MORGANTOWN – Following Monday’s announcement of WVU Guarantee, WVU amplified on some aspects of the financial aid program in response to questions from The Dominion Post.
WVU Guarantee is open to resident undergraduate students at Morgantown, WVU Tech and Potomac State College whose family adjusted gross income is $65,000 or less. Students must complete the annual FAFSA – Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
The program is “last dollar in,” meaning it supplements other financial aid: scholarships and federal aid. It will cover all remaining tuition and fees. For the fall 2025 program kickoff, students must complete their FAFSA by Aug. 1.
Upon admission, students are automatically evaluated for eligibility in WVU Guarantee and no further action is necessary – including waiting for the federal response to the FAFSA giving the family estimated contribution.
Interim Vice President for Enrollment Steve Hahn supplied the answers to our questions.
Annual program cost
Hahn said, “The investments in WVU Guarantee will vary from year to year based on the number of students who qualify for the program and what other financial aid — federal and state grants, scholarships, etc. — those students are eligible to receive.”
Because it’s last dollar in, WVU Guarantee will look different for each qualifying individual resident student because each student has different financial needs.
“Hypothetically, when we apply our model to the current class already here, we find that more than 400 students would have benefited in some way from this new program and the cost of doing it would have been less than $900,000 this year, for a ballpark median value to the student of about $2,000 – but this is simply an average. Some will be less; some will be more.”
Hahn said WVU is telling incoming and current resident students “that we will guarantee to close any gap, once all other financial aid opportunities have been explored, to ensure uncovered tuition and fee costs don’t keep anyone from coming to WVU or returning to WVU.”
Could annual costs escalate?
We asked this question having in mind the PROMISE scholarship program, which began as a full ride scholarship but over time had to be modified to include an award cap.
Hahn said that because WVU Guarantee is last dollar in, “the additional expenditure to make this guarantee is affordable and we don’t see our cost structures changing sufficiently to necessitate a cap. Of course, if there would be significant structural changes made to the federal financial aid program or to our in-state aid programs, both outside of our control, we would need to assess in the light of these new changes. But as of this time we don’t foresee the need for a cap.”
Funding source
“With WVU Guarantee, the university is making a new kind of investment in our students and, in turn, the Mountain State’s future by realigning the resources we have. In doing so, we will ensure we are focused on the areas that will most immediately benefit and resonate with our students and their families. We view the financial investment as fairly minimal relative to the return to the students and our state.”
In the short term, he said, WVU will implement WVU Guarantee using internal resources, and also explore the possibility of donor support.
WVU supports current students in a number of ways through the use of internal scholarships and other mechanisms that can and do shift around from year to year, he said. “In many ways, WVU Guarantee is an extension of the financial aid support we’ve already been providing on a large scale to ensure WVU remains affordable and accessible to West Virginia’s students.
“This program simply formalizes that support for an important segment of our current and future student population. We believe that this represents a good use of our resources as we seek to expand access to higher education and, in doing so, change the trajectory of our students’ futures and serve the needs of the state.”
What happens in tight budget years?
“We are enacting this program to remove barriers to higher education for all the citizens of our state, and we hope that students who previously may not have seen WVU as an option for their education will now think of us. Whatever success we have in attracting those students will be additive to our budget position.”
Family income cap
WVU noted in Monday’s program announcement that should a student’s family AGI rise above the $65,000 threshold after their initial enrollment as an undergraduate, WVU will continue to honor the program’s benefits.
We asked for some elaboration on that. Working from a hypothetical where a family’s income suddenly rose from $65,000 to $265,000; and raised issues of fairness and subsidizing a student who no longer needs it.
Hahn said, “One of the hallmarks of our new program is that it is a guarantee, and we are making a commitment to our students. We want our students to graduate and become fantastic, contributing West Virginia citizens. This requires a multi-year commitment, because that’s how our students and parents plan. So, given the definition of a guarantee, the above situation [our hypothetical] could happen – and that is the price of offering a guarantee.
Hahn noted that a more likely scenario is often the reverse: Students will fall below the AGI threshold later, due to a change in family or personal circumstances. “We would evaluate these students and use professional judgment to consider their candidacy for the program going forward.”
Loans
It initially appeared in the program materials that the last-dollar-in aspect also included any federal loans that might result from the FAFSA application. We learned that this is not the case.
Hahn said, “WVU never requires students to take a loan and loans would not be required for tuition and university fees relative to the WVU Guarantee. So, we would apply the Guarantee without the need for loans.
“Some students may have additional scholarships or aid covering expenses like housing and meals, or it’s possible that a loan would be used for these purposes. Even without the WVU Guarantee program, our student loan debt is lower than for similar schools, due to the affordability of our tuition and the aid already available to students.”
