Appeal financial aid (Int Student= BIG DEBT))

Paying for College
1

<p>So, here is the letter I wrote to U. Michigan, since I would have to end up paying 52k $ or 48k $ if I chose U. Illinois. I read that if you are accepted to other schools, you can use it to your advantage by asking them to close the "costs-gap". Is this letter ok?:</p>

<p>To whom it may concern,</p>

<p>I appreciate the acceptance decision I received for the University of Michigan, but I am still undecided about which school to attend.
Unfortunately, our family income has been affected by the dramatic financial crisis in Europe, particularly in Spain.</p>

<p>I have received acceptance decisions from six other schools and I am still not sure on which one to attend. I am looking for the best academics-cost relation and the financial aid is definitely a crucial aspect which will affect my final decision. The schools to which I have been accepted for their respective Computer Science departments are:
-The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
-Ohio State University
-The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- The University of Massachusetts at Amherst
- The University of Maryland at College Park
The University of Massachusetts has awarded me with a Chancellor’s Scholarship of 8500$ per academic year, renewable up to four years. With these financial issues in Spain, my family hugely appreciates this award.
Although my financial situation is challenging at the moment, there is no doubt in my mind that I will succeed in college. I will commit myself to achieve a high GPA during my studies at whatever university I chose to attend.</p>

<p>Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to explain my financial circumstances. I look forward to hearing about your decision.</p>

<p>Sincerely,</p>

<p>NAME</p>

2

<p>Michigan makes clear that they do not give aid to internationals.</p>

3

<p>Yes, let us know if your letter bears fruit, but UofM is pretty straightforward regarding not awarding aid to international students.</p>

4

<p>And you tell a story, but you don’t ask for anything, so there is no “decision” to be made. You may want to make it clear what you are asking for.</p>

5

<p>Why would an int’l apply to a bunch of publics when he has a lot of need? Rarely do publics give aid to int’ls.</p>

<p>There are some that give large merit to int’ls, so why not apply to those???</p>

6

<p>Yes, there tend to be more merit awards that are available that do not exclude international students, than financial aid available for international students. That the OP got a nice award from UMass is great achievement. Congratulations, and if money is an issue, go to the most affordable school which appears to be UMass in this case. No harm in sending the letter to UM or any of your schools, but don’t expect much. This is the case for US student appealing as well. Many who are appealing are arguing line items and technicalities and differences in various schools’ interpretations of need, and they still don’t have a good chance of getting much more, and usually that is more loans.</p>

7

<p>This is going to get you NO WHERE with UMich. They do not give need based aid to international students…period.</p>

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<p>Sorry, but agree with someone upstream. Your letter doesn’t ask for any kind of DECISION. You simply stated where you got accepted…and what aid you received.</p>