office.
