<p>So I'm a prospective Vanderbilt student. I live in NY, which would make me a good demographic for the school. I have a 4.0 weighted GPA, (3.8 unweighted), I'm in the top of my class but my test scores are nothing too great - I sent my 28 on the ACT (I know, not that great). </p>
<p>I take pretty much all APs (5 APs total, plus one college course through Syracuse University). I get straight As except for the occasional B. Honestly, I think my chances are low for Vanderbilt, but it's going to be a high reach for me that I'm willing to try. </p>
<p>Anyway, I started this thread to try and gage not only what my chances might be but whether or not I can get financial aid - or rather, whether Vandy gives substantial financial aid to demographics.</p>
<p>THE MAIN QUESTION HERE IS: Does Vanderbilt give $ to demographics?Do they give money to students with high GPAs but relatively low test scores? ARE THEY GENEROUS, GENERALLY?</p>
<p>ALSO I APPLIED SPECIFICALLY TO THE PEABODY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION! DOES THIS HELP MY CHANCES OR HURT THEM? </p>
<p>mmm: Vanderbilt gives generous financial aid without loans in the packages but only based on one’s EFC, based on two measures, the FAFSA and the CSS Profile. Vanderbilt comes up with its own determination of your expected family contribution which may or may not resemble the figures at other colleges. Some colleges only use the FAFSA for instance without the CSS Profile. Your parents need to work on both of these documents in order to get a guesstimate on their expected contribution. Vanderbilt does have three categories of merit scholarships but they go to less than 1% of applicants.<br>
With close to 19,000 applicants for 1650 spots last year…Vanderbilt has become a more difficult admit than some of the ivies.<br>
In recent years, Vanderbilt has had a high number of applicants from the NY/NJ corridor. So there is unlikely to be any advantage there. In fact the opposite is often a worry. Vanderbilt’s old corridors of alum from Texas and Atlanta and so on are sad because their children cannot make up the bulk of the admitted class anymore as Vanderbilt has become a national footprint college. The student body does not demographically look like the older alum set. Just a huge change in this digital age re applicant pool.
Admission to the Peabody school is not really documented as “easier” on the front end. Their graduate school is number one in the USNWR. There is a lot of joshing about some of their classes being less difficult than the hard sciences and engineering tracks but Peabody students are preparing for education and or management careers.</p>
<p>It is great that you have been at Syracuse U taking a class and that your GC can state that the you have taken the hardest courses in your high school.</p>
<p>If you are at the top of your class, no matter what happens at Vandy, don’t let anyone tell you different that you can’t do very well in college. College is so much more than entry test scores. Some students have had early advantages re college class prep and advising on applications. But college is truly a place where the playing field gets leveled again. It is also a place for work skills, study skills, passionate pursuits and a place to catch up from temporary disadvantages.<br>
everyone who applies to Vandy and other difficult admit schools needs college match plans…and that means financial matches. There are calculators on the websites to work out EFCs. You can make educated guesses on your costs of attendance.<br>
good luck and stay focused and positive</p>
<p>I’ve heard that Vandy gives some of the best need based financial aid around. THis is particularly attributed to them trying to get more high caliber students (thus their acceptance rate plummeted). </p>
<p>Merit aid, on the other hand, is extremely hard to come by through the university. It’d be hard for you to get some merit aid (hard for everybody).</p>
<p>Financial aid depends on your parents financial situation… if your parents are millionaires don’t expect anything. If you’re lower class expect quite a bit. Middle class kind of gets shafted, you never truly know what you’re gonna get.
My parents make ~150k and I got 43k in aid</p>
<p>Vanderbilt is extremely generous with aid. The net price calculator is very accurate if you put in accurate information and your family doesn’t have any unusual circumstances (own a farm, self employed, etc.) <a href=“Net Price Calculator”>Net Price Calculator;
<p>Living61, a lot of schools that give institutional aid do not recognize all the deductions that the IRS allows for self-employment. If you are self-employed and use your income tax return to fill out the NPC as instructed, it likely will not be the same number you get on your award letter. A lot of calculators have a disclaimer stating that it won’t be accurate for different circumstances. It was spot on for us.</p>
<p>150K/year is not that much after taxes, considering that in some states the state plus federal tax and property taxes etc add up to close to 50% in top brackets! So, if you only have around 80-90K left after taxes, how can a family pay 65K/yr for ONE kid at VU for each year. At Harvard, if family income is under 180K, they only expect 10% of income to be paid to Harvard, and the rest is aid. Clearly, so-called “well off” families in the 200-250K income bracket have it the hardest, as they get no help, and if there is more than one kid to educate, they can get hit very hard! The best case is either be very rich, or be very smart and low income, because you will go to the very best colleges at less than the cost of a community college, thanks to aid policies at these colleges.</p>
<p>oliver.thanks for straightening out that error re numbers of applicants. Sloppy at quarter of 2am. 31,099 applicants for fall term 2013. A very big diff than the 19 thou I listed. Admission Statistics (Fall 2013)</p>