<p>Assuming I am accepted to Wesleyan, how will financial aid, my number one concern, work?</p>
<p>I heard someone say that it's "need blind" or something like that. I'm not sure what that means when it comes time to distribute aid, but I have some depressing financial numbers facing the prospect of college.</p>
<p>Family income: 55,000 (not complaining)
Family yearly contribution to school: $750</p>
<p>Now, purely on a Need basis, approximately how much aid do yall think I should expect?</p>
<p>thanks.</p>
<p>Need-based aid means they calculate an estimate family contribution, then subtract that from the cost of attendance. The rest is your “demonstrated need,” which they give mostly with grants, and some self-help (loans and/or work-study, but the loans are usually federally subsidized and they recently instituted rules that strictly limit how much loans they give. I believe incomes <60k or something like that do not receive loans, only grants). theoretically, if your family was determined to only be able to pay $750, you would receive $54,000 - $750, mostly in grants with some work study.</p>
<p>Is that family contribution your FAFSA estimate? since they’ll make their own calculation, what they consider your EFC is the real variable here. but either way, assuming you have no other assets, you would probably be looking at a very generous package. look here, especially the last few examples: [Wesleyan</a> University : Admission](<a href=“http://www.wesleyan.edu/admission/afford/afford-samples2.html]Wesleyan”>http://www.wesleyan.edu/admission/afford/afford-samples2.html)</p>
<p>thank you very much! I guess I really won’t know till I’m (hopefully) accepted</p>
<p>I have heard that Wes financial aid packages are less generous for those applying early decision. Does anyone have concrete info on this? Thanks.</p>
<p>you can use the EFC estimator on collegeboard as recommended by the Wesleyan financial aid page. Wesleyan uses the institutional method to determine need… Provided your inputs are correct, the numbers your get should be very close to what your aid package would be. Just remember your numbers need to be good, so use last years tax info if you want to be accurate. and remember, any contribution to a retirement 401k or other retirement plan gets added back to income. Good luck. Wesleyan and the other NESCacs are known to be good aid wise. It all depends on your particular situation. Start on the Wes financial aid page or EFC estimator on collegeboard.</p>
<p>for no loan stuff…lots of institution use 60k as the mark. wesleyan uses 40k, so you will have loans. probably like 5k im guessing. but i think you would have least 30k in school grant. its best to ask Financial aid.</p>
<p>I wonder how much aid the OP ended up getting, assuming he was accepted…
My family has a similar but lower income and I’m an international student. I got a $46K grant, a $3250 loan, and term-time employment (the equivalent of a work study). My first semester bill is around $2800. Out of all of the schools I got accepted to, only Wellesley’s FA package was better.</p>
<p>My son is upcoming Wes sophomore…he has “need” this year and last and Wes essentially met all of it with grants, except for offered Stafford loan and work-study. Very generous indeed!!!</p>
<p>Key is understanding your EFC before applying! Plus, you DO have to get into Wes as well!</p>