<p>A re-visit to the theme of a 2012 posting to garner some fresh feedback on your relative satisfaction with UR’s NEED-BASED AID award for those recently accepted students enrolling in the fall of 2013. </p>
<p>Please reply to these three (3) questions if you’re so inclined:</p>
<p>1-Happy with UR aid package, YES/NO</p>
<p>2-Was the computed EFC at the University of Richmond HIGHER/LOWER than the other schools that offered you acceptance</p>
<p>3-Is your gross family income ABOVE/BELOW the $100K level. </p>
<p>Any other color that you might want to share is fine as well. Many thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Please forgive my ignorance, but isn’t there a lot more to the question of whether or not one will receive financial aid? Don’t they take into account how much money you have in the bank?(how much money you have saved)</p>
<p>I started a similar themed post last year but didn’t get a lot of traction with it and it was also probably timed poorly. Here in early April 2013 with lots of folks having just received acceptances and aid offers, I thought I’d give it a go once again. </p>
<p>It’s my unscientific speculation that UR, while meeting 100% of a student’s need, computes a higher EFC than a lot of other schools, after it weighs all the various income, asset & expense considerations that families provide. FYI, I tossed out the $100K income level in my post as an arbitrary benchmark to see if folks earning less or more than this total might have varying experiences. It’s one thing for a family that earns $60K to state satisfaction with UR’s free aid money, but a family earning say $140K might have a totally different experience… (free UR dollars versus the dollars obtained from other schools).</p>
<p>In my opinion, it’s critical to have some point of context to properly frame a response, If anyone else wants to ante up their personal experience, please feel free to do so. </p>
<p>PAVenturer: Thanks once again for your feedback. We’re both supporters of the overall UR experience. There’s no denying that!</p>
<p>Underwhelmed with $0 financial aid package. Other schools gave my ED daughter money, so way more money based on merit not need. One of the things UR seemed to stress at all info sessions and open houses was how much money they had to give, whether need based or merit. I don’t feel comfortable disclosing income levels but both my husband and I are employed and have saved adequately for our daughters college.</p>
<p>My daughter was accepted and received no need based aid and no merit as well. We really thought there would be merit aid. Knew we were probably not going to get need based as my husband and I are both employed and have saved for her college as well. I just can’t justify spending that much on an undergrad education especially when the plans now call for grad school. She will be going elsewhere…</p>
<p>It’s my humble opinion that UR reserves Merit Aid dollars for truly the “best & brightest” applicants, (the ultra elite candidates that could likely gain admission to most of the top tier schools nationwide). They pursue these students with vigor through the Richmond Scholars Program and a limited number of Presidential Scholarships to the runner-ups. They do this just as lessor caliber schools might be willing to give $10K-$20K in Merit dollars to a typical, accomplished UR applicant. </p>
<p>Bottom line…unless your son or daughter has REALLY stellar credentials, anticipate relying on need based aid at UR. Keep MERIT expectations very modest, as straight A applicants are a dime a dozen.</p>