<p>For those of you who applied to both GWU and American…which university gave you the most aid?</p>
<p>Stats would be helpful too…I’m just interested to know the comparison. Is one a lot more generous than the other?</p>
<p>Hm, I need to win the lottery. Wouldn’t it be nice to just write a $50,000 check every year without a worry?</p>
<p>I applied to both AU and GW when I was a senior in 2005. I got full tuition (now ~ $32k/year) at AU and maybe $20k/year at GW. I'm not sure whether AU gives full tuition anymore or if it's capped at $15k/sem or $25k/yr. I think you'll probably get more at AU than GW, and/or because of the significant difference in tuition between the 2, you'll have to pay less at AU than GW.</p>
<p>My stats were 790CR/740M/770W (old SATs and SAT IIs), 34 ACT, 3.8 UW/4.6 W GPA (no class rank), committed to ECs (including comm service and leadership).</p>
<p>My daughter applied to both schools last year and was accepted to both. GWU offered no aid, and she was awarded the Dean's Scholarship at AU. Given that GWU costs were >$50K and the scholarship reduced her costs at AU to less than $30K(in addition to the fact that she preferred the campus setting of AU), the decision between the two schools was a no-brainer for her. She's currently a Freshman at AU and is enjoying it very much.</p>
<p>Her stats: ACT: 29 composite, SAT: 580M,670W, 800CR, GPA 4.16W(Don't know unweighted)</p>
<p>nice to hear, momonthehill! good choice! :)</p>
<p>AU's website has no info that I can find on the amount of the Presidents and other scholarships. Does anyone know: what the max award is currently for merit aid? Full tuition? Is there an interview process, or is it just a decision that's made along with the admissions decision? Does National Merit Finalist get an extra amount, or is it folded into the other merit awards? Thanks!</p>
<p>edited to add: I just saw ryan's post that $25k is the max award now. Is there concensus on this?</p>
<p>Rainmama, I'm not sure what the maximum scholarship amount is--you might want to call, or email, the admissions rep. for your area of the country to find out. The Dean's Scholarship that my D received was for $15K/year, although I've read (on this forum)that other kids who've received the Dean's Scholarship were awarded $18K/year, so that, too, can vary. To my knowledge, there's no official scholarship interviewing process(the aid decision was included in her admissions package that arrived in the mail). However, my D did do an admissions interview. What I've also heard, from this forum(not from an adcom, so take it with how ever many grains of salt you wish), that if a student "demonstrates interest" in attending AU(ex., interviews, campus visits, contacts admissions, etc.), it can have increase his/her chances of receiving merit aid. Hope this helps somewhat.</p>
<p>Thanks momonthehill - that's helpful!</p>
<p>The max aid at this time is $25K</p>
<p>I received the highest ward. It was a presidential scholarship for $30,000/per year. I asked them if I could get anymore and they said that I had already received the highest merit scholarship the school gives.</p>
<p>I second AUbiology- or at least it's higher than 25- I got 27 from AU, I think. Presidential.</p>
<p>They go mostly by M/V SATs and GPA. I had 1480/3.92ish (unweighted, I have no clue what it is weighted)</p>
<p>There is no interview process or extra applications- it's decided along with admissions.</p>
<p>My son got presidential at AU of $27,000. GW gave him $16,000 (if memory serves). He's happily going to AU.</p>
<p>My actual award from GW was greater than AU, but because of GW's cost of attendance, AU ended up being slightly cheaper in the end. Georgetown was similar to GW (although slightly cheaper), but really, all of the cost of attendance after FA were so close for me as to make money really not that much of a factor.</p>
<p>How did the FA packages compare between GW and AU, DCforME? What I have heard through the grapevine is that GW gives better financial aid packages, but AU has better merit awards for the most part. Though there are some full merit awards there at GW, you have to be waaaay up there in stats, really HPY material to get any of them.</p>
<p>I would agree that FA is probably better at GW, but the merit is A LOT better at American. I was told at GW that I received the highest merit scholarship and it was only 15,000.....I received almost twice that at AU. So if you're looking for need based aid alone...I'd say GW is a better bet.....if you're looking for merit then American is probably better.</p>
<p>cpt, I'm not 100% sure anymore, since I only really put into my spreadsheet how much was grants, scholarships, work study, or loans, etc., and didn't keep track of what was merit. I know from GW $15K was labeled scholarship (which sounds like merit based on what Elysium said), and a sum of money higher than that was labeled as a grant (probably FA), while at AU I got the $27K merit money, and a very small grant on top of that. Work Study was almost identical between the two. Both offered me a $3.5K subsidized student loan (Stafford?), and GW tacked a small Perkins loan on top too. Free money was bigger at GW, but so was COA, and in the end, AU had the better COA after free money.</p>
<p>dcforme...jw...did you decide to go to American.?because I'm also from IL and im going to american this year...and i don't really konw anyone else from the area.(sorry i konw that this is probably the wrong place for this).</p>
<p>If you qualify for both financial aid and merit aid you will do better at GW, if you only qualify for merit, you will probably get more aid at American. The only way to really know is to apply to both (assuming they are both a good "fit" for you) and compare packages.</p>