Vassar Financial Aid-good or great?

ames0587
Sat, 22 Apr 2006 14:31:06 +0000

No, they do not do merit scholarships. Over half my tuition is paid by grants and scholarships, about $26, 000. Then my parents pay their EFC of $9000. I pay about $2000 from summer work and savings. And then the remaining is paid by work-study, which for freshman means a campus job of a maximum of 8 hours per week, (9 hours for sophomoes, and 10 for juniors and seniors). My work study is about $1,500. And the rest is given in loans, which for me as a freshman was $2, 625.
However, loan amounts are higher for your sophomore, junior, and senior years. I think they are 3 thousand and something for sophomores and around $5,000 for juniors and seniors. The average person on financial aid graduates from Vassar with about $17,000 in loans.
And I do believe they will take into account if your parents have another person in college. My dad retired the year I went to college. Our income for the year before was higher than it would be for the year I was in college. They allowed us to do projections of my family’s income for the year I would be in college, and because of this our EFC was lower.