<p>I'm curious to learn if anyone else has had this experience: our daughter is a rising senior at Iowa State University. As a National Merit Scholar she received one of 50 (at the time; they might give fewer now) full four-year academic scholarships. She has a 4.0 GPA, is in the ISU Honors Program, is Phi Beta Kappa, and has a long list of strong extra-curriculars. She is currently studying abroad at Fudan University in Shanghai and doing an internship at the Cognitive Neuroscience lab at East China Normal University. </p>
<p>This week she was notified that her financial aid offer was available for viewing online. When she looked, she was shocked to learn that her aid had been reduced to $2000 per semester, which won't even cover tuition. The balance of her "aid" was in the form of loans that she can apply for (she has five years of grad school ahead of her; plenty of time to incur lots of student debt!). Not exactly the full academic scholarship she had been promised and had counted on. And now it's too late to apply for other scholarships. We filed our FAFSA before the deadline, and she accepted her National Merit scholarship as required as soon as she was notified. I don't think we've done anything wrong.</p>
<p>Are there any other rising seniors out there who have had this happen to them? Granted, the school always posts the disclaimer that all aid is offered contingent on state and federal funding as well as the availability of university money, but don't schools have an obligation to honor their agreements with students? My daughter is an exemplary student, one that is a credit to ISU. Do they just believe she would never transfer so late in her education, and they can get away with reducing her aid? We are all a little steamed, here. Thoughts?</p>
<p>Have you talked to anyone in the financial aid office about the reason for the change?</p>
<p>She is contacting the financial aid office via email (the 14 hour time difference makes phone calls challenging). Because she is over 21 the university won’t even talk with her dad or me about it. It will take some time, but she is pursuing it. Last summer she interned for one of our state senators, so if she doesn’t get a satisfactory answer from the school she will ask him to intervene. Can’t hurt!</p>
<p>Call fin aid. Sounds like an error.</p>
<p>Could it be the study abroad is the issue? Did it, perhaps, take up more than a year’s worth of funds?</p>
<p>Her scholarships applied to the expenses of her study abroad semester that were billed through the university (tuition and housing), but the aid was the same as all the other semesters; her dad and I still ended up paying ISU about $9000. That’s excluding airfare, meals, and all the other additional costs. But we think (hope) it’s worth it! </p>
<p>Yep, she is contacting Fin Aid. My concern might be premature, but I think that by this time in previous years her financial aid offer was usually complete. I was just looking for anyone else with similar experience. Sure hope it IS an error . . .</p>
<p>Under the FERPA regulations IF your daughter is a tax dependent and IF you show up in person with a proper federal ID and a copy of your federal tax return that clearly shows she is your dependent THEN the people at the university can talk with you about her files. Are you close enough to Ames to do that?</p>
<p>We are, and we will do that if she doesn’t have any success herself. I like to let her handle stuff like this. Builds character. 
We’ll see what ISU says.</p>
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<p>Sounds like she’s got this covered! ;)</p>
<p>My guess is that it’s a mistake. The school made her an offer before she enrolled. She accepted that offer, and now the school is legally obligated to honor it. They don’t get to change the rules halfway (or, in this case, 3/4 of the way) through.</p>
<p>Please let us know how this turns out.</p>
<p>Thanks for your thoughts, everyone! I’ll keep you posted.</p>
<p>My D’s NMF scholarship contains detailed description of renewal criteria and the description is also available online. Some details were a surprise, though not difficult to manage. For example, she will need to complete 30 credits each academic year, and that can’t include special credits like transfer or summer session unless get prior special approval, although for her scholarship, study abroad credits are specifically allowed as part of the 30. Is it possible she ran afoul of something like that? Do you have the original scholarship papers? Seems like her advisor would have warned her in advance, though, if that were the case.</p>
<p>Also, at D’s school there is an easy way to waive FERPA by downloading and filling out a form which student signs and then scans in and e-mails to them. Does ISU have such a procedure?</p>
<p>There aren’t a lot of requirements for the scholarship, which is offered by ISU to NMF’s (that’s the only connection to National Merit; she does receive a very small NM scholarship, also, which pays for books). She has to take a minimum number of credits per semester and she has to maintain a certain GPA, I believe. She has fulfilled both of those requirements.</p>
<p>Today I went through my folder of financial aid information, and I can’t find an original letter (I’m not sure there was one). ISU offered the full scholarship to the first 50 NM Scholars who listed ISU as their first choice of schools, so it was actually pretty informal. The only thing she’s had to do each year was meet the ISU FAFSA deadline (March 1) and renew her NM scholarship online with some codes sent in a letter, both of which she did. The absence of a lot of criteria is refreshing, given the fact that ISU has numerous requirements per major, minor, college, department, Honors program, and anything else you could imagine (plus, credits received in a study abroad semester count as general credits, but the courses themselves don’t transfer as courses). You really have to be a pretty good organizer to graduate in four years, even without a semester abroad!</p>
<p>The missing funds were in previous years named “ISU Merit,” and each year as she has received other sponsored scholarships her ISU Merit aid has been reduced to compensate, although it was still the largest part of her aid. For the upcoming year, there is zero aid listed under ISU Merit, which surely must be an error. Maybe they think she got some large independent scholarship that we don’t know about . . . . That’s a question worth asking the Fin Aid office!</p>
<p>On the FERPA issue, I’ll have to check on whether that’s an option. With D in China, the “show up with ID and our tax return” route might be simpler, but I will research it.</p>
<p>Thanks again for all the ideas and advice. We will solve this mystery! And I’m still curious to know if anyone else has experienced this, either at ISU or at any other schools. We know all the state universities in Iowa have frozen tuition and are looking at reducing aid, but this is pretty drastic!</p>
<p>I just had to take a FERPA training a couple days ago, which is where I got the information about turning up with the ID and tax return. If you have the chance to swing by a local office of the IRS, you could get a copy of your official tax transcript which would indicate all of those details. You also can order one through the IRS website, but it will take a few days to arrive.</p>
<p>Our D1’s scholarship specifically states that it will be available for 8 semesters, and if she were to take classes or study abroad over a summer session that counts as a regular semester. If her scholarship funds were applied to her study abroad, that might explain why the funding has been decreased for her remaining undergrad time.</p>
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<p>The OP’s daughter has completed six semesters of school only - including her semester abroad. All the OP expects is Year 4 of a four-year scholarship.</p>
<p>Yes, dodgersmom is correct. Sorry for any confusion. I tend to get a bit wordy. And thanks, happymom, for that suggestion. It’s worth pursuing, and I’ll get on it today.</p>
<p>DD sent an email last week to the person in financial aid who oversees National Merit scholarships. Today I checked her account online, and the expected scholarships are now there. Must have been an oversight. Needless to say, we are all relieved. And I got some good advice here about FERPA. Thanks, everyone, for your knowledge and patience!</p>
<p>That is great news! Re: FERPA…we had the required documentation and the college insisted that our kid sign a waiver so we could speak to the bursar…which our kids happily did!</p>