Scholarships & Financial Aid

Colleges and Universities A-Z Fordham University
1

<p>There seems to be some confusion about scholarships and financial aid. Allow me to clarify as best I can.</p>

<p>Firstly, the vast majority of assistance Fordham offers to students is in the form of need based financial aid. To be more specific, this are Fordham grants to offset demonstrated financial need. All students can be considered for this type of assistance by filing BOTH the CSS Profile and the FAFSA. Ideally, these would both be filed by Feb 1 which will allow us to complete the aid review and award process by April 1. Filing later may mean we complete your review later when there is less aid available.</p>

<p>Secondly, there is a limited pool of merit based scholarship dollars that all admitted students will be considered for regardless of their standing in the financial aid process. Each year, we evaluate the strength of the applicant pool and award these scholarships to those students representing our strongest applicants. </p>

<p>Dean’s Scholarships and Semifinalist Scholarships are typically awarded at the time of admission. These are limited to the MOST competitive applicants overall (typically top 10% of high school class and testing in the top 5 to 7% nationally).</p>

<p>Loyola and Jogues Scholarships are awarded once we have a sense of the overall competition within the applicant pool. Thus, students admitted through our early action program would not hear with the offer of admission (as we haven’t yet seen the entire applicant pool).</p>

<p>Each year, for the past 18 years, Fordham has received more applications than the prior year. 2009 is no exception. Thus, competition for admission AND scholarship continues to increase as the applicant pool increases. So…what a student received last year in an award probably won’t correlate exactly to this year (or next year for that matter).</p>

<p>In the future, should you have questions of this nature, we’d recommend calling the Office of Admission directly.</p>

<p>Peter Farrell
Director of Admission
Fordham University</p>

<p>P.S. I have no idea who nocousin is but, as far as I know, doesn't work in our shop.</p>

2

<p>thanks for the clarification</p>

3

<p>My daughter has been accepted, but thus far there has been no offer of merit aid. </p>

<p>When would she expect to hear about a subsequent offer if there is one? As another poster noted, she is receiving merit aid from other schools, and she is getting anxious to make her final decision...</p>

<p>Any info re: timing would be appreciated!</p>

4

<p>Abuwalker,</p>

<p>Just my own personal observations, but Peter Farrell typically posts when it looks like clarification is necessary. After he posts, he tends to not get into back and forth "chatter" online.</p>

<p>As Peter Farrell recommended at the end, it's best if you still have any questions on scholarships, just merely phone the Admission's office to discuss it directly with them.</p>

5

<p>Back in november, we were told info would be available in early Feb. I guess we'll just stick with that!</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

6

<p>I appreciate the clarification, but I'm still unclear about whether or not you must submit FAFSA and CSS Profile to be considered and offered the Dean's, Loyola or Joques merit scholarships, or is it only the need based financial aid grants that require these applications. </p>

<p>"Firstly, the vast majority of assistance Fordham offers to students is in the form of need based financial aid. To be more specific, this are Fordham grants to offset demonstrated financial need. All students can be considered for this type of assistance by filing BOTH the CSS Profile and the FAFSA</p>

<p>Secondly, there is a limited pool of merit based scholarship dollars that all admitted students will be considered for regardless of their standing in the financial aid process. Each year, we evaluate the strength of the applicant pool and award these scholarships to those students representing our strongest applicants."</p>

7

<p>Ok, Lucky, as a scholarship recipient, I'll answer your question.</p>

<p>All students who apply are considered for scholarships. However, the amount of some full scholarships (like the semifinalist, and I suppose, the presidential) depends on the amount of grant-based financial aid you qualify for. So, they're not going to take away scholarship money and make you pay loans, but if they can get out of paying some scholarship money by taking the funds from federal grant money, they will.</p>

<p>Hence, anyone who wishes to get any merit based scholarship should file their FAFSA and CSS by the deadline, which is 2/1, I believe. I had to file these forms for my merit scholarship (offered with my EA acceptance), just to make sure I don't qualify for any grant money that doesn't need to come out of Fordham's merit-based aid pool. But they're covering my full tuition (essentially) either way.</p>

<p>I can quote my letter if you want, but it's late and I'm tired and I'd hope you'd believe me.</p>

8

<p>what's the "CSS"?</p>

9

<p>Correction to Lima's post:</p>

<p>All students regardless of their financial aid status are considered for all of the merit scholarships. These scholarships are awarded to entering freshman even before the financial aid office reviews the FAFSA/CSS in most cases. If outside (non-fordham) scholarships are received, the merit scholarship is reduced by 1/2 the amount of the outside scholarship, and the remaining 1/2 of the outside scholarship the student can keep. I would think that any state/federal financial aid based award that a student qualifies in a given year would be applied on top of the merit scholarship the student receives from Fordham (probably up to a certain total award cap before the merit scholarship is reduced for that academic year), but I would recommend contacting the financial aid office in anycase.</p>

<p>There is no need based component to the Presidential/Jesuit or National Merit/Achievement/Hispanic Semifinalist scholarships. The student gets full tuition minus the fees with both of these catagories, but the Presidential/Jesuit also includes your dormitory fee.</p>

<p>The Deans Scholarship is a merit scholarship of $10k/yr. which can also have up to $12k/yr. in addition depending on the financial needs of the student for each year (meaning it will vary each yr. depending on the FAFSA/CSS). But, the student will get at least $10k/yr. regardless of need.</p>

<p>Then there are the other scholarships which have a lesser annual amount than the $10k/yr. Dean's scholarship.</p>

<p>On top of all this, there are the "need based" financial aid awards (grant-in-aid, fordham tuition award, etc.) which are purely dependent upon the FAFSA/CSS and how much aid Fordham has for the upcoming year to distribute among the students that need it. Unfortunately, with the economy doing as bad as it is and college endowments significantly reduced with the market losses, I would be certain that this has to have had some negative impact on the amount of tuition assistance that Fordham is able to (and other colleges for that matter) supply to its students.</p>

<p>At least with the merit scholarships, the student is guaranteed that annual amount/yr. as long as he/she remains with the minimum required gpa.</p>

<p>Fordham has a very good page which explains the scholarships:
Traditional</a> Rose Hill and Lincoln Center Fordham University Aid</p>

10

<p>"The Deans Scholarship is a merit scholarship of $10k/yr. which can also have up to $12k/yr. in addition depending on the financial needs of the student for each year (meaning it will vary each yr. depending on the FAFSA/CSS). But, the student will get at least $10k/yr. regardless of need."</p>

<p>Ok, now the question is when to submit the FAFSA and CSS if you know that you will not qualify for any need based aid. I'm thinking if I submit it by the deadline, which is today, that the chances for a Dean's scholarship will be adversely affected because they will see that we have no need. What I don't know is whether or not they will consider and offer a Dean's scholarship before they receive the FAFSA/CSS.</p>

11

<p>^ I got a Dean's scholarship when I was accepted in December. I didn't file my FAFSA until 2 weeks ago, and am in the process of filing my CSS right now.</p>

12

<p>Stephennn- Did they tell you about your Dean's scholarship when you received your EA acceptance? And did they tell you to submit the FAFSA/CSS by Feb. 1 in order to receive the scholarship?</p>

13

<p>Since top 10% of class seems to be a common requirement for these merit scholarships, does anyone know how they judge magnet schools where people who might be in the top 20% would be in the top 10% at their local high school? Doesn't seem very fair to use top 10% as a number since it is relative to each school...</p>

14

<p>
[quote]
Stephennn- Did they tell you about your Dean's scholarship when you received your EA acceptance? And did they tell you to submit the FAFSA/CSS by Feb. 1 in order to receive the scholarship?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>yes, i got the scholarship letter in the folder with the admissions decision. </p>

<p>i'm reading the scholarship right now - it doesn't say anyting about the FAFSA being necessary in order to receive the scholarship - remember not everyone needs aid/files for it.</p>

15

<p>My D applied and audtioned as a theater major and is patiently awaiting a decision as Fordham is her first choice. Financial aid has requested additonal information from us and I'm hoping they wouldn't go through this if they weren't going to accept her. Anyone have experience with this? The waiting is really tough!</p>

16

<p>To answer my own question, my D was accepted to FCLC for the theater program and the the acceptance came the same day the financial aid letter request came by mail! So, if financial aid requests more info it's a good sign! Hurrying now to get the info back to them so they package her nicely!</p>

17

<p>Do Work:</p>

<p>I'm glad that worked out for you! Back in 2006, when my S was applying to colleges, Northwestern made us send in practically every financial and tax record we had. I can't tell you how many hours we spent pulling it all together, making copies and filling out the paper work. Every time I thought we were finished, they'd ask for something else.</p>

<p>When it was all said and done, Northwestern rejected him (the only school to do so). It was his stretch anyway, so he was fine with it, but to say I was annoyed would be putting it mildly! :)</p>

18

<p>I thought the Dean's scholarship can be up to 20K per year depending on need, is that true?</p>

19

<p>My S received a Loyola Scholarship and a Fordham tuition award. It seems that the Loyola scholarhip is renewable with a minimum GPA but the renewability of the tuition award is not mentioned. So I am assuming this part is one year only? It is obviously very important to understand the difference between a 4-year award and a 1-year one and yet it is not made clear anywhere.</p>

20

<p>Researchmaven – When did S receive notification…? My D was accepted EA in Dec and as of yesterday, had not received her information.</p>