<p>I found out I was a NMSF today. I know Vandy gives $5,000 (per year right?). If Vanderbilt determines you need $25,000 of financial aid, will they add the $5,000 (to $30,000) to that or will they give you $5,000 and $20,000? So basically will they add the $5,000 to whatever else you received or just count the $5,000 as part of whatever other FA they give you?</p>
<p>Read the website before you ask here…</p>
<p>[Merit</a> Scholarship Programs](<a href=“Frequently Asked Questions | Scholarships | Vanderbilt University”>Frequently Asked Questions | Scholarships | Vanderbilt University)</p>
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<p>Under the new financial aid program, Vanderbilt has a “one-to-one” policy. This means that the value of any scholarships you receive (from the school or from outside sources) will be subtracted from your need-based aid. This isn’t a big deal for those students who receive more scholarship aid than need-based aid, as their family will still save some money from additional scholarships. However, if you are receiving a large amount of aid, it’s quite difficult to earn a scholarship in such a high amount to save on your bill.</p>
<p>When I was a high school senior touring the school, I remember Vanderbilt admissions bragging that they did not have a “one-to-one” policy, and that it was always worthwhile to keep applying for scholarships (i.e., if you got a $5000 scholarship, they would only dock $3000 (or some amount less than $5000) from your financial aid). I’m a senior at Vandy now…my, how times have changed.</p>
<p>dshinka, it’s not an outside scholarship. So if I need a good amount of money from Vandy ($25,000), would it be dumb to go for the $5,000 there? I assume I would need more need-based aid than scholarship aid. I might qualify for around $25,000 need-based aid. So if I understand correctly, I won’t be getting 5k extra, right? So this would make the scholarship worthless to a lot of people.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt is still committed to helping students avoid loans so does it really matter if part of your aid is merit based? It can help you with actually getting admitted in the first place if you end up being a NMF and since that merit money is pretty much guaranteed even if you don’t get any money from the NMSC, it could help you in the admissions game since they won’t have to dig as deep out of the need based funds to admit you compared to someone else who has identical need but no NM status. It can only help you,not hurt you. Good luck and get all of that paperwork submitted on time to NMSC!</p>
<p>It helps wealthier students who aren’t eligible for need-based aid.</p>
<p>Thanks. But I won’t “waste” it on Vandy because I expect to get more than $5,000 in need-based aid.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure that even if Vandy counts NMSF against you, it will take away from your Work Study and Expected Student Contribution, first. You are expected to earn about 2k (I’m guessing; it doesn’t list summer earnings expectations anywhere that I could find on Vanderbilt’s site) over the summer. Work-study will be between 1 and 2k, I believe, so that means you will likely lose 2 - 3k of your scholarship. Still, it’s unlikely that unless you get a great merit scholarship elsewhere, that somewhere else will have a better need-based policy than Vanderbilt, meaning this is going to be one of your best choices fiscally.</p>
<p>dshinka, that isn’t necessarily true. I’ve never had work study as a part of my financial aid package…just grants and loans. (This year, the loans disappeared, but were not replaced by additional grant money…luckily, they were small loan offerings anyways that we denied every year).</p>
<p>It’s “only” $5,000. That’s less than 10% of what Vandy would cost. I could get a lot more from USC or somewhere else. I will most likely end up at Michigan, but they don’t give anything for NMF, so I am trying to figure where to send it.</p>
<p>You do realize that “only” $5000 in NM money is given each year? That means a total of $20,000 over 4 years. The NMSC does not give every finalist money, and it can be at most $2500 but is often a lot less and it’s only a one time award. I think the most money you will get from other schools may be a one time NM scholarship of $1,000 if the NMSC doesn’t award you any money. Vanderbilt is very generous with awarding NM money to Finalists.</p>
<p>Good point, hope4. There are some schools that will provide free rides to NMFs. S got lots of mail recruiting him once he was named NMF, but the most generous offers were from lesser schools than Vanderbilt, some we had never heard of.</p>
<p>They are by far the most generous of the top 20-30 schools with NM awards. WashU, Rice and Wake Forest were only going to give her a one time award of $1,000. I don’t think UVA or William and Mary gave her any NM award at all.
She got a free ride at Alabama and then some, and Baylor was generous as well.</p>
<p>It is 5k, but that’s not a ton when it costs over 50k to go there. That still around 47k a year. I’m paying for my entire college and obviously can’t afford that. I’d need it to be 25k or less.</p>
<p>Have you contacted the finaid office there to have them help you more accurately determine what your EFC will be? They will do this for you so you can know earlier if it is a viable school for you financially. They really do like to get NMF!
I know several students from our area who got incredible financial aid packages. One was a NMF, one was not. The NMF only pays $600 a year.Yes, $600 not $6000! The other student is only paying $3000. Don’t criticize Vanderbilt until you know the real story on their aid.</p>
<p>jrt336
I am not asking for you to answer here on a public forum, but I raise the question on why are you paying your entire cost of college if your EFC is going to be close to full price? hope4freeride is correct that schools will help you guesstimate your EFC early and there are many calculators online. Vandy’s full price is very high and they will consider the incomes and assets of parents according to a set of rules. There is a process by which you can apply to be considered emancipated from parental income, but I am not sure what you have to prove. I think you have to have serious reasons to demonstrate that parents will not or cannot contribute.<br>
congrats on your NM status…I would suggest that you apply to reach colleges that have good merit options as well as to schools that are less selective and reward NM students.</p>
<p>My husband and I were also surprised to see that in some state schools even at the graduate level, we are required to provide our income information if our sons apply for financial aid. I was under the false impression that anyone over 22 would not be having to turn in parent assets but this varies greatly. Of course, it is more common for those over 22 to assume full price debts without taking a penny from parents. But we had not recognized that parent information can be requested in graduate school.</p>
<p>I don’t think Vandy expects my parents to pay half of their income for college when I have a bunch of siblings who will be going to other colleges in the next few years. I’d hope they’d give me some decent financial aid. Someone I know in a somewhat similar situation got about 30k I think.</p>
<p>When I was at Vandy, the award for NMF was $5000/yr if you had no other aid, and $2000/yr if you were receiving any other type of scholarship. Definitely worth checking on.</p>
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Some parents may sit down with their kid and be like, “I’m not going to pay a cent for your college. You have to do it yourself.” My parents didn’t tell me that, but they did tell me, “I’m not going to pay more than X per year. You’ll have to get the rest in loans or scholarships.” X was less than my EFC, so I’m taking loans out to pay for Vandy. The point is (s)he may not have a choice to pay for his/her college on his/her own.</p>
<p>I am shocked that graduate schools can ask that info. I thought you were considered financially independent from your parents once you’ve obtained a Bachelor’s?</p>
<p>S was a 2006 grad and when he began the application process for professional school in fall of 2007, some schools (including the alma mater of Faline2’s oldest) expected financial data from both parents. And that was prior to an admissions decision.</p>