We got a Grant of 16K and and Merit of 8K. The college Hampshire College says it has an average grant award of 36K. So we are appealing. We don’t own a house and have less than 70K in assests total. Not including retirement that is 300K. Any expereinces folks would like to share?
What was your annual family income for 2015? Income is the primary driver of need based financial aid. Your appeal needs to be based on something other than the fact that you were awarded less than what Hampshire’s average grant amount is.
Hampshire is also a school that does not meets 100% demonstrated need (this will be the source of ta gap in your financial aid package off the top).
The average amount of aid does not mean anything. The only thing that matters is what is being offered to you.
What is your EFC?
What is your family income?
Are you saving monies before taxes for your retirement (this money is usually added back in as income)?
Are you self-employed or a small business owner?
How much are you contributing to the retirement account?
If the account a 401k/403b, etc or is it a bank account where you are putting in money before savings
What is the basis for your appeal (the basis for an appeal is not the average finsncisl side award is $36k). An average award of 36k does not mean that every student is getting 36k in financial aid.
If your daughter got a package of $24,000 and another student got a package of $48,000 (it averages out to 36K.
IT also does not mean that you will get 36k in free money .
Did your daughter get work study or a student loan in her package? If she got a $5500 loan then her package comes out to $29,500. Did she get work study as ,000part of her financial aid package? If yes, that that also needs to be added in to her package.
My DD was accepted ED at Hampshire College. We did get a Financial Aid package but not quite what we were hoping for and need. We are appealing the descion and I was wondering if anyone else had experience with this. Thanks
What did the NPC show you before she applied?
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We got a Grant of 16K and and Merit of 8K. The college Hampshire College says it has an average grant award of 36K. So we are appealing.
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Average grants means nothing to individuals.
A low income student might get $50k of grants. A family with a strong income may only get $5k of grants.
Plus this is a school that doesn’t meet need.
Hipmama, do you understand that if Hampshire meets 94% of need that doesn’t mean they will meet 94% of YOUR need? That’s an average- across the entire student body. Not a prediction based on your own circumstances.
Have you factored the cost of transportation into your Hampshire budget???
Hampshire also has had financial problems.
Adding to @blossom. If a student need is $5500, and Hampshire gives them a $5500 Direct Loan, the school has met 100% of that student’s need.
The average %age of need met is a meaningless number for schools that don’t meet 100% of need for ALL accepted students.
Actually, they say they meet 93% of each student’s demonstrated financial need according to their calculations of need. This came out of a personal conversation with the financial director. This also matches what their Net Price Calculator comes up with. That does indeed include loans and work study, which I had factored in. My doubled contribution was AFTER loans and work study. NPC said net price of $3,500 and actual award came up with a net price of $9,000. Given my EFC of $0 and my income of less than $10,000/year, that is a pretty massive difference. We live in driving distance so transportation costs are minimal and my daughter will be paying all her personal costs, including books, from her own work. Hampshire doesn’t have budget problems so much as that they have made a conscious decision to run a temporary deficit in order to provide more need-based aid and align their admissions with their mission - something I’m very fully supportive of. I am hopeful that they really just mixed up the Egyptian Pound vs American dollar, which could easily change the calculation I would think. If they estimated his income at $3k/month vs $3k/year (the latter is the reality) that that would throw those numbers off.