Advice for Negotiating Financial Aid

Hello class of 2022! I’m very excited to attend WashU next year, though my financial aid award didn’t excite my parents as much :). The offer ended up being $13,000 over our EFC, which was a surprise given how many times we heard they met 100% demonstrated need.

Because my dad got a significant pay cut, it seems reasonable that our deal could be reassessed, especially considering the current amount is over half our monthly paycheck. Does anyone know whether it is best to call, email, or send a letter to my financial aid counselor? Thanks in advanced.

“the current amount is over half our monthly paycheck”

It is hard to know without seeing more details, but it sounds likely that the offer from WUSTL might be unaffordable. For example this might leave you with too much debt after 4 years.

Do you have a good affordable alternative?

You father’s pay cut should be a legitimate reason for them to reconsider your financial aid. However, it is difficult to predict what will happen (and impossible for me). Always remain calm if you talk to financial aid folks or any university representative. If you are not sure that you can remain calm, then you might want to use email to communicate with them.

@DadTwoGirls I’m already in early decision, so I’m pretty sure the situation is still binding.

We were expecting a much lower number similar to what we saw from net price calculators and fafsa, and their new policy of not giving out any loans to students who make under $75,000 was reassuring as well (of course to pay that $13,000 over the EFC would certainly require some loans).

Hopefully an email going into the specifics of the pay cut will allow them to reconsider. Thanks for your help :).

You can ask for an appeal of your FA offer and provide any new info (like your dad’s job change if they don’t have that new info). Get the appeal request in ASAP. Do not stop working on (and submitting) your other apps as their due dates approach, as you don’t know yet if the FA package is affordable. But your other schools may not make better offers…

“I’m already in early decision, so I’m pretty sure the situation is still binding.”

We didn’t allow our daughter to do ED. However, my understanding is that the only way out is based on financial hardship, which seems to be exactly the issue in this case.