<p>To all of those who have received financial aid and/or have experienced the financial aid process, I was wondering how is Washington University's financial aid? In general, can you paint me a picture of how much you got compared to your income. I will definitely need financial aid for college but I was wondering how good WUSTL would provide for me. I know there are merit scholarship, but I was wondering how good the non-merit aid is. My family comes from an upper-middle class, both of my parents work steady jobs. I have one very young sibling. I don't have an exact idea of my income but I know its above 100K.
Thanks!</p>
<p>Yes please this would really help</p>
<p>I am in a similar position as UMich, and between my brother (who is a sophomore) and me, my family is shelling out ~95k this year for college. However, I really have no clue about my family’s income, except that I have always been able to live pretty comfortably in a middle/upper middle class area.</p>
<p>EDIT: My brother also attends WashU, just wanted to make that clear.</p>
<p>The breakdown of need-based aid is basically as follows:</p>
<p>COA (cost of attendance) - EFC (expected family contribution) = Financial aid package</p>
<p>Financial aid package = $7,000 in loans and work study + grant money</p>
<p>For example:
Assume COA = $50,000 and EFC = $25,000</p>
<p>Your financial aid package will be around $25,000 which will consist of $7,000 in work-study/loans and $18,000 of grant money.</p>
<p>In total, you would be responsible for your EFC ($25,000) plus the $7,000 of loans/work-study in the package. The rest the school covers via grant.</p>
<p>If you want to know the numbers specific to your situation, college board has an ‘efc calculator’ [EFC</a> Calculator: How Much Money for College Will You Be Expected to Contribute?](<a href=“http://apps.collegeboard.com/fincalc/efc_welcome.jsp]EFC”>http://apps.collegeboard.com/fincalc/efc_welcome.jsp)</p>
<p>This formula is not perfect and your financial aid award still may vary.</p>
<p>Edit: EFC is not specific to a school. It is calculated by your FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). What varies by school is whether the school adheres to this number. Seeing as WashU meets about 99% of demonstrated financial need, you can pretty much assume that you will not be expected to contribute more than what your EFC dictates.</p>
<p>that is a very clear and concise way of looking at Financial Aid! thanks</p>
<p>But how good is Wash U’s financial aid. Different schools put together different packages. Creating an equation and determining an EFC doesn’t accurately determine what I can get since some schools are more generous than others. How generous is Wash U? The college board’s EFC is an estimate, Wash U may aim higher, they may aim lower when it comes to determining EFC.</p>
<p>From my experience, that formula is how WashU puts together its financial aid packages. I have heard of slightly sweeter deals due to merit/need awards, but these awards are still within a couple thousand of what your EFC dictates. A school that meets 100% of demonstrated need meets 100% of demonstrated need. The only way to find out the exact extent of WashU’s generosity is to get accepted receive a financial aid package. I don’t know what else to tell you; I can’t quantify WashU’s generosity.</p>
<p>I think the OP wants to know if Wash U has a rep for good aid or not. NYU for example is notorious for being stingy. Each school determines own need, especially withthe CSS profile.</p>
<p>S was just accepted at Wash U 
Our question is–does anyone know whether this university has a practice of giving merit scholarships OTHER than the advertised ones that students must compete for? We know that many schools have “trustees” or “presidential” merit scholarships (s has such offers from two other schools) but have not seen or heard of this practice at Wash U…if anyone knows, thanks!</p>