Vanderbilt financial aid decision

@L2019mom Ultimately, my son felt that the quality of education, caliber of students, and Vandy atmosphere was worth the 27k loan. He is an engineering major so he/we felt that the debt he will incur will be manageable.

@SincererLove Our son did receive the NMF scholarship from Vandy. The $5000/yr figure Vandy advertises is a bit deceptive though. $3000 of the 5k replaced Work Study in his aid package. $2000 was actual scholarship. So the $5000 NMF Scholarship only reduced our out-of-pocket cost by $2000. It’s really kind of deceptive the way Vandy advertises it.

For the record, Vandy’s financial package was $6000 less than the net price calculator predicted. I’m still disappointed by that. We’ve also discovered that if your child receives any outside scholarships, Vandy reduces their offered grant aid by the amount of the outside scholarship. So sadly, there is really no point in having your child apply for outside scholarships.

@fionagallagher, a lot of schools treat outside scholarship the same way…Vandy is not an exception on this. If your outside scholarship is higher than your FA, then the outside scholarship will have an impact.

http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/21953859#Comment_21953859

If your DS hassles, he can make the $27k in internships.

@FionaGallagher that’s not just a Vanderbilt thing… my daughter was accepted to UVA and it was actually their very helpful financial aid department who helped me to understand the ins and outs of financial aid packages. Basically once your EFC (Expected Family Contribution) is determined that is relatively what you will be expected to pay. Vandy does require the CSS which is much more detailed but we found them to be very generous and received slightly more aid than our EFC AND they lowered her work study and raised her grant and we still don’t know why but were very grateful as she is a double major and just doesn’t have time to work much. For us even with a Presidential Scholarship covering full tuition (based on ACT scores), Vanderbilt was less expensive by about 2-3K than our state flagship. #anchordown

@ASKMother

Does your state flagship ever give a full-ride award–not just the tuition, but also the fees and room&board?

yes, University of Alabama gives full-ride (and then some) to many National Merit Finalist as does Auburn. But my D was only Commended and got nothing extra and no outside scholarships other than Presidential. Vanderbilt was less expensive for us… they offered exactly as they ‘advertised’ with loans not part of the FinAid. UVA was same cost but included Fed Loans, plus UVA Loans along with their university grant and work study; Vandy was lower and with no loans built in.

Yes, some will be pleasantly surprised with the aid a school gives, and some not. You never know. The thing I find interesting about Vanderbilt’s figures is that even today, they aren’t nailing down the COA. It clearly says “estimated” on the website even though the students’ commitment must be received in the next 2 days. Also, there are no transportation costs indicated–it says “varies” in that column. Putting in a reasonable amount for transportation, and throwing in the $800 “Freshman experience fee,” you are talking about a 75k tab for 2019-2020. Should the 4.5% COA increase the same amount for each of the next 3 years, that’s an increase of about 10k for the 4 year interval.

Does the school raise the FA in concert with the COA increases? Does the student need to re-apply each year for FA?

ED terms are clear. If accepted, but the financial aid package is not sufficient, a student can be released from the deal. It’s up to the family to determine what level of support is needed. Looking at the NPC. Not a requisite of the ED contract.

That doesn’t make ED an easy experience for those needing financial aid. If you don’t get s good fix on what you can expect for aid, the result can be a punch in the face. It’s a tough thing to let go of an ED accept, especially before you know what other aid packages are going to be.

So, it behooves those who apply ED to get a VERY good idea what kind of aid and scholarships they may get. They should do a number of NPCs, be aware of situations where the NPC is not accurate, apply to some schools that might come up with aid and merit packages early, to compare with that ED offer.

^^^Adding if you want to apply ED and have a situation where the NPC may be inaccurate, contact the financial aid office and have them do a financial aid pre-read.

Our D applied to 11 schools, but did not apply anywhere ED specifically because of the financial commitment requirement (we thought if you get in you are expected to accept regardless of package offered). She is our first to go off and I just did not trust the NPC nor the FAFSA estimator. We were under the impression that ED was an all in deal - acceptance rates are higher so better chances to be accepted, but you are making the commitment without fully knowing if you will be getting any FinAid. It is a little disheartening to know that it appears to mean nothing and no one is really obligated. As it turns out, the EFC and NPC were actually spot on to our FinAid offers with her 3 top pvt schools choices! Vanderbilt still came in less mainly because loans were not part of their package. In-state schools were slightly to a few thousand higher because no need-based aid.

That’s something I have wondered about. Do schools that promise no-loans really bump up the grants by that full amount? Are you saying Vandy gave you just as much as other privates, but with more grants and less loans?

@oniongrass Yes, though it depends on the other school. Vanderbilt gave me the most aid out of all the other comparable schools I was admitted to.

ED can be fraught with emotional stress in any case. There is “buyers remorse “ and the students’ mindsets and preferences can change from the day that ED app goes out to acceptance day.

When you throw financial issues into the picture, it gets even more turbulent. Even for families that have no need, a high level merit award can be a game changer. My son had an ED school, was firmly of mind he wanted to go there… and then his number 2 choice offers him a half cost merit package with a chance to apply for a full pay+ deal. He impact of the huge differential in cost placed a lot of doubt in whether he should stay with ED. In fact, he could have withdrawn his application at that point.

Now, had there been financial issues, it can lead to turbulence when big money is on the table, it can change the picture.

@cptofthehouse You could’ve kept both the ED application and the #2 school application in to see if he got the full scholarship.

@albertsax No, you can’t (or you are not supposed to!) do a cost comparison on FinAid offers if you apply and are accepted to a college through ED application. If you are accepted ED you are to withdraw all other offers/applications immediately, regardless of FinAid. The whole purpose of ED is to make it a win-win for the college and the student. The student gets to know that they got in to the college of their dreams, and the college gets to protect yield by having a group of guaranteed students attending. The students have a much better chance of acceptance than if they go regular decision… but you have to make the financial commitment and assume (hope) that cost estimates you get from FAFSA regarding EFC, and the NPC for an actual school match up. That being said - ED is not for those who are uncertain if they are going to need monetary help in the form of either merit and/or need-based aid in order to attend dream college. To go back on an ED acceptance ruins the model for everyone… mainly because it takes away a spot that could have been given to a student who truly is committed to a particular school regardless of what it costs them. ED is great for those at the top who can pay and those at the bottom getting Pell Grants and such but it’s just not for those in the middle who are going to need a boost in FinAid awards do not pan out.

Splitting hairs, maybe. If there was a legitimate change in financial picture for us, possibly. Though I think we’d have to still ask School1 to go thorough financial aid considerations and see if they could not work out something. I think it would have been gaming the system at that point, a gray area, but we were not going there.

If the idea was to collect as much merit Money as possible, we would have gone down a whole other path.

@ASKMother Sorry but that’s incorrect. You have full permission to keep offers in at other schools until you’re sorted out financially. Regardless of whether you think this is moral is a different issue, but this is the way it is as of now.

I worked with a very well known college counselor. She told my family that if I were accepted ED to my top school at the time (Northwestern), I should keep an application in at an in-state option (JMU) so we’d have a financial fallback just in case.

@oniongrass yes, Vanderbilt was the best financial option for our student because the FinAid package did not include loans, yet was still less out of our pocket (even less work study for her) than her other options. You CAN still take loans out… they just do not factor them into their figures.

@ASKMother, you are correct. It may not be what everyone is doing, but your understanding of ED is right. Paid consultants who state otherwise are not giving ethical advice, IMHO (as we have all seen with the recent admissions scandal, not all paid consultants are operating ethically). ED applicants agree to withdraw all other applications once accepted ED. While you can be released from ED if the financial package is not adequate, the expectation is that you would inform the school as soon as you review your aid package. We can disagree with whether this is fair, but it is the agreement a student makes when applying ED.

I agree! My daughter was wait listed from her top choice school. Pretty sure she would have gotten in if she applied ED. However, we didn’t go that route because we knew it binding. I remember sitting in one college presentation when someone asked about this issue and the admissions rep said if you will need a certain level of financial aid to attend a school, you should probably apply RD. But we were also told the net price calculators were pretty accurate. I would say if you filled that out completely and applied ED and the financial package wasn’t close to what the calculator told you to expect then that is a good reason to decline your spot.