Appealing Financial aid and merit awards

@JerseyParents - he will be patient and wait until the final week to make his decision. If #1 isn’t on pace for their expected yield maybe they will have a few dollars to entice the remaining undecideds? I read somewhere else that new $ after May 1st are rare and a deposit at both schools would just indicate to both that they already have you committed. So disregard that question unless you have information that says otherwise. Thanks everyone!

@2KansasKids - We were in a similiar situation with my first child about 6 years ago. What we did was put a deposit on the second choice school and wait out the first choice with no deposit. I talked to admission and told them exactly what we were doing, explained how much my daughter wanted to go there and we were willing to take the gamble and walk away from the deposit on the second choice school if they came through with the money - and their first scholarship offer was $25,000 short of what we could afford, so they needed to cough up a lot. The admissions director told us upfront that the only way they could give us that much money is if someone with a full ride declined. We put deposit on second choice so she wouldn’t lose both schools. Long story short, my daughter ended up going to her first choice after they offered her a full tuition scholarship and work study. That was all before we even knew you could file a formal appeal, so it was all done through e-mail and phone calls. I’m sure this isn’t common practice, but in our case it worked out.

@countertenor - great story. His admissions rep knows how interested he is. I’m sure he will do what he can. I imagine it varies each year at each school on what is available. How close to the May 1 deadline did they come through for you?

Not all schools re-award the scholarships that are not taken when students choose another school. The fact that some students will turn down the scholarships is part of the calculation of how much to award in the first round.

A $17k difference is a lot. I’ll bet they’ll come back with $4k more, which will make the decision even harder.

@2KansasKids - I don’t remember exactly, (I actually want to say it was after May 1st) but it was close enough that we paid the deposit on school #2 (and given up hope) when we got the call.

D was given an additional $2K scholarship from the small private LAC after appeal. After scholarship, some needs based aid and work study - it is still $8k a year more than the well-regarded large state school offer. That is a big difference, since she will need grad school as well.

We have submitted a deposit the the state school, telling the LAC that we would be willing to lose that deposit if additional scholarship money becomes available after May 1. The LAC has said they hope she can attend, but not “what do you need to make this work?” That is disappointing.

D was having a hard time choosing between the 2 programs. She was not sure the small program would be the best fit, but she had hoped to think about it without finances playing a part. Sadly, that is not how this process works. We think she will be happy at the larger school. i had worried that the smaller school was too sports and Greek focused and would feel too much like high school. D seemed happy about attending the state school, but was disappointed with the small increase in tuition. I think if she goes back to focusing on the opportunities at the larger school, she will be happy about it again. If something changes in May, we will deal with it then.

Thanks for the update @cgmndt. We still haven’t heard anything from "school A’ and it’s been almost 2 weeks. I emailed school B yesterday and got a lackluster and not encouraging email back basically saying “we will review with our scholarship committee but I don’t expect additional funds to become available”. Ugh. And nothing else from school C that had approached us and said they had already started the appeal process on our behalf. Bizarre.

The schools are kind of doing the same thing the students are doing … weighing their options and waiting on offers (acceptances).

As crappy as it may seem, sometimes the funds (or lack thereof) is what makes the final decision finally happen! And as parents, we have to decide (if we haven’t already) what we are willing or not willing to do to make things happen.

Can we really NOT afford the dream school at all or just prefer to not take out a loan, drain the savings, etc?

Are we willing to take out a loan for 1 school but not another?

Does lowest price automatically win?

Does best option at a price of no more than $X. win?

I think the worst part of this process is that we have (probably) taken our kids on visits and auditions and sample lessons to a whole lot of schools we can’t afford without large (possibly total longshot) scholarships. I’m sure we all explained this from the beginning, but in the end it’s much harder to deal with.

We are not wrong for doing it… don’t know unless you try! But it really can be horrible unless you are one of the lucky ones that got the perfect scholarship at the perfect school.

My kid didn’t choose to attend any of the 6 good options she had! We lost our deposit and she applied, auditioned and accepted another school in May-June. lol Guess what? It all worked out. Don’t despair! Hope that gives someone a ray of hope for the day! (Or at least makes you feel better about your situation) Ha ha!

I decided not to take my kid on a ‘tour of places I cannot afford’. I paid for the applications at some elites and I said we would visit if accepted with enough scholarship money. He then did local alumni interviews to show interest (since we didn’t visit). But we did visit a couple of semi-selective private regional schools and he did fall in love with one, putting us where we are today. In the end, he isn’t looking for the lowest cost, but the best VALUE. That means choice #1 is worth more than choice #2 but ‘how much’ is the big question. I’m paying the same either way, his choice is between #1 and done, or #2 and some help from me with grad school (should he go that route). I think if they bring the $17K/yr difference down by another $3K-$5K a year he will go that route. I’m just getting advice to help him navigate the process.

That’s awesome @dbandmom and I think you summed up exactly our experience. D applied/auditioned at 8 schools. I would say one was a “reach” for admission as well as expected scholarship and ultimately came in with an acceptance which was an honor for D, and a low merit scholarship, which wasn’t unexpected but at the same time disappointing. That one has been removed and formally declined which oddly enough the head of jazz voice emailed D extensively AFTER she declined. Weird.

Another top choice came in as expected, nice scholarship, doable but would still like more money. That school is still in the mix. The third (not in that order necessarily) top choice came in with a higher than expected merit award but still lower than we can afford and we await results of that appeal. Most of the rest were relative safeties which, to be honest, I think D could thrive at any of them. We have formally declined 5 of the 8 schools so as to open up scholarship money to kids out there appealing at those schools. I hope everyone would do that would schools they have no intention of attending.

The difficult part is with a 17 year old girl who’s mood changes with the weather. In Michigan that can be hour to hour. :-(( Our joke around here is only in Michigan do you put the heat and the air conditioning on during the same day. LOL. She feels like she could attend school B but in her gut doesn’t feel like that’s where she should be. For school A, when we were there for the audition it felt overwhelming to her and a place she should come after she graduates. It’s all very overwhelming and stressful and the finances do indeed dictate some of the decision making process. But I feel confident that no matter where she ends up, it will be up to her to make her own success. I’d like her to do that without putting us in the poorhouse!

Roll on May 1st and D day! 18 days and counting…

What about auditions @2KansasKids ? My kid had visits (by way of audition) at all schools before any offers other than academic.

Just curious as to how you navigated the whole process…I don’t think we could have afforded a single school she applied to without some sort of scholarship.

We were looking for the best value too. Willing to pay more or less depending on the school.

Ha! @SpartanDrew ! We are Chicago area - right with you on the weather thing!

I’m sure D will end up at her top pick no matter the outcome of the appeal. For us it just comes down to trying to spare her having to take loans. The value of this school outweighs others on our list, so ultimately I feel like it is a good choice for her. My hope for more scholarship money would give her more flexibility to participate in other things besides just going to class if she didn’t have to take any loans (summer festivals, trips, etc) and of course no debt going into grad school would be ideal.

She has a full ride at a school that for some on CC is their top pick. I wish we could give her scholarship money to those folks. We will decline next week. I would like to think that another student would get those funds, but it is all academic money, so I don’t know how that works.

@dbandmom - DS is not in art/music/theater, so he had no ‘auditions’. His scholarships/admissions were based off the standard academics, essays, extra-curricular’s, and community service. I got some advice that local alumni interviews showed enough interest in a school (for those that weight that) so personal visits weren’t needed unless there was a chance it could actually work out.

Well we have an update. School A emailed D this morning and bumped her offer up to match school B so it was a 6K increase. The COA for both schools now is about the same but cost of living is much higher at school A and housing is only guaranteed for the first year. D will be visiting for admitted students day a week from tomorrow. Then sitting in on classes there Monday and Tuesday that week and speaking to a current student there who is an amazing jazz vocalist. I think she will have all of her questions answered by then. I hope so anyway…

@SpartanDrew Hearty congrats on the successful appeal! Glad money is not a factor in the decision (ie. COA is on par)

@SpartanDrew - nice update! DS is going to contact his admissions counselor later this week to ask for an update. Hope he has the same success you did.

So, for parents next year, why appeal? Particularly when the amts granted are generally bx $1-5K per year.

1.) Imho, you should be modeling or teaching your kid it’s OK to ask for money bc they will need these skills in the professional world (and also for summer programs). And it’s OK to get a “no”. Fear a failure can make it hard to audition, negotiate contracts, ask for gigs so they need to practice failure and still move forward. Performance kids do have these skills generally from auditioning. But some of these kids do so well during high school, get accepted to all schools that they actually don’t practice failure that much. My D has never auditioned and failed as much as the first year of professional work. She’s getting very used to it.

2.) You may get a surprise. You may be the unicorn! You never know until you ask. It does help if you have a competing offer at a same level school. We just asked for more. There was one school with a slightly better offer but it was not of the same caliber. We didn’t attempt to use it. But my D asked…just to be sure dollars weren’t left on the table. The “no” stung for a day…but so what…you get over it and know you did your best.

3.). The amounts can seem small. Still an additional $2500 per year is $10K that could be used for summer programs etc. However that assumes the school is already in the affordable range. If an addl $5K a year still leaves a school completely unaffordable, you may need to move on (unless maybe there is an FA issue that needs to be addressed).

I still stand by not looking at the unicorn cases of full tuition and then successful, big appeals (while still entertaining the thought that your little scooter may be the one). Assuming you have a talented kid with solid academics (but not stellar) I think in-state tuition with a premium of 5K a year is realistic mid-point. Hopefully you’ll get a nice surprise or two below that and maybe a stinker well above that at some “dream” school. A smart list is the key…looking for opportunities (including in-state tuition opportunities) to assure affordable choices. And if FA will play a major role you’ll need to be smart about those schools too (but I don’t know a lot about FA).

And about unicorns I think CC skews successful. The people sharing probs have a pretty high certainty of success based on past experiences. I know some kids who received NO acceptance back in the day. That is why I put my opinion of mid-point which may seem high compared to experiences here. Still based on my nosiness with people not on CC, the in-state plus a premium seemed pretty common.

VERY helpful @bridgenail ! “…I think CC skews successful.” YES. “…they need to practice failure and still move forward.” YES!

I agree with @bridgenail, above. Remember also how many hours your student will need to work to make that extra few thousand that seems so small right now. But I particularly agree that musicians need to learn the skills required to advocate for themselves.