I got into UVA for regular decision and it is my #1 choice. My EFC on FAFSA is $600, I got full pell grant, and my parents are lower middle class. UVA is said to meet 100% of need-based aid. However, I only got $17k worth of financial aid from the school (none of it is directly from the school).
$10,000 is a scholarship from DC-Tag that I received as a DC student attending a public school. $5,500 was in loans (generic amount) and $2000 was in work study. This is very disappointing as I expected to at least get a few thousand dollars in grants…
Something doesn’t sound right. I would call and ask specifically as to what they have as your EFC and if it’s the truly $600 ask them directly why so little aid. Something is off with what you are saying.
Ok so D18 did the Admitted Students day this past weekend at UVA. She found UVA to still be at the top of her list of schools as far as Campus and Academics. She liked the Dorms and any contact she had with Students and Professors.
Still the financial aid package baffles me. No adjustments after a significant correction to the CSS whereas many other schools have made minor $3,000 per year adjustments.
UVA’s package remains the most costly and prohibitive package in spite of their supposedly looking to meet affordable need based aid on the FAFSA EFC. UVA’s endpoint Cost is anywhere from $7,500 to $16,000 greater per year than every other school of the other eight schools she has been accepted into.
The school that is $7,500 less is a strictly EFC need based no merit ( the school doesn’t give merit outside of like 25 free rides ) need based aid package comparative through other much nicer merit packages from schools that are $70,000 plus for up to $16,000 less {( endpoint costs ) loans and workstudy factored in as a cost } than UVA after any and all the different types of need and merit aid considerations…
Still waiting on one more school, the U of Michigan to see where It comes in as to its Scholarship offer. Have yet to visit U of M as it has to be affordable before the much further and costly journey. It is right along side of UVA in many catagories and affordability will make it an easy choice.
UVA apparently has the no adjustment ruler in hand ?
My son was accepted early action to UVA and would love to have gone to UVA but UVAs financial aid offer made it abundantly clear that they really have no interest in OOS middle-class families. UVA isn’t even the same ballpark as similar schools when it comes to financial aid. We are pretty disappointed.
I found as an “Elite” State School UVA is one of the more friendly towards OOS students as it’s one of the few that looks to meet 100% of demonstrated need.
They did so with a $4,000 Loan too which was a stretch over most private schools that do so without such loans but given the quality of education and fit we decided to pay the $4,000 premium.
Other than that the UVA package to OOS students is comparable to many private schools looking to meet 100% of demonstrated need.
If you are talking Merit yes not much is offered. You typically don’t see much merit aid from most schools that look to offer 100% demonstrated need either.
Sorry as I too wish they offered more as I’ll be feeling the pain of the added $16,000 after 4 years. So I get it.
Had to make a similar decision with The University of Michigan. They didn’t offer any need based aid at all as an OOS student with income above &100,000. Michigan would have been $15,000 more per year over UVA.
As the number 1 and number 2 State schools in the US it was an easy choice to select UVA over The University of Michigan.
D18 who had The University of Michigan on her Top Schools list decidedly laughed when we saw their FA package at $15,000 more than UVA and said “What are they Crazy”
State grants (and DC grants) are treated differently from independent scholarships. If UVa would have provided $10,000 in UVa aid, and a student is eligible for $10,000 in state aid, UVa would not provide a UVa grant. However, if a student would receive a private scholarship of $1,000, it would typically allow work study or loans to be reduced by $1,000. (At least that was the case a few years ago - it may have changed)… Your $2,000 of work study may be less than is expected from other out of state students.
PROFILE schools do not all come out with the same contribution requirements. Some school will take full value of a primary residence, another might cap it. Some will give allowance for siblings’ private school costs. Another might not. Some might even include some of the retirement assets , qualified funds or not, whereas most don’t. Throw in Non Custodial Parent, steps , businesses and you can get quite different numbers among CSS PROFILE schools. Depending on your particular circumstances, you can do better or worse at other PROFILE schools and as compared to other people.
It is entirely possible to be PELL eligible, even have a FAFSA EFC of zero and qualify for little or no aid from a PROFILE school. Owning a paid for home with extensive properties could do it. It’s a sad thing sometime, that I see in an outworks area where we own property where people inherit homes held in the family for generations and the land value of the home blows financial aid out of the picture.
Any outside awards do reduce financial need. Many schools reduce aid, starting with the loans and workstudy when scholarships are reported, but some simply subtract the dollar amount of the award from the need figure.
Mistakes are made at times, so I feel everyone getting an unsatisfactory package should get the numbers explained, especially if they are inconsistent from several other like schools and the NPC. I was impressed with CMU one year, when they investigated an award that had a mistake in the computations and they promptly corrected it and owned up to the error.
@J123D123 all I know is that UVA is $10k more than what FAFSA says our family contribution should be and $20k more than 3 other similarly ranked schools. Based on our personal experience only, your comment of UVA being one of the friendlier schools towards OOS is certainly not true in our case.
If the other colleges were offering merit aid, UVa will not match it. However, if the other colleges were offering only need based aid, it may cause UVa to take another look at how the financial aid calculations worked out in your situation.
In any case, there are only two public universities in the US to meet 100% of financial need of all US students - UVa and UNC-CH. Most universities look at out of state students as a cash cow (including the U. of California system and U. of Michigan).
Curious which 3 Similarly ranked schools are you considering that offered better Need Based aid Packages for OOS students. I’m assuming there wasn’t any Merit in the FA packages at the schools you are deciding among.
One 
Thing
Many schools Couple the FAFSA and the CSS and look further at FAFSA and more hidden assets more closely. Heck Harvard wanted to know what kind of cars we drive. Like Infiniti. Really so what.
So Demonstrated Need takes on a different twist here. If you have a ton of assets that the CSS reveals then yes there will be adjustments to your Demonstrated Need…
So often it’s a truer { College Biased } Demonstrated Need that schools using both the FAFSA and CSS look to meet. That said there are still many factors not taken into consideration that would be even more of a fairness principle.
I have my own set of issues with Demonstrated Need here ( UVA ) there ( The University of Michigan ) and everywhere.
Most often the $100,000 Plus Middle Class is left to most struggle at the doorstep. It’s still a painful decision on our part but the best among equals.
I repeat that it is entirely possible and happens often that ones FAFSA EFC is far lower than what CSSPROFILE schools calculate as what they expect you to contribute. The formulas are not the same. And the PROFILE schools have different things they take into account too. A group of schools that all guarantee to meet need can define that need differently.
True FAFSA EFC is usually the very least you can expect to contribute. It’s rare to come up with a lower contribution expectation. But some schools will give scholarships that exceed need which really distorts the picture Some of the financial aid award letters I’ve seen are difficult to understand, as well.