<p>I was reading students reviews on Villanova and although you can take the like/dislikes lightly, one theme kept repeating, expensive and more expensive. What I found alarming were the students that said it decreased every year and many students have to get outside scholarships (one student got 4) to help cover the tuition. They didn't explain why, lower GPA or something else, but I wondered if others have heard that.
I wouldn't want my children to attend if scholarships are lost that easily. </p>
<p>My son luckily got an award without a stipulation attached at his college and my niece had one with a B average at her school. Are Villanova's all attached to GPA?</p>
<p>Nova has very little merit aid. They have their 30 some presidential scholarships and that's about it besides a few small ones. Unless you are lucky enough to qualify for need-based financial aid you are most likely going to get nothing.</p>
<p>Full-time freshman enrollment: 1,604
Number who applied for need-based aid: 1,045
Number who were judged to have need: 755
Number who were offered aid: 748
Number who had full need met: 177
Average percent of need met: 84%
Average financial aid package: $27,258
Average need-based loan: $3,692
Average need-based scholarship or grant award: $23,198
Average non-need based aid: $9,274
Average indebtedness at graduation: Not reported</p>
<p>thats from collegeboard.....are those true? cuz it seems like a lot get need based aid</p>
<p>Villanova is a very expensive school though, so 23,000 might work for some, not others.
When I read about the decreasing aid, it seemed like they were offered less grants and/or their scholarships were cut.
As guess as with any college, if it's a tight squeeze freshman year, you might want to consider if it's worth it.</p>
<p>Using the numbers from DiN009, which I've seen similar elsewhere, they don't seem to make sense. Says ~75% of those who applied for aid received it; and of those the avg finaid pkg was $27K; total costs at Nova are ~$44Kish. Some might be getting only $7-8K finaid, but others getting $40K+, if the AVG is $27K.
From the FAFSA we did, we made ~$140K last year, which to me is very middle class; not rich whatsoever and our EFC is $44k, so we'd expect to get $0 finaid from Nova or most any school. You'd have to be very low income to get anywheres near $27K in aid as noted above for an AVG! So I can't believe there are that many frosh who's families are making like $70Kish in income. Even making $100K (2 parents at $50K each?) wouldn't qualify you for that much aid. So what are families making that are getting that much finaid? Are 75% of those getting finaid coming from families only making $70K income? I've been on campus and those kids aren't exactly dressed in rags.<br>
Anyone else have similar thoughts?</p>
<p>Educated guess - 8,000 in loans/work study and another 8,000
in unmet need. It'll go up from there. Unless you have super stats
and get a big merit award Villanova is a bad choice for low income
students. If you want to go Catholic - Holy Cross, Georgetown,
BC even Notre DAme are better bets.</p>
<p>My daughter took a tour today with friends and merit/FA wasn't stressed much but they were honest. She didn't feel we would get enough for her to go. She said (and I was surprised a bit) that she couldn't see herself here as much as she thought she would, it wasn't just the lack of diversity, but that everyone looked the same...she said, everyone she saw seemed upper middle-class and dressed the same, there wasn't anyone that seemed to stick out and have their own look. She did have a nice meal and ice cream and mentioned the church was beautiful, but felt like a circle in a square.
Well, she went to prodomently white Catholic school and then a diverse high school but always had a nice mix of students from different backgrounds, religions and no one ever seemed like clones. I don't know if she will find that in college, but at least she knows what to look for. She will see Haverford, Lehigh, and a few others before coming home. Hope she finds more "fits" as the tour goes on.</p>
<p>There are two factors working against students: Endowments took a big hit, and more students are applying to the top schools. Your credentials have to be more outstanding while you're competing for less money. For example, the number of Presidential Scholarships for 2009-2010 was less than 10.</p>
<p>She will probably find that non clone look at a LAC or BC or Georgetown or a CMU like school. My D and S felt at home at Villanova...our public high school was a homogenous community. Villanova is making an attempt to become more diverse, and it has changed in the last few years, but the process seems to be slow going and won't change overnight.</p>
<p>I concur with your views. If you had something different, it's hard to go to an entirely different environment. I told them they were blessed in some ways to have so many friends and students that were from so many various backgrounds, religions and economic diversity. At Lehigh,she felt the same way but not at other LAC's/Univ in the area. I think VU is a great school, but I don't think they are as concerned with a diverse economic or racial mix as much as other colleges....the aid and "courting" some schools do isn't there. They get enough students without it.
This reminds me when my son went to a Catholic college in MA 3 years ago on a tour and said something similar, he mentioned the excellent academics but that everyone seemed to dress alike, look alike and he thought every other girl was named Colleen. : )</p>
<p>So my dad called to ask if Nova received his W2 and all that stuff and the woman said that EA applicants will be getting their aid packages early this week. Can anyone confirm/attest to this? I thought we didn’t find out until RD applicants did. It would be nice though.</p>