Drexel vs UPenn Financial Aid Packages

U.S.A. Pennsylvania

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I'm currently taking prerequisites and doing a lot of research on which schools I want to apply to for Fall of 2015. I'm working so hard to get my current 3.061 GPA up as much as possible. I'm already putting myself into debt (at a community college) just to be able to afford to go full time and get the grades I need to get into good schools. is my first choice but apparently people in my financial situation aren't their first choice.

My financial situation has been bleak for the last year, the one thing I told myself is, "Well at least I will qualify for a good financial aid package wherever I transfer to." According to this article that is NOT the case. Drexel charges over $30,000 ($30K-$39K) regardless if your income is $0 or $100K. I was heart broken to read that they don't adjust Financial Aid packages drastically for low-income students the way Penn does.

http://www.thecollegesolution.com/the-real-cost-of-attending-an-expensive-east-coast-university/

I will be looking into this more, but I am desperately looking for feedback from anyone's experiences with financial aid packages from Philly nursing schools, specifically these two. If this is true, it will cost me LESS to go to UPenn than Drexel! I never even considered applying to Penn because everyone on here says its too expensive/competitive. It just blows my mind looking at the numbers below:

Drexel University's Average Net Price

Family Income

- $0-$30,000 $33,888

- $30,001 - $48,000 $34,694

- $48,001 - $75,000 $37,532

- $75,001 - $110,000 $36,731

- $110,001 and up $37,574

What's stunning about the above figures is that poor and middle-class students pay close to the same price as affluent families! This is clearly an unaffordable school for many students.

To get a comparison, I'm sharing the federal statistics for the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League institution, which is also in Philadelphia. Penn has a policy of meeting the full financial need of its students.

University of Pennsylvania's Average Net Price

Family Income

- $0-$30,000 $6,704

- $30,001 - $48,000 $8,505

- $48,001 - $75,000 $15,139

- $75,001 - $110,000 $21,312

- $110,001 and up $39,684

Obviously, Penn's financial aid packages are far superior to Drexel's.

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Specializes in PACU.

Hmmmm.... Speaking from my personal experience I have many friends that went to and were in similar financial situations as you that received pretty good scholarships/financial aid from Drexel. Is the ACE for second degree students (already having a bachelors in another field)? I forget off the top of my head. That might be the issue as we'll with net price as the financial aid is different from second degree students than first degree students.

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Thank you for your reply. That's good to hear. It's been difficult to find information about the financial aid packages.

I will be transferring into a BSN with no previous degree, I have 60+ credits so far. I was hoping to transfer into 's BSN co-op. I was told it would be 3 years to complete unless I got into the newer program with no co-op, then I believe it would be two years. However I would want the co-op option because I need the experience and the pay.

I will still apply to several schools and see what happens but I'm glad I didn't give up on Penn before I even tried. It would obviously be amazing to get into Penn but I think Drexel is a good fit for me. Fingers crossed that I can get into Drexel with a good financial aid package!

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Yes, sorry. Ace is accelerated for those with a previous degree. I would only qualify for the general BSN program.

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