I’m considering whether or not I want to apply to University of Vermont. I think it’s a great school, but I would only apply if it could work as a financial safety for me. Please give me feedback!
I have a 33 ACT, am in the top 1% of my class (4.0 UW/4.56 W), and have lots of leadership experiences. If you want a more in-depth view of my stats and a little more about me, you could look at some of my other threads
Knowing this, I’m almost sure I would get the presidential scholarship. The thing is, even if I got an $18,000 scholarship, would I still be paying ~$50,000 - $18,000 = $32,000 a year? Whenever I use financial aid calculators, I get lots of need based aid (Vassar would cost ~$9,000 a year, Swarthmore ~$12,000), so I would only apply to UVM if it would be near a full ride. Is this possible? Would I get need and would it “stack” on top and have my cost be near 0?
Sorry this is rushed, any comments will be greatly, greatly appreciated!
hi, my mom just talked with the admission director online and she is pretty upset about how she was spoken to. I’m basically in the very similar situation with you. She told her out of staters must at least have $25 out of pocket, even when they get Presidential 15k, even with max federal grants 10k and some “UVM grants” - she fudged up words and numbers and did not want to give exact breakdown, but my mom was saying she seemed to really consider Presidential scholarship a part of “need based,” package for OOS, despite it’s being listed on their website as merit-based. The director wouldn’t give a clear breakdown. She wouldn’t even ask about me as a student but as soon as she learned I’m out of state and have no money, no matter, 25k out of pocket is the minimum as an out of staters. If you are a Vermonter, maybe there is a way for near full ride. If you are OOS - 25k seems the bare minimum, no matter how dire your family’s financial situation is, and no matter what an excellent student you are at your school.
I got really turned off about UVM after this. We were planning a visit but we’ll probably cancel. She was awful.
I’d like to be proven wrong though. UVM does sound like a great college, but you can attend only if you are rich as OOS - or willing to take out private loans over 100k in debt after graduation. Max federal loan is 7.5k a year in my situation - hardly enough to cover 25k a year.
Also, the cost for UVM annually is not 50k, but 55k including textbooks, transportations, and other misc. Actual cost (tuition and board) is 52k for oos. 3k on top of it for textbooks and transport etc.
Hi! One of my threads asks a similar question as this one, and if you look at the responses, a very helpful user posted the link to a document that lists the number of merit scholarships awarded (and the average amounts of those). However, your stats are FANTASTIC, and so I feel confident that you would get something close to the $18k max scholarship.
UVM is a state school. State schools are designed to benefit the students of that state. What that means is financial aid goes to those students at a greater amount proportionally. UVM does not meet full need. So as an out of state student you will get whatever merit you qualify for and you may qualify for some need based aid. Then again you may not. If you run their NPC and it shows no need based aid that is likely the case.
This is not unique to UVM. Most state schools will not give much in need aid, only merit, for OOS students. So frankly I wouldn’t be “mad” at UVM for not paying for an OOS student to attend using their states tax money.
I would suspect you’d get the full 18k presidential although there have been some surprising EA scholarship results with some higher stats kids not getting the full amount and lower stats getting maybe more than expected which does lead me to believe it is holistic on the scholarship side and not purely stats based.
Run the NPC on their site. If you include travel and books you are really looking at close to 57 for 2018-18. Which leans 39 less any need aid. If your household income is over 99k expect zero need based aid at any state school.
