Vanderbilt provides financial aid in the form of grants. They pledge to meet 100% of your calculated need through these grants. These are funds that come at zero cost to the student. There is no repayment. Many parents are hesitant about loans, but that is a different story – it would be very unusual for a parent to be hesitant about grants. Just making sure that is clear right off the bat.
To receive financial aid, you fill out the FAFSA and CSS Profile. Between these two documents, you provide a ton of financial information that determines your eligibility. You provide updated information each year, and your financial aid is adjusted each year based on any changes.
Some of the key factors for a family:
- Marital status
- Income
- Assets (cash, savings, home, investments)
- Medical expenses not covered by insurance
-
of children
- School tuition fees for other children
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/financialaid/undergraduate/revealing-numbers.php
Here you can see awards by income bracket. You can see there is at least one family in the 40K-60K range receiving less than $10,000 a year. There is also at least one family with 200K+ in income receiving nearly $46,000 in aid. Income is only one part of the picture; these other factors are considered very seriously as well.
It’s difficult/impossible to make general statements about how much a family might receive just based on their income. I would encourage you to send the net price calculator to your parents and just let them see what kind of aid money you might be eligible for at a school like Vanderbilt.
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/financialaid/net-price-calculator.php
Please fire away with any other questions!