<p>I am currently sophomore at George Washington University studying biomedical engineering.
I got accepted at Washington University in St.Louis for spring in biomedical engineering.
The problem is washu hardly gave me any financial award. I have to pay $30k/year and my expected family contribution is $0. </p>
<p>Is it worth getting $75k in loans to go to washu? I am also planning to go to graduate school or med school.</p>
<p>What's your aid package like at GW? If it's better, I really don't think you should go, especially if you want to go to grad/med school and your EFC is 0. That's a lot of debt to go into even without planning on grad/med school. If you really hate GW, you should apply to some places for fall transfer. Unless you really, really, really, really want to go to WashU, I think it would really be a waste of money. People are going to care more about where you got your terminal degree than where you went to undergrad anyways. BTW, this is coming from another low income student, with an EFC similar to yours who understands what it's like to be miserable at your current school, if that puts things into perspective a little bit. Hope things work out for you!</p>
<p>Thanks for your input; it helped a lot.
i get almost full ride at GW. I think you are right too. It's better to finish where i'm at and go to a good grad/med school.</p>
<p>wow....I am sorry to hear that... And I am surprised too. they say that family with income under 60k will get a free ride, and for those whose income under 100k, they will give a generous package which significantly decrease the financial burden. I would suggest you to call them, explaining your situation and trying to bargain with them. Sometimes this helps. Good luck!</p>
<p>Out of curiosity, are you an international student to WashU? Otherwise, you should be receiving more aid since WashU states that it meets 100% of financial need. Don't be afraid to contact the financial aid department to see what's up.</p>
<p>Ronaldo, is that for freshman admissions? Many schools aren't very generous with financial aid for transfers (even if they are for freshmen), so it didn't really surprise me.</p>
<p>Fontia, I think that the other posters are right in saying you should contact WashU to ask for an explanation and try to bargain with them. If you can get a decent deal, you should go, but if they refuse to budge, that's just way too much money, IMO.</p>
<p>george washington is very fine school, wash u may be slightly more selective than gwu but the level of education and critical discourse in the two schools is essentially the same...certainly not worth going into debt to make the switch which can always be stressful as is</p>
<p>Thanks for all your replies. They're all really helpful. I think i'm going to stay at my current school.</p>
<p>Escapist, I am not an international student; i am a domestic student. </p>
<p>I contacted numerous times WashU's financial aid office appealing my aid and explaining my situation, but they wouldn't change it. I was actually quite shocked by a financial officer's initial response:"maybe there's a grandparent who might have some savings that can help you" (basically it's not our business and go find the money by yourself).
WashU is a great school and I understand they are short in funding now because their endowment got hammered by 25% due to the economy, but there's a clear lack of professionalism from their staff.</p>
<p>Also WashU is not need-blind, so when they were reviewing my application they knew i needed a lot of money to attend. I don't understand why they accepted me without giving me the funding.</p>
<p>"maybe there's a grandparent who might have some savings that can help you"
-this is insane.... you must be ticked so badly.... why dont u call the director of financial aid or the director of admissions about this?</p>