<p>GW parent here. I can only speak of our experience with financial aid, however it was positive (and hoping it stays that way for sophomore year). D received $29,125. aid package (1480 old SAT, 3.99 gwa uw). This through a combination of Presidential Scholarship University Award, Federal Work Study, Federal Perkins Loan and Stafford Loan. GW funded about 90% of our need after they subtracted our Expected Family Contribution from the total cost of attendance. About 23K is funding that doesn't need to be paid back. Stafford and Perkins Loans do need to be paid back under various terms and interest rates, but not until student has graduated. Remember that a student must qualify financially for Perkins, subsidized Stafford Loans and Federal Work Study. Also remember that Federal Work-Study funds are not paid directly to the college, so you will be responsible for paying Work-Study allotment to college up front and then earning/saving your work study wages during the school year. GW requires the CSS Profile and the FAFSA for financial aid determination and will eventually probably ask for copies of 2005 tax returns and W2-s for parents and students for verification. File all these forms and documents as soon as possible to be considered fully for financial aid. Your EFC (Expected Family Contribution) will be determined by filling out the FAFSA form and sometimes colleges will tweak that number a little bit in their financial aid offices. Need is determined by subtracting your EFC from the total cost of attendance.
As for interpreting the statistics posted above, the data suggests:
-the matriculating class is 2260 students<br>
-Of these 2260 students, 1404 requested financial aid.<br>
-Of these 1404 students GW determined from the applications that 913 of these had actual demonstrated need (according to GW formula).<br>
-Of these 913 students, 902 were offered financial aid of some sort and combination. (since only 11 students who demonstrated need were not offered any. GW can safely say that about 98.8% of students who showed need were offered aid
-Of these 902 students, 737 received aid packages that would cover their full demonstrated need (total cost of tuition/room and board minus the Expected Family Contribution).<br>
-And on average for all 902 students offered aid, GW offered packages that would cover 94% of their demonstrated need.<br>
-The packages offered to these 902 students averaged about $28,229 in funds, including an average of $15,823 scholarships/grants and $5414 in loans.<br>
-The numbers also state that GW awards an average of $13,757 in merit scholarships to students (regardless of demonstrated need). But of course the number doesn't indicate how many of these scholarships are awarded.
-Finally the average amount of loan debt that students graduate with from GW is $25,943 which likely includes the maximum amount of Stafford loans a student is permitted to borrow, plus some Perkins loans and/or private loans.</p>
<p>Negotiating the financial aid maze for the first time can be overwhelming. Take each form one step/question at a time. Know and meet all deadlines. The Financial aid office at GW is very helpful. Last spring they called each of their matriculating students or parents at home to review the financial aid package with us and answer any questions that we might have.<br>
And good luck to all accepted students as you now turn your thoughts to tuition and housing.</p>
<p>balanced advice CelloMom,
i think we should take all our idignity out not on GWU, but on our current national leaders, who have severly cut the amount of gov aid while tuition has skyrockted past double or more the rate of inflation each year---the solution---- VOTE DEMOCRAT!!!!!!!---- i do think that GWU has done a great think though by putting a ceiling on their tuition rate---it was in the brochure something about paying the same tuition you paid your freshman year for the other three years---no increases---go colonials!!!!</p>
<p>Cellomom -- you said "D received $29,125." Since I didn't receive any of their merit awards, approximately what kind of aid did you receive not counting the Presidential award?</p>
<p>Presidential Award and University Award totaled almost $23,000. beyond that she received $2625 Stafford, $1500 Perkins Loan and $2200 Federal Work Study. Pretty standard distributions for these federal aid programs and one must qualify via the FAFSA numbers for them.</p>
<p>All totaled: GW did fund 90% of our need-just under their stats of funding 94%. Her aid package was just a little over their average of $28,229. Her scholarship/grant awards were over their "average of $15,823. And her loans were under "their average of $5414." And we expect her federal loans to total around $23K by the time she graduates (not an unreasonable amount given the pay-back terms that are available). So her aid package matched pretty well with the numbers that GW advertises for aid statistics.</p>
<p>And yes, GW does fix the tuition rate for incoming freshman and that rate will be the same through senior year. For entering freshmen in Fall 2005 it was $36,400. For freshmen entering Fall 2006 I expect the number will be somewhat higher. But it is nice to be able to count on that number staying the same and not expect a rise of 2-3K each year for the next few years.</p>
<p>We are managing the balance that we must pay from some previous savings, savings from salary earned during the year and probably a PLUS loan or two along the way. D is our third and last child entering college, two already graduated. So the big tuition bills didn't really shock us too much, although GW tuition is at the high end of the spectrum. With one semester completed so far, she has done extremely well academically, has formed some good relationships with professors, has more advisors than she knows what to do with, loves DC, and has met some terrific friends.</p>
<p>I still have trouble understanding how a school with such an unusually (and sickeningly) high tuition can only afford to provide a virtually insignificant $4,000 grant to a student who -- though below their high standards for their presidential scholarships -- applied ED (and would qualify for merit aid at other similar schools). They say that applying ED has no bearing on how much money is given, but I still can't see them getting many students RD with such minimal financial aid.</p>
<p>My parents are now looking into breaking the ED contract because of lack of money or having me defer a year to work to earn the tuition money.</p>
<p>Yeah GW sounds great, and I would've been thrilled to go there, but how can 4 years of anything be worth $200,000?</p>
<p>200,000 is almost enough money to buy a house.</p>
<p>Even if he/she got loans, how many years will it take for him/her to pay off? 15 years? 30? What if something goes wrong and he/she can't graduate? 200,000 for 4/years is MUCH too much.</p>
<p>The question for ggwu2010 would be... did GWU meet your full demonstrated need? (the need THEY determined)</p>
<p>If they didn't meet your full demonstrated need (the one they calculated)... meaning, there is a gap between the EFC and the aid they are offering, I believe you can get out of the ED contract. If they did meet your demonstrated need (the one which they calculated), you definitely need to talk to them and ask for more aid. Remember, you are an ED candidate - they WANT YOU to come. You have some leverage because most colleges do not want their ED acceptees going elsewhere.</p>
<p>VERY few families can afford an 200,000 dollar education for 4 years.</p>
<p>Just because GW's tuition is high doesn't mean they have lots of money. First of all, costs in the city are high. Salaries GW must pay to employees are much higher than they would be in, say, a small town somewhere far from a city. Real estate costs in the city are high. Everything costs more money. Next of all, GW does not have a large endowement, as compared to the Ivies and near Ivies. If you want to complain, complain about alums not giving enough money. GW can't afford to give all its ED candidates money. It has to have enough money to build up its programs and pay its professors. GW is trying to improve its reputation. If you're concerned with getting merit aid, small, lesser known schools like Allegheny give half-tuition merit aid to people with your stats. There was an article about it in the NY Times today.</p>
<p>I recognize that GW doesn't have the same kind of endowment that many other schools do, and that they inherently have expenses that less urban schools don't have.</p>
<p>It was more a mistake on my family's part for putting too much trust into GW's financial aid program, and into misleading statistics like collegeboard's (which may just be for 4 years total, not for every year as I took them to be).</p>
<p>Yes, I could have gone to a smaller, lesser known school like Allegheny, but the point was that I wanted to go to GW for a reason. The Elliott School had the seemingly perfect program for what I was interested in, while no other school did. In retrospect, I should have just settled for my state school.</p>
<p>Really, I was just responding to whoever started the post (burninup?) and to hope that people in a similar situation would take more caution than we did before committing to such a major contract. $200,000 IS the worth of my house, and should NOT be the cost for 4 years of education.</p>