Hello everyone,
I recently got admitted to LMU this Feb. I was pretty excited and was seriously considering it. I just got the financial aid package, however, and I am pretty disappointed. The financial aid package barely dents cost of attendance and my other private schools that I have considered gave me a lot more. I am seriously considering LMU, so how should I go about asking for an appeal? Can I use my other schools as leverage?
Thanks!
i would really appreciate some answers
thanks for the help
Did you apply EA or RD? I just checked PROWL and was pretty disappointed with what they offered me as well
I was disappointed as well. I’m going to attempt to make a financial aid appeal as well. Personally i’m going to attempt to talk to my high school counselor to see how i would go about doing this, and i’ll come back with an answer tommorow @maythe19
First, don’t get annoyed when people don’t respond immediately. It’s spring vacation and people are traveling.
LMU is not strong with the financial aid, historically, so don’t take it personally. Many students experience just what you have, other schools giving much better FA packages, which only increases the hopes LMU will follow suit.
I’m not sure what your stats are but from what I gather, the top FA packages/scholarships went to top achievers with top stats, and to those who applied EA.
@Mimi2018 if you don’t mind me asking how much did your daughter receive? trying to do my research before reaching out to admissions office
LMU is not a school that is able to meet 100% need. The following stats are from a site called “collegedata” which takes its stats from the Common Data Set. There’s a lot of financial aid “gapping” at LMU, so appeals are probably not able to be met.
Financial Aid Applicants 1,059 (78.2%) of freshmen
Found to Have Financial Need 743 (70.2%) of applicants
Received Financial Aid 733 (98.7%) of applicants with financial need
Need Fully Met 147 (20.1%) of aid recipients
Average Percent of Need Met 65%
Average Award $27,843
@Mimi2018 also I have seen you on other forums thats how I know that your daughter had applied haha
@lvinaz- my D is with the group that didn’t receive a whole lot, so I do understand the shock when opening the FA packet! I prefer not to give exact stats but her total package was around $20K, this included the EA scholarships plus some other LMU grants. FA is not a deal breaker for her, fortunately, although every bit really helps. I researched posts from previous years, which is how I figured out that LMU isn’t super generous with FA, as say Santa Clara. My D’s stats were in 75th percentile range. The scholarships seem to go to very high SAT (1410-1600) and 4.0+ GPA, so my D was not in the running for those big scholarships.
We were just on campus last Friday to visit with admissions, and I have to say that I was even more impressed than when we were there last Fall. The campus is stunning, and the staff and students were all so friendly that it feels almost unreal that kids actually study there… I’d want to be at the pool! We drove down to Silicone Beach area, which is where the Whole Foods is (I think that’s what the area is called)…literally 7 minutes from LMU. It’s a beautiful area, and appears to be adding more shops and restaurants.
Good luck with your appeal. I’ll keep you all in my thoughts and hope it works out for you!
LMU will most likely not meet your full need but I appealed when I was accepted and got 20K more than I was originally offered. You may not get that much but it’s worth a try, especially closer to decision day when people start rejecting their acceptance and it frees up more money to be allocated elsewhere.
@colhopeful443 congratulations $20,000 is more than I would expect! how exactly did you appeal? I wrote an email to the admissions office but haven’t received anything back yet.
@livinaz if you google LMU financial aid appeal there’s a website that tells you have to appeal and what you need depending on your situation
@livinaz- When we were at LMU last a Friday, we were told they had 5,000 people signed up for tours this week over Spring Vacation, in other words it sounds as if it’s very busy on campus right now for the folks in admissions. If you don’t hear back from them, perhaps try reaching out to the FA office? Not exactly sure if that’s ok to do, or not, but if admissions doesn’t get back to you, it might be worth a shot. Good luck!
I applied regular decision
@colhopeful443 Which form did you fill out? Was it the Appeal to Adjust Cost of Attendance Form? Or did you do something like the Monthly Income and Expense Form?
What should I do if my financial aid was not enough, but I didn’t have any life-changing circumstances that could get me more aid? Am I SOL?
@Bennyboy97 I definitely relate to this. LMU gave me little to no financial aid ($5,500 with the LMU Achievement Award), and I got some federal financial aid, but not nearly enough to cover even a portion of my cost with an EFC of 0.
If anyone who has appealed already and has heard back, please let me know how you went about with it!