<p>I got full tuition & room and board from a small liberal arts school in birmingham (birmingham southern college, if anyones familiar with it) and in addition to that, i still received financial aid. need based only.
BSC does NOT have a large endowment. But it's literally paying my way for EVERYTHING.
I just got my Wash U financial aid package. I got NOTHING. Not even a loan opportunity.
I've gotten the same amount from every other school I've been accepted to. Including Tulane, Rochester, and Macalester. In ADDITION to at least 15,000 a year in scholarships.
*** is Wash U's problem.</p>
<p>Not their problem. These other colleges wanted you like hell and they gave you more, WashU did not feel that way…</p>
<p>do you know what the term “NEED BASED AID” means?
cuz apparently not.</p>
<p>@ jocool26-
Just be glad that you got into WashU…my son wasn’t so lucky after applying for 3 merit scholarships, not being elgible for FA but needing it, and being ultimately WLed from WashU, and he REALLY hoped to get in! It’s a little annoying to be reading this…</p>
<p>(Whether you mean to be or not is another issue, and I’m not judging–I’m just forewarning you), it comes off as arrogant to be complaining that you didn’t get anything from WashU since many students would have killed to just get in. I know that’s not what this is about, but it’s how it comes off. </p>
<p>I understand your frustration with this FA nightmare, but be glad that you at least got in. </p>
<p>My explanation: different colleges use different FA formulas. Tulane, Rochester, and Macalaster’s way of financing student’s education is different than WashU’s. BSC, a good school in its own right, probably sprung at your great scores/ECs/stats I’m assuming you have since you were accepted into WashU, and that’s why they gave you a hefty merit aid award in addition to FA, as principalviola mentioned. WashU doesn’t have to give you the same amount of money as Tulane, Rochester, or Macalaster. If you cannot afford WashU without some more help, call the FA offices there and negotiate. Sometimes, colleges overlook some things on FA, and may help you out. </p>
<p>Again, do not consider it a vendetta from WashU against you, because I’m sure they have a reason…Call them, and see what happens. Best of luck :)</p>
<p>Wash U kind of shafted me too on FA. My EFC is somewhere in the 20,000s and they only gave me a loan for 5000 and work study :(</p>
<p>My advice continues to natalia6228…call them and see if you can negotiate.</p>
<p>i’m not trying to sound arrogant AT ALL. I pretty much only got in because they know my high school. I didnt expect to get any scholarships. But I’m really shocked at their lack of FA. I also don’t see where this 200 merit scholarships per year number is coming from. because if you just go by the list they have its only gonna be about 60-70 ish (including danforth).
and at least your son’ll have more of a chance of getting in. i am completely declining their offer. even if we call they’ll probably only give us a few thousand more, which is certainly not enough. i wasn’t expecting any FA until the economy crashed and i heard most schools were upping their financial aid. plus my college fund was cut in half, so i figured that would help. and it seems like every school BUT wash u upped their FA packages.</p>
<p>200? I’ve never heard of that number, but judging from what you’re tallying, multiple people can get the same 60-70 named scholarships, so, that’s was I’m assuming.</p>
<p>Again, I tend not to judge on these boards, and I can understand your frustration. Unfortunately, my son doesn’t qualify for ANY FA (by FAFSA’s standards), and so, we’re not eligible for FA, even if S did get in. We were relying on Merit Aid (and are still). We’ve gotten better offers, and won’t be accepting a seat on the WaitList most likely.</p>
<p>I think the 200 came from ST2, in various posts. I have no idea where they got that number. I know there are about 20 full scholarships and 20 half scholarships like Mylonis, Moog etc. So that’s 40, may 48 if I am off on the number of named scholarships like those. Then there are the Danforth, Gonzales and others besides. I have no idea how many it adds up to in total.</p>
<p>i believe ST2 is correct with the 200 estimate…
- He seems to know virtually everything there is about WashU
- There are 40 alone for Danforth Scholars, plus I think the number is similar for Ervin Scholars and Annika Rodriguez Scholars… then there are a lot of programs with less (such as Fitzgibbon for Architecture (6 Scholarships) Summer Scholars Bio (20) Research Scholar Program (15) Mylonas (4), Moog (4). compton (4) dieckmann (16) Lien (4) Nemerov (8) etc…</p>
<p>In their scholarship package, they stated that there are multiple partial and full scholarship for Ervin, Rodriguez so there it’s hard to tell how many. They also count summer research stipend as merit scholarship even though it is really money pay out for working in the labs.</p>
<p>Just the Danforth, Ervin and Rodriguez merit awards total more than 100 for every freshman class. By the time you add all the others you are at approximately 200 total awards per freshman class. </p>
<p>fallenchemist - I have no idea what the Gonzales is, that you mention in your post.</p>
<p>I think he confused some random latin name with Rodriguez</p>
<p>Give me a break ST2 - I was writing from memory. I didn’t know I was going to be tested on it. Does it really change the conversation?</p>
<p>haha I’m not holding it against you and I don’t think ST2 was either. It’s not a big deal either way…the point is, there’s definitely around 200 scholarships.</p>
<p>jocool, give WashU a break. They are among the most liberal when it comes to financial aid. Merit aid at a school like WashU where everyone is the best of the best would be much tougher than, say, a little unheard-of college in Birmingham that trying to pick up the best of the best.
When it comes to need based, WashU in the past has ALWAYS met 100% of need, and often more. If your FAFSA showed no need for need-based aid, WashU might have looked at it as, well, not needing need-based aid. You can’t yell at WashU for that.</p>
<p>Schools are not behooved to give you any aid. Anything they give you is on their volition, too bad… </p>
<p>Don’t be so angry with em…</p>
<p>Do an appeal. My financial aid officer sent me his business card. They do that because they want to openly communicate. Now that they have accepted you, their goal is not to ignore you. It is to get you to matriculate.</p>
<p>Same think happened to me. And I don’t think it’s rude to be upset about it. At least in my case, no financial aid probably means I can’t go, and I really wanted to go to Wash U. I have already appealed and been shot down. I’m still going out there too visit, and hoping I can change the financial aid peoples’ minds, but it is pretty disappointing to have this opportunity handed to you, just to find out you probably can’t take advantage of it.
Man it would have been nice if I’d gotten one of the merit scholarships…</p>
<p>fallenchemist - Not testing on Gonzalez vs Rodriguez, but absolutely testing on the number of merit awards awarded to each freshman class. I stand by my number of 200 vs your number of 48. Specific names may not be important, but actual numbers are important. Certainly not meant to offend you, as I find most of your posts to be very informative.</p>