<p>I received my fin aid package in the mail today, and while I did receive the deans scholarship and a loan, there was no mention of need based aid. Even with the scholarship, the amount of money they are giving me is a good $20k away from meeting my efc. did other people receive need based aid in their packages, or will it follow in the mail later??</p>
<p>I don't have any need-based stuff, either. The closest thing I got was a subsidized loan. </p>
<p>I do have FWS and a couple of grants - nothing major, though. :/</p>
<p>I also do not have much in the way of need based stuff, only a minimal amount of loans.</p>
<p>page47~ it all comes together, at the same time. i may be way off base here, but all of you are getting major scholarships, if i'm not mistaken!!! Dean's,FWS, etc. maybe i'm just misunderstanding, but you all are in the most fortunate of categories! and page, it's only the most rare circumstances that people get "free rides". the EFC usually has little to do with what one gets. they don't meet needs totally, not that i EVER heard of!</p>
<p>Is it possible to be accepted and get no merit aid? I'm not expecting any need based but am counting on merit to cover a decent percentage of cost.</p>
<p>Sort of. A friend of mine only got like 3500 from them...which isn't much considering the tuition.</p>
<p>But what I just realize is that the "need based aid" was already given, as American gave me the option of a workstudy/loan package of like $8000 a year in addition to my scholarship. The estimated cost is around $45k, so with the AU Grant that I also got, I need to find $10 from somewhere. I don't believe that there is anymore financial aid coming in...</p>
<p>AU only meets approximately 75% of need. AU's endowment simply isn't large enough to match everyone's EFC.</p>
<p>I got the Dean's Scholarship ($15000) and a $3000 federal loan, and my EFC is $12000. That adds up to $30,000, which still leaves $15,000 a year of unmet need!</p>
<p>This is going to be the reason I don't attend American, and that's too bad. I'm just not willing to go into $70,000 of debt for an undergraduate education.</p>
<p>all i do is repeat myself, kind of out of frustration at this point....DO YOU ALL KNOW HOW LUCKY YOU ARE??????? sounds like you all need to check your expectations. NO school ever meets all students' need...never did and never will. this only partially has to do with endowment, ie UDel having largest endowmt in country due to the Du Pont fortune!!! families,like mine, are expected to dig down and do what they can. you are all so blessed to have received scholarships, this one and that, and then some even got more with need-based!!!!! most kids go into debt with loans to go where they want, especially if there was no family savings, etc. even if some of you do loans, how bad can it be....YOU GOT A LOT OF ANNUAL FREE MONEY!!! i don't get your gripes!</p>
<p>happycollegemom -- </p>
<p>I see your point, but you have to realize that it is still a concern--scholarships or not. AND, you are not entirely correct about schools not meeting 100% of need. There are a few schools these days that will meet 100% of need as indicated on the FASFA... AU, however, is not one of them. For instance, Duke meets 100% of demonstrated need:</p>
<p>"We admit U.S. citizens and permanent residents without regard to their financial circumstances or aid eligibility, and we meet 100 percent of demonstrated need for these students throughout their undergraduate enrollment. "</p>
<p>happycollegemom,</p>
<p>I must disagree. Students should not consider themselves fortunate when their top choice schools fail to meet their needs by five-figure dollars. AU is no exception. Many top-ranked schools indeed meet their accepted students' needs. In my sister's case, with the only exception being Berkeley, most top-ranked schools she was accepted to met her need 100% (no merit scholarships, just pure grants). And believe me, she gets just as much as what I get from AU through Presidential Scholarship. It's not just an anecdote either. Statistics support the claim that many prestigious institutions with large endowments meet students' needs far better than schools with smaller endowments.</p>
<p>Small endowment is an undeniable weakness of AU and something the school needs to address and improve if it wants to sustain its development and become more competetive in the future. Students should not dig themselves into six-figure debt with smiles on their faces.</p>
<p>ok swmass~ so maybe i'm shooting too low, but i never expected any school to pick up the tab for any of my kids, bright as they all are. i'll still say, unless there's a way to prove this statement wrong, MOST schools are not able to pay that kind of money to a particular kid, with the exception of those that they NEED, either demographically, athletically, minority, or some other stronghold. and of course this excludes the extremely wealthy ivies, Udel, and those in that category. i'm not saying it doesn't happen and that they don't exist, but they are NOT the norm.</p>
<p>It is true that usually top 25 schools are the only schools that can meet 100% of need, but most kids cannot get into those schools because of their highly competitive admissions process. However going into 5 or even 6 figures worth of debt to go to AU is simply not worth it and is simply NOT viable for many people. IMO it's better to just go to your local state school, or a good OOS public school and work your ass off there, and you'll still be able to go places in life.</p>
<p>Not to be argumentative, it's just that I understand where those that are worried about paying for college are coming from (I'm in the same situation)...and I do wish that AU met more of demonstrated need.</p>
<p>These are a few of the school's that meet 100% of demonstrated need:
<a href="http://www.plan4if.cslf.org/payingforcollege/collegeList.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.plan4if.cslf.org/payingforcollege/collegeList.htm</a></p>
<p>I'm sure that the list doesn't include all of them...but there's quite a few on there.</p>
<p>thank you, nicole for your lovely demeanor! and i'll read the site you posted (eventho i no longer need it! :) )</p>
<p>me again, Nicole~ i did a quick read and my main comment is that these are top Tier I s and so may be a mute point for most. but i appreciate your intelligent input!</p>
<p>geeze, did i just say "mute" ...OMG!!!!!</p>