<p>Hi! I was accepted to Tulane as an EA admit and I received a pretty great scholarship, dropping the price down to about 39,000. Unfortunately, that's still out of reach for my family financially.</p>
<p>I was wondering if anyone had any insight on the typical financial aid package that comes after FAFSA and the CSS profiles have been filled out. Is the scholarship I received considered part of the financial aid package, even though it was a merit scholarship? Thank you!</p>
<p>The last question is the easiest to answer, and that is yes. Your scholarship ($20,000?) is considered an asset, because for attending Tulane it is an asset. Let’s look at the other way around. By submitting the FAFSA and CSS, you have given Tulane (and other schools) the means to determine your EFC, Expected Financial Contribution. This is what they think you can afford to pay, and that doesn’t change because they discounted the sticker price to you. So if your EFC comes to, say, $15,000 that means you may get as much as $39,000-$15,000=$24,000 in need based aid. Without the scholarship the $15,000 would have been the same but the amount of potential need based aid would have been $20,000 higher, or $44,000.</p>
<p>Now Tulane doesn’t promise to meet 100% of need, although quite often they do. This will come in the form of grants (money you also don’t have to repay but not guaranteed every year like the merit scholarship is), loans and possibly work-study. By getting the merit scholarship and reducing the amount of need-based aid required, you are most likely reducing the amount of loans that would be in your FA package. But your out-of-pocket (EFC) would never be reduced unless the merit scholarship was large enough to reduce the cost remaining to below your EFC. For example, if a student received a full tuition/fees scholarship and that left $13,000 in costs, but the EFC was still $15,000 then obviously your out-of-pocket would be the $13,000 and there would be no need for (and no chance of receiving) need-based aid.</p>
<p>Does that all make sense to you?</p>
<p>It’s all making my head spin that’s for sure! I was just filling out the CSS and I saw the spot for scholarships NOT provided by the college. Wondering if I can sneak in my pets’s vet bills under medical expenses,lol. </p>
<p>My son may be eligible for the Tuition Exchange program which will pay for 75% of tuition, which is GREAT but still leaves me with a huge bill, no idea if he will be approved for it and how it will effect our EFC.</p>
<p>It won’t affect your EFC. That is strictly based on income, savings, fixed expenses such as other kids attending college, etc. At least that is how I understand it and how it has always seemed to work.</p>
<p>Thank you so much! That definitely helps.</p>