<p>I applied RD and found checked out my application page and found this with a hokie bird next to it -</p>
<p>"You may have Financial Aid. </p>
<p>View Financial Aid Award Information </p>
<p>View Financial Aid Shopping Sheet Information" </p>
<p>From what I've heard, it basically means you're in. I've heard of this happening to transfer students. Does it apply to RD students too? Why would they post financial aid before a decision?</p>
<p>I’ve had the same message since March 1st. Haven’t been accepted yet. From what I’ve seen some people don’t have that message which is a good sign if you believe it means acceptance. Guess we’ll just have to wait.</p>
<p>I got my financial aid notification later than you did; assuming you probably had better stats than me, i think it may be a good indicator :D</p>
<p>If you applied for Financial Aid (including loans and scholarships) and sent in your FAFSA to Virginia Tech, it just means that the Office of Financial Aid & Scholarships has processed your FAFSA forms. Financial Aid is not tied to the Admissions Office at all and can tentatively award grants and loans regardless of acceptance.</p>
<p>The Hokie Bird for transfer students is different than this one, because that one says that Admissions is looking at the courses from your current school to transfer to Virginia Tech.</p>
<p>financiallylost - what is your source of knowledge regarding your statement that Tech “tentatively awards grants and loans regardless of acceptance”???</p>
<p>I had to contact the Financial Aid office to clear up an error on the FAFSA. While doing so, I asked if the award of FA was indicative of admission. It was made pretty clear to me that they work independently. While we have a hokie bird on the FA info, I simply don’t want to read too much into it. Maybe I am just cautious. YMMV</p>
<p>gigagirl - Refer to what DecideSomeHow posted. I also worked in the admissions office for some time and there is very little connection to the Financial Aid office. If you call Admissions and ask them about scholarships, loans, grants, etc, they don’t really deal with it and will transfer you over to FinAid.</p>
<p>Also, based on general information about Financial Aid, Tech and other schools generally just use formulas to determine who gets money. If you fit the formula, you’ll get a certain amount of money - so you’ll get a FinAid package. </p>
<p>Basically, if you’ve submitted a FAFSA to a school, it will be reviewed by an office that does not communicate with Admissions.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. Just seems like a very odd way of doing things. Kinda like ‘putting the cart before the horse’. I have not heard of other schools doing this before admission decisions.
I always thought that schools had a finite amount of grants and aid that they could offer to admitted students, thus they had to know who they were admitting and spread the aide out amoung those students accordingly. Oh well, Friday will tell… Thanks again.</p>
<p>My son has not yet been accepted, but we had the “we are pleased to offer you financial aid”’ posted in his profile weeks ago. The “financial aid” offered was merely telling him he could borrow up to $5500 per year in student loans. I was not anticipating any financial aid, but reminding him that he could borrow money to attend VT hardly qualifies as financial aid, and why they are “pleased” to offer him this loan seems a little ridiculous. Loans are not financial aid - loans must be repaid.</p>
<p>Bojangles, Loans count as financial aid because the government identifies them as aid, unfortunately. Almost every school does this, not just VT. Students will receive an “aid package” even if it’s only loans.</p>
<p>gigagirl, it depends on the school. I received aid packages before acceptance from VCU and ODU when I was in high school, but did not receive one from Tech until after I was accepted.</p>
<p>Anyway, almost all the grants from Tech are from either the Federal or State Government (Pell, VGAP, Commonwealth, etc), not from the school, which is why if you “fit” the formula and meet the requirements, you’ll get a preset amount of money. So even if there is leftover aid from students not being accepted, it doesn’t get reallocated so that students get more money, it just goes back to the govt. Good luck tomorrow!</p>
<p>Just wanted to confirm: son had the Hokie Bird for financial aid and was waitlisted (which to me really means denied). So for next year, anyone reading, the Hokie Bird is not a sign of acceptance.</p>