Even tho you applied for FA late, it appears that you did get some award.
Is the $15k listed as a merit scholarship or WHAT?
Rice doesn’t give a lot of merit awards. Most awards are need based.
I didn’t apply for the financial aid using the CSS Profile before the deadline because I was not informed about the process, but the office told me to apply anyway so I wouldn’t have nothing. The medical expenses were covered by insurance, but we still have to continue with them and insurance recently denied coverage. My family income falls in the range you mentioned and I expected around $30,000 because of the special circumstance.
Medical expense of $15000 for one of your parents or your brother/sister?
No, I’m not entirely sure how much the expenses are (they are around that), but that’s the amount of need based aid I received.
Also, it’s for a sibling
Keep in mind that the medical expenses have to be unreimbursed. Even then, you will not receive a $1 for $1 deduction
But you were informed about the process.
http://financialaid.rice.edu/undergraduates/applyforaid/
You obviously have a computer and internet access, and the information you needed was easily available.
Agree with @BelknapPoint. It is YOUR responsibility to look for all deadlines for submissions, not the schools’s.
Your unreimbursed medical expenses would have to be 7.5% or more of your parent income to be deducted on your taxes, I believe. Also, if recently the claims were denied, would you reach a high threshold of unreimbursed medical expenses for 2015? That is what matters.
And as @sybbie719 noted…even if you have unreimbursed medical expenses, your need based aid will not be increased dollar for dollar for that amount.
Have you spoken to the Rice financial aid office yet regarding the need for special,circumstances reconsideration NOW…so,that you can make an ED admissions decision? If not, why not?
I have spoken to them, but again, they said that it will not be reflected in the current package, only the finalized one in April. As said before, I don’t want to accept ED without a guarantee that I will get aid. That’s why I was advised by the uni to contact the Director of Admissions to see if my withdrawal deadline can be extended so that I will not have to suffer in the future.
And again I say…your deadline for Acceoting the ED offer might get extended…but it is NOT going to get extended until the RD decisions come out.
The whole point of an ED application is that it is your number one, top choice…and if acceoted, and if affordable, you will commit to attend,
The point is not to defer ED decision making until all your other acceotnces and offers are in…the school just won’t do that.
At this point, the school is unaffordable. And you are asking them to double your aid.
So, what you’re saying is that the Director is most likely not going to extend my withdrawal until April? So, I am going to have to base my decision to withdraw/accept on the tentative package that I have received?
Probably. Brace yourself for that and see what he or she says. Perhaps they can expedite the review as well.
I’m not too sure if he can expedite the review since the Financial Office would have to use the tax forms from 2015 to determine the aid…and my family hasn’t filed that yet.
If you have a special circumstance…you present THAT information to the financial aid office. This could include end of year pay stubs (although you don’t indicate income is an issue), and documentation of the special circumstances you want reviewed.
If you are asking the financial aid office to consider high unreimbursed medical expenses incurred in 2015, you would need to have the documentation to support that. Clear documentation to support that. This would include the bills, explanations of benefits where the claims were denied, and copies of the checks your family wrote to pay the bills.
You would also need documentation that these were medically necessary expenses, not elective.
You are not asking for reconsideration based on your income…right? Have you made this clear to the financial aid office? Have you discussed expediting this review with them (although many are now closed until January)?
No, I don’t believe the school is going to extend your ED commitment date until April. If you wanted or needed an April commitment date, you should have applied RD.
And also, you can file your FAFSA ASAP after January 1 using excellent estimates for the 2015 tax year. Submit that to Rice. Do it January 1. Then they will have your 2015 income information in the estimated FAFSA. Your family can then do their taxes ASAP after February 1, and you can amend your FAFSA then to reflect the actual 2015 tax return numbers.
But really…that’s not what you want them to reconsider. You are saying your family is upper middle class…and you have some unreimbursed medical expenses for 2015 you want them to consider. THAT is what needs to be conveyed to the financial aid office NOW.
I’m not sure what your taxes have to do with a special circumstances consideration based on MEDICAL expenses. Yes, you need to get the 2015 taxes done ASAP after Feb 1…but from what you are posting…your family in me is NOT the issue.
See, we did provide the evidence about the expenses when I applied the first time, but they said that they will only be considered in April. I’m not too sure what the FAFSA and tax forms have to do with it, but they said that it will help my case.
If the issue is $10 to $20k in unreimbursed medical expenses, even considering that, I’m not sure such a small change in income in the $120k range will produce $30k more in FA. It does not seem likely.
Have you applied RD to schools where you will receive guaranteed merit awards that will make the schools affordable?
Are are you applying to more schools like Rice?
I’m not sure you really understood the ED process or how much your family would be expected to pay. Rice is very generous to low income students but not to upper income families.
It will help your case…but you don’t know how much it will help your case.
Once more…you need to contact this school. You need a definite drop dead date in terms of when you need to accept or decline the ED offer.
You need to talk to someone in financial aid about your ED status, and the need to facilitate your request (although…you are asking them to hurry for,you when you missed their initial deadline by a month).
In an earlier post, you stated that they gave you hypotheticals…did you or did you not receive a financial aid award from Rice for ED?
And if so…what exactly did it include? Grants? Loans? Work study? What?
So, the package that they have given me now is $15K. It has a Rice grant, a loan and a work study. So, I’d have to pay $45K with this package. My family cannot afford that at all. When my family went to the FA Office yesterday, the hypotheticals were comprised of loans mostly. These hypotheticals are the packages that I might receive in April. However, since the insurance coverage was denied recently (we’re done with all the treatment for this year. We may do some treatments in early 2016), I don’t know how much my freshman year package will be affected since it considers 2015’s expenses mostly and maybe some 2016 expenses. So, the package I have now will not change at all until April. That package I receive in April may or may not make attendance affordable. It really depends on these next few months in 2016. Because of that uncertainty, I have written a letter to the Director of Admission to see if he is willing to extend my withdrawal until April so that I will not have to take a gap year from college. I haven’t received a response yet (I submitted the letter around 3 pm yesterday) but judging from this forum, I think I know what his response will be. Since Rice does like to keep its ED students, I may be able to extend the deadline, but I’m in a very tricky financial situation so they may just let me go and study at a cheaper state school…