Anyone heard back on financial aid appeals yet?

<p>Just wondering if anyone's had success. My mom and I sent appeals to Oberlin, Williams, and MIT. Oberlin lowered my EFC from 15k to 7k, and MIT didn't budge from 24k. I really hope Williams comes through. If they don't, I'll try faxing Oberlin's offer and if that doesn't work, then I guess I'm going to Oberlin (one of my favorite schools, but I really want to get out of Ohio!) My Williams EFC was 16.8k, which is probably not worth the loans over Oberlin.</p>

<p>Has anyone had success appealing at Williams?</p>

<p>No success for me.</p>

<p>No success for me, either.
Williams is going to be so expensive… my mom is having nightmares over it already.
I hope I don’t have to go to Cornell…</p>

<p>Williams hasn’t gotten back to me yet, but the prospects look grim. Initially, they calculated our EFC to be $90,000, despite the FAFSA’s calculation of a comparatively paltry $32,000.
I hope I get some sort of assistance.</p>

<p>williams was quite generous.
moved down from 22k to 13k for EFC, which makes it $30 cheaper than dartmouth (wonder if they use the same calculator)
tough choice here again :(</p>

<p>Kenflyken, did you submit something that persuaded them to lower your EFC, or did they just reevaluate your file?</p>

<p>Honestly, I would choose Williams over Dartmouth even if it weren’t $30k cheaper.</p>

<p>I think its an actual 30 dollars, not 30k. If it were 30k, it would be a really, really obvious move.</p>

<p>frydfrog,
i sent in a letter explaining why my family income will decrease in 2009-2010 and some supporting documents. the new award they gave will be evaluated again once my family’s actual 2009 income is in–so if my income projection is lower than actual, they will decrease my fin aid, and vice versa.</p>

<p>and yes, it’s an exact 30.00 dollars.</p>

<p>No success for me. </p>

<p>I used to love Williams, until they were so cheap they wouldn’t give an early write whose EFC is well below tuition anything. I thought Williams’ financial aid was supposed to be good; instead they are stingy jerks!</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Williams meets 100% of demonstrated need with no student loans, I fail to see how if your EFC is “well below” tuition resulted in you receiving no aid. Maybe you need to re-analyze your award letter and use some logic before you go ahead and call them “stingy jerks”</p>

<p>They do not meet 100% EFC without loans. All they offered me were loans.</p>

<p>Umm… Have you read their admissions site? They do not provide student loans in their fin aid packages. They may refer you to certain student loans that you can take out but they will never put student loans as apart of your award. Stop spreading false information and learn how to anaylze your award correctly.</p>

<p>Biology91:</p>

<p>Did you get a big envelope from the Office of the Controller? That is not your official financial aid package. The real one comes in a smaller, letter-sized envelope and has your personal information in it. There are zero loans.</p>

<p>I recieved the big envelope (which contained general information about loans) and a small envelope (which had my FA package: Loans). My EFC is well over $10,000 less than tuition. People who are applying: don’t buy the fact that they don’t use loans. They do. If you are middle class, they have horrible FA. I got need baised aid from EVERY school except for Williams and Bowdoin. </p>

<p>I even wrote a letter to the FA office, called, and emailed them. All they sent back was info on loans.</p>

<p>We are middle class with an excellent loan package. I don’t know if there is a mistake or not because Williams was the best package my S received.</p>

<p>Please post your families efc and then your contribution. If your efc is 10k less than tuition than it would be 29,490. I am aware of at least 3 people who have this efc and they are receiving close to 20k in aid with no loans. You are obviosuly reading it wrong or leaving something else. Maybe your not realzing that student assests is from you and is inculded in your total efc. What does it say for “total resources” in the resources column.</p>

<p>Okay, first I wanted to say I am sorry for calling the FA jerks (I personally think FA Director would be one of the hardest and worst jobs ever). It is simply hard to be told you can’t attend your dream school due to a reason unbeknownest to you. CC is a place to vent, but I shouldn’t have said that.</p>

<p>Next, I still hold that Williams offers loans. Basically, my letter said that I don’t qualify for FA, but (in the next sentence) offers me a Federal Stafford Loan. While this is not technically part of my FA package, they still know I need to take out a loan. It is as if I personally said, “I will pay for every person in the US to attend any college with no loans if they have Financial Need” and then classified Financial need as working 18 jobs and having a salary of $10. people can say whatever they want about no loans, but if Financial need is defined way higher than other schools, it doesn’t even matter. People still have loans (even larger than those at loans schools).</p>

<p>Thanks and I apologize.</p>

<p>Federal Stafford loans are indeed offered through the school (regardless of where you go.)</p>

<p>biology91, did you speak with a financial aid officer about how they defined your EFC? We’re middle class and got a generous package. Yes, they offer info about loans but my daughter’s need was met without loans. </p>

<p>I attended the financial aid session at Previews and the Director of FA said they are definitely open to negotiation if you received a better NEED based package elsewhere. You could try sending them copies of your other awards if you are still interested in Williams.</p>

<p>I am the parent of a current Williams student and I very much understand biology91’s frustration. Not all middle class families receive generous financial aid offers from Williams. We are a very middle class family and I am not employed. At the beginning of this school year we were hopeful that we would receive something more than the offer of loans that we got the last two years. We had an EFC of $30,000, had exhausted all of our savings, and were looking at some significant expenses related to property taxes, much needed home repairs that we had been deferring to pay tuition, and dental work. Not to mention that my husband had taken a cut in pay. We were distressed to receive $1300 in aid.</p>

<p>I appealed the decision. After all, they had offered us $5500 in loans the previous year. Wasn’t Williams eliminating loans? Also, hadn’t the way that they college calculated home equity changed in a way that should work in our favor? The response was that the new home equity calculation did not apply to us because we have retirement plans that they consider to be adequate. Never mind that our financial advisor does not agree. They went on to offer to help us apply for loans.</p>

<p>Of course our retirement plans are worth much less than they were at the beginning of the school year. Oh well…</p>