<p>I received $21,500 in gift-aid from Fordham. Is this a merit-based scholarship? If not, do you guys know if Fordham will still give out merit scholarships up until April?</p>
<p>i received a lott of gift aid too, i still don’t really know what it is but hey! money’s money</p>
<p>@rishi, can’t argue with that!</p>
<p>My D had a bunch of “gift aid” too. We are waiting to see the detailed Financial Aid offer to see exactly what it is comprised of.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure gift aid is just their term for a merit scholarship; if you still want more money, you’ll have to file FAFSA/CSS/etc. and see if you still apply for financial aid beyond your scholarship.</p>
<p>Gift-aid is NOT merit scholarship. Scholarships are specifically identified. Gift-aid is need-based grant money determined by your CSS and FAFSA.</p>
<p>Detailed financial aid info for accepted students can be found on my.fordham.edu.</p>
<p>Gift aid is not merit scholarship. To my understanding, it is need-based grant money. So, if your need changes from year to year, your gift aid may change as well. But, gift aid is not a loan, so it needn’t be paid back. But you may want to double check with financial aid to make sure this is correct.</p>
<p>D’s ltr of 2/7 stated: “. . . we are pleased to offer you Fordham University gift aid of $_____ over four years; $______ annually for up to four years of full time undergraduate study. This gift aid includes your Dean’s Scholarship.” The letter further advised that the final details of your package will be sent to you by April 1.
So in this case the gift aid lumped in the scholarship money. Will have to wait until 4/1 to figure out how much is scholarship and what the gift aid is comprised of - grants, loans, work study, etc.</p>
<p>I received the full-tuition scholarship, but it wasn’t described as “gift aid,” so I would assume that “gift aid” includes grants (possibly in addition to scholarships).</p>
<p>Will have to wait until 4/1 for final Fordham Financial Aid Award Notification letter. Sure hope “gift aid” does not include loans and work study too.
D rec’d full tuition and fees Regents Scholarship from Seton Hall. Then a month letter final Financial Aid Award Notification letter arrived and surprise, student loans were included to meet COA. We were hoping D could take student loans for R&B instead.</p>
<p>OK, so I finally got my Dad to fill out the CSS, which he felt was unnecessarily invasive, but he did it. We are NOT expecting any need-based aid and indicated that we are NOT filing for it, but Fordham wanted to CSS anyway, so we filed it.</p>
<p>Now, they want more forms – a copy of our 2009 income tax, some business form, and a student form. Is this normal? My Dad has had it, he’s ready to take Fordham off my list of colleges. I was hoping for substantial merit-based aid, but now I’m afraid if we don’t send them all this paperwork, I’ll be disqualified. From what I’m reading here, lots of students are receiving great financial aid, much more than I am. </p>
<p>Has everyone supplied all this paperwork to Fordham. NONE of the other colleges I applied to asked for all this.</p>
<p>ccbound11 - we also had to send various forms. Not any from 2009, though. IMO, it’s a small investment of time for possible substantial scholarship/grants, if Fordham is one of the colleges at the top of your list. Out of the nine colleges D applied to, I’d say four required additional financial aid forms similar to Fordham.</p>
<p>BillyMc
When did you hear re: your full tuition scholarship?</p>
<p>
It was for National Merit, so I received it with my acceptance back in December. The regular full ride (tuition, room, & board) scholarships are late March or early April.</p>
<p>hmmm I’m not sure then what exactly gift aid entails</p>
<p>CCbound - most of the private schools I applied to required the same types of forms and information that Fordham required for financial aid. If you applied to a lot of public schools, or if by chance the private schools you applied to did not require these forms, it may seem like Fordham is unusually picky about these things. But, at least in my experience, it seems pretty typical.</p>
<p>This is very typical and quite logical; most colleges want to distribute their aid in the most equitable fashion according to their own particular criteria, and to do this, they need to know who has what. The FAFSA doesn’t provide as much insight as you might think, and sending in taxes is a little nudge to make sure applicants don’t fudge the numbers they submitted on the FAFSA.</p>