<p>I don't want to get personal...I don't want to ask how much merit aid and need-based aid you got, because the latter is based on your family situation.</p>
<p>However, if you could let me know whether or not you will be paying more than 25 or 30K next year with room and board combined, plus all the aid you received, that would be great. That's about the absolute limit I would ever pay for a school...I want to apply EDII but need to know what I'm getting into first.</p>
<p>No aid for me, full price.</p>
<p>i still haven't gotten my aid package, but i'm hoping for some merit $$. i'll let you know if anything comes of it.</p>
<p>RS - </p>
<p>Is this because your family was deemed capable of paying the full price?</p>
<p>This is my top school and I want to apply ED II to increase my chances, but I can ONLY go there if I get the right amount of financial aid, and I'd hate to have a binding agreement to a school that I couldn't afford. I suppose that I'll just have to take my chances with the RD application.</p>
<p>No, I didn't ask for any aid because I pretty sure that my mom would not make the cut.</p>
<p>Burnup,</p>
<p>GW meets full need for 94% of their students. With that being said, the Early Decision agreement is not binding if you are unable to pay (i.e. if GW does not meet your demonstrated amount of need, you can opt out of the contract). Check out the financial section of GW's undergrad website and this thread - <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=125225%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=125225</a> </p>
<p>Also, as a fallback if you did not receive any merit aid (which is obvsiousy different than need-based aid), GW offers scholarships for continuing students:</p>
<p>Presidential Awards for Continuing Students
Continuing GW students who have completed 30 semester hours with at least a 3.7 cumulative grade point average and who did not receive a scholarship or award at the time of their admission are eligible for a $12,000 scholarship. Students are reviewed for this scholarship once a year in May. The scholarship is based on the two most recent semesters, excluding the summer session.</p>
<p>In addition, if you received a Presidential Academic Scholarship as an entering freshman or a Presidential Scholarship after completing 30 semester hours at GW and have completed 60 hours at GW with a 3.8, you may be eligible for an increase in your scholarship award. Review of these awards is completed once a year at the end of each spring semester and will be effective with the upcoming fall term.</p>
<p>So, although GW is an expensive school, it has an excellent financial aid program in additon to a large endowment (which the adcom is not stingy with). Best of luck.</p>
<p>To be honest, if money is a serious concern for you I would strongly discourage you from applying early to GW. I applied ED1 because I knew GW was the right place for me, and managed to convince my very skeptical parents to allow me to with the "since it's so expensive, they have more money to give" argument.</p>
<p>I just received my financial aid package, however, and I now realize that this may have been a huge mistake. My family is by no means poor, but we're not even close to being wealthy either. In total, I received a $4,000 grant and a $2625 loan, totaling $6,625. To do the math for you, the total estimated cost of attendance is $49,320, and minus the $6,625 that's a disgustingly huge $42,695. (x4 = $170,780)</p>
<p>I want to go to GW so badly, but am so disappointed with the aid I was given. I know that I will be able to pay for next year through 5-figure loans and work-study (and selling my parents' house), but also know that I will now be faced with 6-figure student debt for years.</p>
<p>I honestly don't know what to do now. If you're an incredible student, Burnin, then you might be given a significant merit award, but I got in with SATs in the high 1300s and pretty good grades, and didn't receive any merit aid.</p>
<p>I'm not sure what qualifies as meeting full need with that 94%, because I certainly didn't make it into that statistic. Anyway, I hope you seriously take this into consideration, but also hope to see you at GW next year.</p>
<p>you got your financial aid packet? i still havent gotten my first packet!</p>
<p>Yeah, I just got it in the mail today. Buffit, you said "GW meets full need for 94% of their students" -- where did you get that statistic? I ask because I'll be calling the financial aid office this week to appeal and would love to use that against them.</p>
<p>Did any of you fill out that FAFSA form? Does it provide any significant aid? And what income level is their cutoff?</p>
<p>I filled out the FAFSA. Considering that my family by no means has a high income and I got a totally insignificant amount of money, you probably will too. May as well apply though.</p>
<p>thanks, I will try it out!</p>
<p>Financial Aid Statistics
Full-time freshman enrollment: 2,260
Number who applied for need-based aid: 1,404
Number who were judged to have need: 913
Number who were offered aid: 902
Number who had full need met: 737
Average percent of need met: 94%
Average financial aid package: $28,229
Average need-based loan: $5,417
Average need-based scholarship or grant award: $15,823
Average non-need based aid: $13,757
Average indebtedness at graduation: $25,943 </p>
<p>Those are from the collegeboard. I just received my financial aid package as well. I got a 6000 grant and about 2600 in a stafford loan. BUT, I am fairly sure that merit aid won't be issued until the official packages come out in May. Bear in mind, these figures were simply an estimate. But, yeah, hooray for being in debt for the rest of our earthly lives!!!</p>
<p>sorry for the confusing wording about the 94%...sigh. if the financial aid package isn't satisfactory, I believe that the Early Decision contract can be lifted...does anyone know for sure?</p>
<p>Sorry for another possibly stupid question, but how can the average amount of aid be $28000 when it seems most students are receiving between $0-$8000? I mean I know some people get a full ride and everything, but it still doesn't seem like it would balance out.</p>
<p>i know i thought the same thing when i first saw this- i think the statistic only accounts for the 902 students who QUALIFIED for financial aid so the $28000 amount is the average amount of aid given to these 902 students and not the average including the other 1348 students who recieved $0 FINANCIAL aid---it misleading-- just roughly estimating that would make the average financial aid for EVERYONE $11,500or <.</p>
<p>i think the $28000 includes all the loans/grants/financial scholarships given to the 902 qualifying need aid students, so then if i'm not completely irrational that means that also 15%(the average $5000 or so loan) of the $28000 will have to be paid back (loans are included in this BIG #- you do have to pay those back even though i'm sure the need aid students would be getting better than a prime rate)---also i think the average $13000 scholarship number is a similarly misleading like the financial need number $28000-hence, the number might be the average for those few %25 or less students revieing merit awards.--maybe this is obvious to everyone or maybe i'm idiot------just my thoughts-------i think we all know statistics can be misleading though</p>
<p>so does anyone know for sure if we have to wait until may to find out about merit awards or if they should have been inculded in our (estimated) package?</p>
<p>I called the school in mid-December after acceptance packages went out and was told merit aid would be included in the acceptance package and if it wasn't there, you wouldn't be getting anything. Someone might like to call the school again to verify this.</p>
<p>As I said on another thread, I think it's getting harder to get merit aid at GW. It seems like they're reserving merit for special programs such as combined law, medical and engineering programs and also for top 10% SAT students with approximately 2200+. I'm not saying to give up all hope, but based on my limited observations, this is what I have noticed. Of course, if you do well at GW you can get merit aid based on high GPA after your first year.</p>