<p>I just got accepted to Vanderbilt and very happy. I am a Cornelius Scholar. This covers tuition. I was expecting the need based aid to be decent but I got less than $1000 in grants for both semesters combined. My family makes less than 100k a year combined. This means more than 20,000 per semester for us.</p>
<p>Is it typical for the need base grant to be this low with the Cornelius Scholarship? It seems like I would have gotten the same amount of grant money since I qualified for aid. Is the scholarship basically only useful if you wouldn't have qualified for grant money?</p>
<p>Yes. Merit scholarships will usually take away from the financial aid money you would have gotten. For example, if you would have qualified for 44,000 per year in grant money and you won the full tuition Cornelius Vanderbilt scholarship (about 44,000 per year) then you will keep the merit scholarship and not get any more financial aid.</p>
<p>It would not be $20K per semester if you received CV. Full tuition is a little over $40K and that should be covered. COA should be a little over $60K as it was this year. So your family would have to pay $10K per semester. </p>
<p>Vandy is very generous with their aid but the only way you would receive grants towards your other expenses would be if your “need” as calculated by Vandy is greater that cost of tuition.</p>
<p>Not necessarily, closetobroke. asdf could have a need of about 40000 per year but that merit scholarship and little grant will have met it so his/her EFC could just be around 20000 per year.</p>
<p>To answer your question, yes, you probably would have gotten the exact same amount of aid through grants as you have received through the CV scholarship. Instead of getting 41,000 in grants, they gave you 40,000 in scholarship and 1,000 in grants. It’s kind of an odd system. People scholarships benefit the most are those with a very high EFC. If your EFC is small, they aren’t very useful past about the first $2000.</p>
<p>your math is off…room and board at Vandy is not anywhere near 20 grand a semester–very unlikely you will owe more than 20 grand a year and you likely can take out modest Stafford loans if you like…depending on your major and work force prospects.<br>
there is no typical need aid for merit scholars, just a very fair rendering based on your family CSS profile and FAFSA…and you still have time to comb over the figures you submitted and to submit an appeal if you have standing to do so.
Hope you can start to celebrate being a CV scholar. Seriously. The small seminar offerings are awesome and so many of your peers are deserving of merit scholarships and didn’t get them. Something about your application struck a cord with the committee.</p>
<p>Good luck with your final sorting out of offers and decisions. Vandy is awesome and hope you decide to come. We send a son there for less than we would have paid full price to our state flagship due to merit status. Keep in mind that Vanderbilt is a private school and there are perks like great class sizes (the seminars alone will make you feel you are at Davidson or Haverford at times which is awesome on major research producing bigger campus). Class sizes are great for all students in my opinion in most cases. The Commons is to die for re freshman housing. And the host city is truly a pleasure.</p>
<p>Tuition is paid for, and you also have a small grant. This leaves about 20,000 a year-- (10k/semester) to pay-- by Vanderbilt estimations. Vanderbilt estimates about 62,000 a year, but that number isn’t entirely accurate. Some fees are very accurate (meal plan, housing) but it includes high estimates for fees such as personal needs, book, and transportation. You can cut those out on and the true cost of attendance drops by several thousand.</p>
<p>You can also choose to participate in work-study or get an independent job to cut fees a little.</p>
<p>Oh sorry. I meant 10,000 per semester, 20,000 a year. Yeah 40,000 a year would have been a bit ridiculous. </p>
<p>But why would they offer merit aid such as the Cornelius Scholarship if it doesn’t even help those who have a need greater than the tuition? In my case, winning the scholarship didn’t reduce the cost at all. I assume that Vanderbilt is trying to get stronger students away from other universities like the Ivies but that would only work if those students are paying close to full tuition at the other universities. </p>
<p>It seems like there is no incentive to win the scholarship if your EFC is 20000 or less because the need based grants will cover that cost anyway. To me this doesn’t make that much sense.</p>
<p>yikes.<br>
I hate to get cranky here but you do understand, yes? that you and your parents never had a chance at not paying for room and board at Vanderbilt – (with a generous stipend for a summer program of your invention of 5 grand, seminars capped at 15 or so CV scholars etc, a special track for an honors diploma that is optional.)</p>
<p>The only way you are going to not pay your EFC is to win a scholarship that is comprehensive at another institution. Like the Belk at Davidson for instance. </p>
<p>There are perhaps a few institutions that have special depth for financial need. I think Princeton…or is it Yale…puts a cap on a % of family income it will charge annually that is unique and might be advantageous. But Vanderbilt’s depth for need aid is amazingly generous.</p>
<p>some CV scholars are full ride due having their EFCs way below 18-grand or so.</p>
<p>You and your parents can sift over your submitted FAFSA and CSS Profile and see if there is anything you didn’t share with the financial aid office. </p>
<p>Vanderbilt is one of few institutions in the nation that no longer puts any loans in their need packages for admitted students…thus the rush of 28 thousand applicants for the coveted outcome of no loans only grants for your fairly assessed EFC. </p>
<p>Less than 1-2% of your classmates would be CV scholars. </p>
<p>The second fallacy in this logic is to assume that Vanderbilt is trying to buy you from another institution. The hundreds of students with multiple offers in this class is the norm. </p>
<p>Not what the committee was doing when it flagged your file. Take a good look at your peers who were admitted. Were your stats really better than the stats of top 25% of the admitted class? Probably not. Vanderbilt builds in a certain Yield estimate and that is that.</p>
<p>They picked you for reasons that were more or less intangible–not stats driven… because the entire class of 2016 was qualified for merit money at many other institutions, including good deals at their state flagship universities. And some of those flagship colleges make really impressive financial offers to students who win merit money at Vandy.</p>
<p>It is a tough economy out there. Factor in your major and your job prospects when you finally have all your offers on the table.</p>
<p>Faline, I didn’t intend to come across as whining or having a sense of entitlement. I’m sorry that I did.</p>
<p>I just think that it is odd that they would calculate the cost in the manner that they did. It would seem like a little more logical if the merit scholarship cut off a little of the cost after what one would have received in need based aid rather than just substituting for the need based aid. (again, just my opinion…)</p>
<p>My family’s expected EFC was below 18k. Yet even with the CV scholarship, I need to pay about 20,000. Maybe we will recheck the financial aid forms but I don’t think there is a mistake. I guess Vandy uses a slight different method to calculate need.</p>
<p>btw, I did win a comprehensive scholarship at my state flagship and I thought (perhaps I was being too wishful) that Vandy’s scholarship would be really similar and allow me to go there instead.</p>
<p>Maybe “buying” has too negative of a connotation. But the scholarship is definitely used to “make you consider the university more closely.” Those words were used in the letters Vandy sent me after I got the CV. </p>
<p>And I realize that Vanderbilt gave me the scholarship to help me out. It just didn’t change the cost in my case. The gift from the Sartain Lanier Family Foundation of Atlanta would have been more helpful to someone with a higher expected family contribution.</p>
<p>Anyways, I guess I was just a little disappointed at how much Vandy would cost (college is expensive!). Again, sorry if my previous post came out wrong.</p>
<p>I bet you mean the Sidney Lanier Foundation of Atlanta? dunno…he was the poet laureate of Georgia and I had to learn that in fourth grade Georgia History class…plus I love the Marshes of Glynn named for his poems down near the islands of coastal Georgia. </p>
<p>you do have options re cutting expenses re small loans, small jobs, summer jobs and you may be surprised at the extras students receive at Vanderbilt…we have been. that said there are many wonderful ways to get an education and great people at so many colleges.</p>
<p>If it is any comfort to you, there are some semesters where our son’s room and board is less than others…semester costs declined every year so far a bit…meal plans altered, housing selections altered. For instance, room and board junior fall semester abroad was less costly…same as our son’s semester abroad out of Duke was less costly. </p>
<p>good luck absorbing your admission and financial offers. congrats on being named a CV Scholar!</p>
<p>I think the selection of CV scholars are need blind. So naturally, some kids who would have just gotten a grant get a scholarship instead. They gave you the scholarship because you earned it. They may not have known </p>
<p>Anyways, as I mentioned, while Vandy may estimate you need 20,000 more, the gap is slightly smaller.</p>
<p>So actually, my son got an absolutely amazing f. aid package from Vandy. We were kind of stunned. He is a CV recipient. Our income-family of 5- is close to 80K but not there. In addition to the CV scholarship, he got $6,500 a semester for a total of 55K a year! It basically covers tuition, room, and board, and just leaves other costs to us. This was even higher than Princeton.</p>
<p>I’m not sure why S got so much need based aid. They are indeed generous for those in the low to middling income areas, I guess.</p>
<p>so pleased for your son and his family that your son has such an invitation with merit and need aidle included. Vanderbilt has much to commend it/ Good luck making those final round decisions!</p>
<p>If you’r s/d would be interested in becoming an RA his/her sophomore, junior, and senior years, that would completely eliminate that part of your cost of attendance. I’m a CV scholar, paid for room and board my first year, and now pay close to nothing (well, I pay for food) because I’m an RA and thus get room and board provided for. It’s a competitive process, but kids smart/motivated enough to get the CV scholarship make ideal candidates.</p>
<p>brilliant point although the selection process is very demanding and many perfectly good candidates do not get appointed as RA anywhere. There is considerable training and interviewing involved.<br>
Speechie your parents must thank you for your enterprising effort!</p>