Appealing Financial aid and merit awards

Has anyone out there in the past had any real success with this? I’m specifically asking about increasing merit awards, NOT anything need based. If so can you elaborate what that looked like? Like specifics like “I appealed for an additional 10K and got 2K…” etc. And also if you appealed and were unsuccessful I would be very interested in that information as well. Actually quite a few CC parents out there with seniors right now trying to navigate this crazy process would be interested to know people’s actual experience.

I think a lot of CC’ers on here have said things like “appeal all awards!” but when we have drilled down to get the facts behind those appeals they have either been unsuccessful or minimal at best. Additionally, does anyone have any thoughts on whether or not to appeal more than one award at a time? D is down to her final two schools. We have already appealed school A and if that is unsuccessful (which I expect it to be) I plan to appeal school B. Should I appeal to school B now? I feel as though we need to give a commitment to attend school B before we appeal… does anyone have thoughts on that?

If you feel more comfortable sending specific information in a PM I would greatly appreciate that as well. I think this is all very useful information for all of us going through this during the crazy month of April.

My understanding of the proper form, and I agree with it, is that you should probably only formally appeal one award at a time, and in the order of your first choice school first. An award appeal should be more in the nature of “this is my first choice, but money is a concern, can you help?” not an attempt to pit one school against another to drive down the COA at both.

If denied, I think it’s then OK to appeal the next choice that, again, you would enroll in if they come through.

Thanks so much @NYCMusicDad. That was my understanding as well which is why we haven’t done anything with school B yet. We are not trying to pit one against the other at all. Oddly D really has very little information about school A. No more than what she gleaned on a very short visit, tour and audition day but in her 17 year old mind that knows everything she seems to think it’s the best fit. We know everything we can possibly know about school B and I think it’s exactly where she should be but of course if I push that agenda she will move it further down the list. It’s a teenage daughter/mother thing. I feel like I’m hunting. Tread carefully and quietly so as not to spook the teenage daughter into running in the opposite direction! UGH!

I am definitely not an expert, but here are some observations I’ve made both through my own experience and those of others:

Most schools don’t take formal appeals for merit requests. They typically reserve appeals for Financial Aid, which is done by Financial Aid experts using predefined formulas and calculations. If you can provide evidence of legitimate changes in financial circumstances, this should be done at ALL institutions, not just your top school.

Typical increases in merit scholarships are far rarer and usually come in small amounts (1-5K) that don’t make much of a dent in the expected family contribution.

Large increases in merit alone are rare and reserved for the special unicorn that the school may need in a given year. This is when it may be appropriate to whip out the other awards for comparison. It is best handled in conjunction with Admissions and specific faculty that want your child and can appeal on their behalf. Not many of you have posted that you saw a large, after the fact, merit increase and I don’t think they happen through actual appeals. I believe the ones that did were working closely with the Chair of the respective dept. I think that by now, you should have a strong sense of the school’s interest. When a faculty member wants you, they make it known. Please chime in if I am wrong.

Bottom line is that very few of our kids are the unicorn that their dream school wants/needs. If they were, they probably would have gotten a top offer to begin with or they’ve been in contact with you trying to work on things. I think CC can be misleading. Everyone is so supportive of each other that we don’t always express the tougher realities we have observed and focus on the unicorn stories instead.

We didn’t do any formal appeals with my D21, however we did inquire about more merit money (before she got her Oberlin admission decision and offer in late March) at 2 programs. There was definitely a bit of a delay, but in both cases we received the offer of a few extra thousand ($2-$5 thousand) in music merit (not huge amounts). I have shared this with a few of you privately, but D actually received offers of extra merit aid from 3 programs weeks AFTER formally declining admission (in the month of April); in two cases, these were the programs that had already offered a few thousand more than their original offers. I mention this to let you all know how fluid things can become late in April, as applicants commit, and programs are possibly trying to sweeten the pot to meet their needs. I have no experience with formal appeals.

thanks so much for your insight and help @dramasopranomom. And @Melodyminor I agree with 100% of everything you have said. I went into this thinking other schools would automatically match higher merit offers. I think this will not be the case at all. I’ll keep everyone posted on our success or lack of it as we roll through April.

It’s April…

Oops…April. Fixed. Must have been a moment of PTSD from March :-))

Last year D3applied to a program, received no award, declined it formally right away, and then received an offer for $20K (she’d not made an appeal–this was for a second MM and she decided against the program after doing some research.) This was at a well-known conservatory in NY. So you never know…

I thought I’d heard/seen everything, but an offer after a formal decline was unexpected. (For the record, I do have experience with formal appeals, both successful and not-successful. For example, in the case of her her first MM, she went from a half-tuition scholarship to full-tuition covered, following an appeal. That may seem unusual, but she was a known person in this institution and had faculty support.) My point is that there are no absolute rules. I’ve seen many posts here in which people make statements that contradict empirical observation.

I would also not advise waiting to make an appeal to the second choice school because you have limited time. If you appeal to school #1 and they deny your appeal late in the month, then you have very little time to appeal to school #2, which is theoretically now your de facto first choice. School #2 will probably be aware they were not first choice, anyway, if you wait that long. Remember also, that to the admissions and financial aid committees, your student’s application and their appeal is simply work flow. They will not take this personally.

That is very interesting and helpful @glassharmonica. Do you have experience for this for undergrad at all? I suspect grad school appeals may be different animals…

^like @glassharmonica said, I had no idea that offers of more money after formally declining were even a possibility. But obviously you do not want to bank on or expect this! A school is more likely to give away your spot and your original merit money! And I’m just wondering if this sort of thing is more likely in VP, where type is something of an issue… in other words, if a program didn’t yield a singer of your type, they may be really invested in trying to get you to come? I don’t know…I feel like one needs a specially trained lawyer or business manager for all these negotiations!!!

so D should call NEC’s bluff and decline right away then?? :-)) hahaha! only joking but will likely do exactly that.

We did appeal for DD1 at a Conservatory. They did match another schools offer. Unfortunately we were hoping for more given the overall COA. I had heard of larger increases from said school. We simply didn’t have larger offers to be matched. DS was unsuccessful with an appeal at a public university.

@Melodyminor - I could not have written a better post!

@SpartanDrew…you are in a bit of a pickle. Is there anyway you can get an idea from school A about when they will reply. You could ask about expectations for a response. Is it next week or the end of April? I do think you can appeal to school B at some point if your intentions are pure (no game playing) and if school A drags its feet…its not really fair to you.

My concern with the appeal however is what happens if school B says YES in a few days…and you’re still waiting on school A…awkward! They won’t rescind the offer of course…just say you need it in writing and a few days to consider. You could sit on it for a few weeks explaining that another school surprised you…(by not responding sooner lol)…but I don’t know…just talking through some ideas. At some point, if school A is just going to lock you up to the end of April, I think you may need to forego proper procedures and enter survival mode and appeal to school B…and “deal with the awkward ramifications”. It IS your money…and the situation is not perfect. Just some thoughts on a tough situation.

I don’t have experience with an appeal (yet) but D is getting emails from two different professors. School A has mailed their scholarship letter via snail mail, so we are still waiting to see what it is. School B has made an initial low offer but D got email today saying that after April 16th they might be able to increase it.

thanks @bridgenail. I am definitely waiting for a bit on school B. I got a very nice email today from school A saying “I know you haven’t heard back from the committee yet but I am hopeful we will have those results soon.”. I hope their version of “soon” is the same as mine. I’m giving it until April 16 and then if school A hasn’t given us any news, I’ll try them again and ask for a date. And probably reach out to school B then as well.

We did have some “new” information to share on some exciting news for D so we let them know that. It’s not public until the end of the month but we were given the green light to let college faculty know so we did. I’m hoping that shakes some money loose as well.

@SpartanDrew I’m betting that new info may be just the thing to tip the scales in your favor…fingers and toes crossed!

@SpartainDrew, yes I have experience with appealing undergrad awards. I have four kids and did not realize until #3 that it was even possible to appeal awards. For my 3rd daughter (who went to music conservatory) and my 4th (who went to a theater program) we successfully appealed our awards. I’ve written about this in the past in a column and if you PM me I will send the links.

we have started an appeal with a small LAC. Generous award, but the school is $60k/year. The head of the music school asked for confirmation of cost of attendance for the other programs in contention. He said no promises, but he would try to get more money. Daughter is a coloratura soprano. Her other top choice is a very large public school with a great music program and very affordable. I honesty don’t know were she would fit best. I just want the decision to be made already!

No news on appeal yet. If anyone appeals awards and has any news, good or bad, and feels comfortable to share I know many of us would be interested to hear. I’ve heard some have gotten news back within 24 hours and others of us are in a holding pattern.