<p>After thoroughly reviewing the VU Financial Services page, it looks like the bottom line is that unless you qualify for FAFSA or CSS Profile financial aid, the students attending VU are paying just about full fare. Is this really right? In my mind this means that the students at VU come from wealthy families (in our country's top 1-2% -- annual HH income of $300,000+) or under $150,000-$180,000 to qualify for aid, right? But that middle group of $180,000-$280,000 with three kids, a big mortgage, high state property tax are OUT!? I found this below on the website and don't see how $2,000-$8,000 per year helps. </p>
<p>For the 2013-14 academic year, scholarships (beginning at $2,000 per year) were distributed to 1,341 admitted students for a total of $6.9 million. The average, non-negotiable scholarship amount was valued at $5,060 per year. Recipients of the scholarship averaged a 4.19/4.00 GPA on a weighted scale and 1450/1600 on the SAT or a 33/36 composite on the ACT.</p>
<p>This is indeed true. We fall into that middle category. My daughter was accepted into the Biology program and was awarded $5,000 grant and $3,000 work study, all need based. That barely makes a dent in the COA. We budgeted enough to make this doable if D took the Stafford loans too, but she opted to attend Loyola Maryland instead, where she got a nice merit award. There were several reasons she chose Loyola, the biggest was the “fit”, and I certainly wasn’t going to argue for her to attend the school that was going to cost me $15,000 more per year. She is smart too, the fact that she can graduate debt free did play some part in her decision. Those of us that are truly middle class are faced with some tough choices as we are caught between not enough money to truly afford it and too much money to qualify for meaningful aid.</p>
<p>I would say the vast majority of the students fall into that “middle” category where they don’t qualify for a lot of need-based aid, but still have trouble paying the now $44,000 tuition plus an additional $10-12k for room and board. There is a sizable portion of extremely wealthy students whose parents pay full tuition out of their own pocket, but they are still certainly a minority. Many of the students take loans and hold part-time jobs. </p>