<p>If you have been offered admission (Congratulations!) but your offer did not include a need-based financial aid package (and you applied for aid), there are A COUPLE OF POSSIBILITIES:</p>
<p>1) Your aid award is still in the process of being prepared--they do these in batches and yours wasn't in the first batch. If that is the case, you are NOT at a disadvantage for aid. We package everyone (US citizens and permanent residents) with the same policies meaning that no more than $4000 of your eligibility will be met with self-help (student loans and work study). The rest of your eligibility will be met with grant money that does not have to be re-paid. </p>
<p>2) Your aid application is not yet complete. Don't panic! Please contact the Financial Aid Office directly to be sure they have everything they need to create your package. Unfortunately you can not check this on line. You can call them at 804-289-8438 or 800-700-1662 between 8:30 - 5:00 Eastern Time. You can also contact them by e-mail at <a href="mailto:finaid@richmond.edu">finaid@richmond.edu</a>. Even if you are presently incomplete, you have time to submit the missing materials and get an aid package with a pretty quick turn around. Our goal is that you'll have this information well ahead of May 1 so you can compare our aid offer to that of other schools. But if you are incomplete, you've got to take care of that promptly. </p>
<p>In every case, the Financial Aid staff is working very hard to get aid packages created for everyone who applied in sufficient time for you to compare the award to those offered by other institutions well ahead of the May 1 deadline to reply to offers of admission. </p>
<p>Best--</p>
<p>UR Admissions</p>
<p>OK, when I typed that header it was in all caps, so it said US students (not Us students which sounds like I'm really a bingo). I might be a bingo but I meant for that to read "US" as in "citizens of the United States of America".</p>
<p>My daughter was awarded a need-based grant (~$26,000) but unfortunately no merit scholarship though we feel she is very deserving. Her brother will not be an undergraduate next year and we would like to know to what degree this is likely to reduce her grant if other family income factors remain the same. I fear a large jump in expected family contribution (EFC) and do not want to jeopardize her education for financial reasons if she decides on UR.</p>
<p>Lady-Slipper--</p>
<p>The only way we can possibly help you with all this is to do it in a private conversation. We'll need to know the name of your student so we can pull the file to discuss it. Scholarship decisions are totally individual, one-at-a-time decisions unlike many other schools where scholarships are totally criteria based (if you have X GPA and Y SAT then you get Z dollars). Please feel free to PM me, or contact the Admission Office by phone or e-mail at <a href="mailto:admissions@richmond.edu">admissions@richmond.edu</a> since I know you live outside the US and the time zones could be a challenge. We're happy to try to address your questions, but these are not good ones for a public forum. </p>
<p>UR Admissions</p>
<p>For students awarded work on campus as part of their aid package, what types of jobs are available?</p>
<p>Student employment is available for those receiving aid as a piece of the "self-help" portion of the aid package and for other students who just wish to work to help pay a portion of their own expenses. The Office of Student Employment is within the Financial Aid Office and maintains a database of all the various positions for students. The kinds of positions are those you'd expect--student assistant positions in offices throughout the campus, computer help desk (which is fully staffed by professionals but also needs student help), libraries, departmental offices etc. Many students find working for our catering office to be both highly paid (their wage rates reflect the need to also hire non-students, so they are higher) and extremely flexible. Jobs in Campus Recreation and Wellness are perhaps the most highly sought after, so if your student is interested in that, I'd be in touch with them over the summer. There is a student employment fair within the first week or two of school to help students find positions and offices to find willing help. I think that most students find working on campus to have a lot of benefits that go well beyond the paycheck as the offices they work in become their surrogate families. There are lots of ways for students (US Citizens) to work in the community at large. Baby-sitters are in big demand in our neighborhood, though the students with cars have a significant advantage on this front. </p>
<p>Visit the Financial Aid Office website and click on Student Employment for more specific examples. </p>
<p>UR Admissions</p>
<p>UR Admissions, would you happen to know how difficult is it (or if it is even possible/allowed at all) to get a job as a tutor in the Writing Center as a freshman? And if it is a paid job or a volunteer position? One of my favorite English teachers at my school established a writing center this year and I have been volunteering as a tutor. He's taught us all the rules and stuff just like they do it in college (he participated in a simliar program at his college in PA). I absolutely love it and would love to be able to get a similar job at the UR Writing Center.</p>
<p>To be a tutor at the Writing Center at Richmond, you're required to take a 300 level class called...Introduction to Composition Theory and Pedagogy. To take the class, you must have the permission of the instructor (and I believe other instructors provide recommendations to students depending upon prior work in other English classes). The class is one semester long, counts towards the English major, and involves shadowing current tutors at the Writing Center.</p>
<p>If you go to the Writing Center's website here: University</a> of Richmond Arts & Sciences: Writing Center , you can see more details. They seem to have changed the process since my roommate became a tutor, but you still need to take the 300-level Pedagogy class. It involves an application, permission from the instructor, a writing sample, and a recommendation from a professor.</p>
<p>Edit: Writing tutors are also paid!!</p>
<p>Thanks so much URichmond2010! :) I was searching all over the website for the Writing Center page today and I couldn't find it. Silly me! Well, based on what I'm reading, I guess it wouldn't be available for me to do as a freshman then. I'm not planning on taking an English course first semester cause I'm not majoring in English and I already took an En110 class last semester through UD. So I wouldn't have anybody to recommend me. </p>
<p>Also, it says it's available for "rising sophomores" and up, whatever that means. Usually "rising" is used during the summer, so I don't really understand that.</p>
<p>Hmmmm. Oh well! Guess I would just get another job freshman year and pursue the Writing Center sophomore year.</p>
<p>Thanks again for the info!</p>
<p>When filling out the financial aid forms we were advised to state we were interested in loans as well as other types of aid because we could always decline a loan. I'm wondering if it might be possible to convert loan offers into more work study, because we are trying to avoid loans altogether.</p>
<p>Lady Slipper, I actually emailed the Financial Aid office with that same question the other day and I was told there's no problem at all with doing that.</p>
<p>My student would like to sign and mail the award acceptance form and plan to cross out the loan section as instructed in the first paragraph. What would be the procedure for converting to additional work-study?</p>
<p>Here is what I was told: </p>
<p>"We can always award you more in work study. That of course would reduce your need based loan component of your package as you stated earlier. In addition, please note that work study funds are paid directly to the student so they do not offset a students billable charges. On the other hand, direct loan pays directly into a students account, offsetting billable charges. If your parents are assisting you with college expenses, you may want to discuss this with them. </p>
<p>If you decide to request more work study funds, please adjust your financial aid award letter with the amount you wish to earn before returning it to our office."</p>