<p>hi,
I am a studnet who was accepted into UVa and have now since enrolled. However I have a question about virginia's policy of "Replaces need-based loans with grants in the financial aid packages of low-income students those whose family income is equivalent to 200 percent of the federal poverty line or less." (from virginia's website). When I read this I assumed that I would be recieving an all grant financial aid award because my family's income is below the 200% level. However, to my suprise I still recieved an award consisting of loans, work study and grants. I called the financial aid office and talked to the counselor and she told that virginia had seen my families's 2006 tax returns and that whatever they offered was correct, even though it is clear on the tax returns that our income was below the 200% level. I later on emailed the fin aid office asking about the above quoted statement and the response that I recieved was "You are correct. Students who are considered low income, family income equivalent to 200 percent of the federal poverty line or less will receive a financial aid award consisting of all grants." So can someone please tell me what to do next, or am i my interpreting this wrong? Thanks.</p>
<p>I thought it was a dollar amount....say $52K or that ball park. See if I can confirm the dollar amount for gross family income</p>
<p>does your family have a lot of savings? It happens to me also coz I'm a low-income and I was expecting all grants. but apparantly there are some tricky wording.</p>
<p>Yes, that happened to me too. The girl from SFS told me that they also consider savings, assets and other stuff. She said:</p>
<p>"...it is important to understand that AccessUVa is our financial aid philosophy but it does not mean that there are cookie cutter awards. In fact, awarding is done on a case by case basis with lots of different things that are taken into consideration when reviewed by our staff.</p>
<p>As I said in the last email, generally students who have an expected family contribution that exceeds $4110 will receive loans in their package. However, it is also possible for a student who has a lower expected family contribution to receive need-based loans in their package as well. Reasons vary from income levels, the amount of assets in addition to income, etc."</p>
<p>Sad. I really was hoping to get an all-grant package.</p>
<p>Im in a similar situation, my expected family contribution was 0 but i still got a lot of loans. But im still happy with it =)</p>