VCU Financial Aid

About Virginia Commonwealth University

Located in Richmond, Virginia, VCU, or Virginia Commonwealth University, is the fastest-growing university in the state of Virginia. VCU was founded in 1838, placing it among the country's oldest institutions. A public university that is home to about 23,500 undergraduate students, VCU is classified by the Carnegie Institute in the bracket of schools having ‘very high research activity,' which is pretty important when it comes to research budgets and all that good stuff. Despite these impressive credentials, what most people most likely know VCU for is the intrepid Rams basketball team that made their way to the Final Four of the Men's NCAA Basketball tournament in 2011, a feat never before accomplished by that VCU team. Awesome.

Budgeting and VCU Financial Aid

It doesn't make much sense at all to be spending money unnecessarily when you're already borrowing money to cover big-time expenses, such as tuition and room and board, does it? Nope. So here's the lesson we want you to learn: be smart about your spending when you're on VCU financial aid. Yes, buying tickets to sporting events and going out to eat in Richmond are okay every now and then, as long as the costs don't eat into your grant money, or worse, funds from your student loan. It's not difficult to budget intelligently, so do it, okay? Cool.

Applying for VCU Financial Aid

VCU is public, meaning the only (only! Just one!) financial aid form you'll have to wrestle with (and it isn't even that bad) is the FAFSA, or the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Filling out the FAFSA does require a good deal of preparation and gathering of information such as tax records, bank statements, and other fun stuff in that vein, but it doesn't have to be that difficult if you prepare properly. Outside of filing the FAFSA, though, you don't have to fill out anything else to apply for VCU financial aid. Isn't that easier than you expected?

VCU Financial Aid Packages

Every single school (with certain notable exceptions, such as Harvard) creates financial aid packages with the same four ingredients: student loans, grants, work-study programs, and scholarships. Such is the way of a VCU financial aid package, and that's just fine for most students at VCU. Over half of VCU's student body receives federal student loans, which is just fine. A very small number (~6%) of students at VCU wind up with a financial gap after receiving their aid package, meaning there's still an outstanding balance they owe to VCU, but they don't have the money nor did they receive the aid to cover it. In these cases, students commonly turn to private student loans. While that may sound rather foreboding, it's a very good source of final funding when managed responsibly, and we can help you with that. To find the private student loan that has the lowest impact on your finances and fits you best, just use our private student loan comparison tool on this page.