Opportunity Affordability Impact
Your Guide to Financial Aid & the Johnson Scholarship Program
$49Million UNIVERSITY GRANTS awarded annually
0
LOANS AWARDED
to meet need
100%
92% FOUR-YEAR GRADUATION RATE
N EED M E T
96% FIRST-YEAR RETENTION RATE
96%
EMPLOYED FULL-TIME OR PURSUING GRADUATE SCHOOL WITHIN NINE MONTHS
Listed Among the
NATION’S BEST COLLEGE VALUES: #19 Best Value, National Liberal Arts Colleges (U.S. News and World Report)
#3 Best Values in Liberal
BArts College (Kiplinger’s
Personal Finance)
#10 Best Value Colleges in America (Niche) #26 Best Colleges for Your Money (Time/ Money Magazine)
51%
OF THE CLASS OF 2023 received grants and/or scholarships
The Opportunity to Make an Impact Is Not Beyond Your Reach At Washington and Lee, we believe that a college education is about opportunity and impact. The four years you spend on our campus will be a time to explore and grow — a time to connect with others, sharpen your curiosity, expand your skills and discover your passion. We reward ambition with opportunity, whether in the classroom or the lab, on the field or the stage, in the local community or abroad.
Our distinctive brand of college education is expensive. But you won’t find a better investment than you’ll get from W&L. Nor will you find a college that invests more in its students. We provide unparalleled resources to support our students as they pursue world-class experiences, and we
eliminate the financial barriers that might prevent you from exploring all of the opportunities and advantages that a W&L education provides.
We know the financial aid process can seem complicated, and we want to make it as easy as possible for you to determine how affordable a W&L education can be. Our comprehensive financial aid program offers aid based both on your family’s ability to pay (need-based grants) and on your achievements (merit scholarships). We feature one of the nation’s premier scholarships, the Johnson Scholarship, and our generous financial aid awards meet 100 percent of your family’s demonstrated need without student loans.
We are committed to providing full tuition grants for eligible families through the W&L Promise and have relationships with several national organizations, including QuestBridge, which identify and support college access for highachieving, low-income students. In survey after survey, W&L ranks near the top of the nation’s best college values based on our average cost for students and the outstanding success of our graduates. Our commitment to
affordability and opportunity
ensures that all W&L students have the chance to make an impact through
meaningful careers and leadership positions. The alumni
and students profiled on the following pages each found the financial support to thrive at W&L, just as they’re now thriving in their post-graduate paths. We invite you to learn more about their journeys and the ways we can ensure that a W&L education is within your financial reach.
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Need-Based Financial Aid W&L is committed to making our college experience affordable and available to any qualified student through generous financial aid policies. W&L awards more than $49 million in need-based financial aid each year and provides 100 percent of a student’s demonstrated financial need through grants, scholarships and guaranteed campus work. Students are not asked to take out loans as part of our financial aid awards. All applicants for admission are invited to apply for financial aid. What’s the Difference Between Price and Cost? At first glance, a private college education may seem out of reach. We encourage you to look closer. A school’s “sticker price” is the published figure for tuition, room and board. Your cost is the amount you will actually pay once a financial aid award (including any grants or scholarships) is factored into the equation. Learn more about our average cost for families on page 7.
How is Need-based Aid Calculated? Determining a student’s financial need — and the resulting aid award — is calculated using the FAFSA and CSS Profile aid application forms. Financial need is the difference between W&L’s Cost of Attendance (direct and indirect costs like tuition, room and board, books and transportation) and the Expected Family Contribution (EFC).
Cost of Attendance — Expected Family Contribution
Financial Need
How is EFC Calculated? At W&L, our financial aid evaluation is not just a set of numbers plugged into a formula. We review each application and treat each family 2
according to its circumstances. Many factors may affect the Expected Family Contribution, including: n Family
size
n Number
of siblings enrolled in
college n Parents’
income and assets (in cases of divorce or separation, financial information from both parents is required)
n Student’s
W&L Promise The W&L Promise guarantees that any student admitted to W&L with a total family income below $100,000 and assets typical for their income will
income and assets
Not all families fit neatly into the standard application, and we encourage any family with unique concerns not addressed by either the CSS Profile or FAFSA to tell us about them with our Notification of Special Circumstances form.
What Comprises a Financial Aid Award? Once calculated, a student’s financial need will be fully met with a combination of grants (W&L funds that do not have to be repaid) and a $2,000 per year student work award. W&L does not include loans to meet any part of the demonstrated financial need.
$51,3
AVERAGE INSTITU
in the Clas
Elizabeth Elium ’15 College is stressful enough without thinking about the burden of how much it costs. Elizabeth Elium ’15 knows many prospective students are unaware that financial assistance exists for them. Fortunately, Elizabeth learned about W&L’s extensive financial aid program through her older brother’s experience. “When my brother was accepted to W&L, he and my parents weren’t sure how the finances would work,” she says. “But he received a full grant to attend.”
pay no tuition. Students may be eligible for additional grant to cover room, board and other educational expenses, based on demonstrated need.
Following in her brother’s footsteps, Elizabeth was awarded a need-based, no-loan package that covered her full cost of tuition. Today those grants are awarded as the W&L Promise. A geology major at W&L, Elizabeth earned a master’s degree at Oklahoma State and now works as
a geologist in Dallas, Texas. “I was truly prepared for graduate school,” she says. “The W&L professors cared about teaching and prioritized their students’ learning.” Elizabeth appreciates the difference her financial aid package made. “It allowed me to be focused on school without constantly having to worry about loans or worry about my parents’ financial situation.”
,383
UTIONAL AWARD
ss of 2023
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The Johnson Scholarship is W&L’s singular, comprehensive merit-based award. Johnson Scholars embody the university’s enduring goals: to prepare individuals to lead, use their talents to serve society, and build lives of consequence, honor and integrity. Awarded annually to up to 44 entering first-year students who meet the highest standards of academic ability and leadership promise, the Johnson Scholarship is a four-year award covering the full cost of tuition, room and board.
In addition to scholarships, the Johnson Program: n
rovides each recipient with a Summer Enhancement P grant of up to $7,000 to fund internships, community service projects, faculty-supervised research, international experiences, leadership projects or other proposals that will augment their W&L experience. These funds can be used in one or more summers.
n
unds Johnson Opportunity Grants every year for F 30 additional W&L juniors and seniors to pursue independent projects across the country and around the world.
Selection Process n J ohnson
Scholarship candidates must apply for admission by Dec. 1 using the Common Application and by completing the Johnson Scholarship application, which is included in W&L’s Writing Supplement to the Common Application. Applying for a Johnson Scholarship ensures consideration for other meritbased scholarships for which you might be eligible.
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n U p
to 200 Johnson finalists will be selected on the basis of academic achievement, demonstrated leadership, and potential to contribute to W&L’s intellectual and civic life, and to the world at large.
n
C andidates’ academic credentials, writing samples, teacher recommendations, and records of leadership, citizenship and involvement in nonacademic activities will be used to choose finalists.
n
inalists will be invited to F campus for the Johnson Scholarship Competition on March 1-3, 2020. In addition to interviews with faculty and student leaders, they will attend classes and experience life at W&L firsthand, allowing them to familiarize themselves with W&L fully as they make their college choices.
Additional information is available on the Johnson Program website at go.wlu.edu/ Johnson
Alvin Thomas ’14 W&L is surprisingly affordable due to its strong commitment to financial aid and need- and merit-based scholarships.
For Alvin Thomas ’14, winning a prestigious, full-tuition Johnson Scholarship was “extremely liberating” because it lifted the financial burden and allowed him to take full advantage of W&L’s opportunities. He majored in engineering and minored in poverty studies through the Shepherd Program. “My experiences with the Shepherd Program have made me a better, more socially conscious and well-rounded citizen,” says Alvin, who also spent a summer doing engineering in Rwanda on a Johnson Opportunity Grant. After graduating from W&L, Alvin focused on global disease
epidemiology while pursuing a master’s in public health at Johns Hopkins. While serving as a research data analyst at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, he developed mobile health apps and conducted clinical outcomes research for patients undergoing kidney and liver transplants. Now Alvin is pursuing a doctorate at UNCChapel Hill.
“My education at Washington and Lee was fundamental to my current success,” he says. “The breadth and depth of my W&L coursework taught me how to express my thoughts carefully and succinctly.”
Ben Peeples ’21
The Johnson Scholarship has given me opportunities to pursue my interests in research, service and canoeing in a way that would not have been possible without it. Ben Peeples is a Johnson Scholar from Brighton, Colorado, majoring in biochemistry and philosophy. When not training for World Canoeing Championships, you may find Ben conducting targeted molecule research. 5
WASHINGTON AND LEE AWARDS SO MUCH AID that the all-in price of a degree is comparatively low for a private liberal arts school… Students can expect a lot of
ONE-ON-ONE TIME WITH PROFESSORS; the student to faculty ratio is 8:1 and alumni typically do well in the working world. —MONEY MAGAZINE’S BEST COLLEGES FOR YOUR MONEY 2019
AID THAT TAKES YOU PLACES: Need-based financial aid awarded by W&L is portable, meaning that you can use it to pay for your Fall, Winter and Spring term study abroad. In most cases, the cost for a study-abroad experience should be comparable to a term at W&L.
Ordering institutions by how well they transform their “raw material” (students and site) into “finished products” (workers),
THE TOP PERFORMER IS WASHINGTON AND LEE, whose median earnings of $77,600 exceed the model’s forecast by $22,000. 6
—THE ECONOMIST
Aid Calculators W&L offers families user-friendly tools that provide a way to gauge costs while factoring in financial aid. Both tools are available on the W&L website at go.wlu.edu/ cost
MyinTuition MyinTuition lets users answer six quick financial questions, such as annual income and home ownership status, without entering any personally identifying information. The tool then calculates an estimate of what W&L will cost. The average user needs about three minutes to complete the information.
$
Net Price Calculator
In addition, W&L provides the Net Price Calculator for parents and students seeking a more detailed and accurate estimate of their financial need.
More Affordable Than You Think AVERAGE FAMILY CONTRIBUTION BY INCOME IN 2019 INCOME
PERCENT OF AVERAGE FAMILY FAMILIES RECEIVING CONTRIBUTION AWARD
$0-$29,999
$1,338 100%
$30,000-$59,999
$3,966 100%
$60,000-$89,999
$7,999 100%
$90,000-$119,000 $11,837
100%
$120,000-$149,999 $17,796
100%
$150,000-$189,999
$26,790 97%
$190,000-$249,999
$33,518 97%
$250,000 and above
$65,048 32%
Individual circumstances influence evaluations and may result in an award that varies from the average. Families with more complex financial situations or family dynamics (such as business owners, self-employed parents, multiple children in college and divorced parents) are more likely to have a contribution that falls above or below their income range.
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Lenny Enkhbold ’17
I graduated without any debt and can look forward to the next phase of my life without anything weighing me down. Lenny Enkhbold ’17 fell in love with W&L during a summer language program on the campus. Based on the published price alone, Lenny knew it would be a financial stretch. Undeterred, he scoured the internet and discovered QuestBridge, which helps lowincome, high-achieving students. “Without the QuestBridge scholarship, I might never have been able to attend W&L,” Lenny says. Majoring in computer science and German, with a minor in philosophy, Lenny became a leader in the Outing Club, W&L’s largest student organization. A native of Mongolia, he found a home in Lexington: “The atmosphere is so open and friendly; it is unlike anything I have experienced elsewhere.” Lenny combined his love of the outdoors with W&L’s extensive alumni network to land a job as United
States Engagement Coordinator for the Swedish outdoor brand Klättermusen, whose CEO is a W&L alum. “The array of experiences that I have had prepared me to respond to problems in a thoughtful, calm way.” Lenny’s advice for prospective students? Research. “A few clicks on Google led me to a full ride,” he says.
QuestBridge W&L partners with QuestBridge, a national non-profit organization, to assist low-income, high-achieving students with college applications. QuestBridge connects students with admission and scholarships to W&L and 40 other partner colleges and universities. The program provides two different paths for students:
QuestBridge
n
n
8
O ne is the National College Match Program, an early-admission option in which students complete one application by Sept. 26 and use it to apply early to up to 12 of QuestBridge’s partner colleges. By ranking the schools in order of preference, Match applicants agree to attend the school that ranks highest on their list and accepts them. A student who lists W&L as a preference and is accepted by the university will receive a no-loan financial aid award valued at the full cost of attendance. M eanwhile, the QuestBridge Regular Decision process enables qualified students to apply to
partner colleges for free via the regular admissions process using their QuestBridge application. See go.wlu.edu/questbridge. n
A lmost 10 percent of each entering class at W&L is made up of QuestBridge students.
International Students W&L provides both need-based and merit-based aid to students in each entering class who are not citizens or permanent residents of the United States. Awards range from several thousand dollars to the full annual cost of attendance. Typically about five percent of each entering class are international students, half of whom receive financial assistance. The International Grant is guaranteed for four years but is not eligible for negotiation once a student accepts the offer of admission. To be eligible for aid, students must complete the necessary financial aid application materials: go.wlu.edu/internationalaid
DATES AND DEADLINES APPLICATION TYPE
APPLICATION TESTING FINANCIAL AID NOTIFICATION DEADLINE DEADLINE APPLICATION DATE
Early Decision Nov. 1 Round 1
SAT Nov. 2 ACT Oct. 26
Dec. 1
Late December
Johnson SAT Dec. 7 Dec. 1 Scholarship ACT Dec. 14
Varies*
Late March
Early Decision Jan. 1 Round 2
SAT Dec. 7 ACT Dec. 14
Jan. 15
Late January
Regular Jan. 1 Decision
SAT Dec. 7 ACT Dec. 14
Feb. 15
Late March
*Financial-aid application deadlines are based on your admission application decision choice (Early Decision 1 or 2, Regular Decision).
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Office of Admissions and Financial Aid | 204 W. Washington Street Lexington, VA 24450-2116 | admissions@wlu.edu | admissions.wlu.edu (540) 458-8710 Washington and Lee University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national or ethnic origin, sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, veteran’s status, or genetic information in its educational programs and activities, admissions, and with regard to employment. See complete statement at go.wlu.edu/eeo.
10 W&L 2018-19