Appealing Financial Aid at BU

Paying for College
1

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>So here's my dilemna. I was accepted to BU with 16,500 (13,000 in grants and 3,500 in loans). My stats are:</p>

<p>3.27 UW (Hardest course load, 7 AP's)
33 ACT
720 Chem, 760 Math2</p>

<p>Tell me if I'm wrong, but I think those are good enough for at least some Merit Aid. First off, what office should I talk to about possibly receiving merit aid, Office of Admissions or Office of Financial Aid? Also, considering the cost of BU is around 49,000 they clearly did not meet my expected Financial Need of 36,000 (49,000-13,000). I will appeal the decision, but is it better to just send my appeal in the mail or should I just make an appointment with the FA Office and present my case there? Would a phone call be ok or would it be more beneficial to go in person?</p>

<p>Thanks a lot</p>

2

<p>Does BU guarantee merit aid with certain scores? If they don't I'm not sure what your basis is for appealing. </p>

<p>If you have circumstances you don't think BU considered in your FA app, it's always better to go in person. Call and make an appointment. And have clear documentation of what they might not have considered. Like high medical bills or a parent's recent job loss.</p>

3

<p>I am quite sure that you probably read my response 154 on this thread</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/480180-colleges-have-given-you-disappointing-financial-aid-offers-11.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/480180-colleges-have-given-you-disappointing-financial-aid-offers-11.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>While you have a solid ACT score I definitely think that it was your GPA which kept you out of the money at Boston especially when they state that they reward academic excellence. Since BU states that their FA is first and foremost based on academics, they will say that you did not clear their academic threshold to get their $$.</p>

<p>the school states

[quote]
</p>

<p>Top 2-6% in class; 1340-1460 SAT I; 29-32 ACT</p>

<p>Middle 50% of University grant $20,900-31,100
or scholarship </p>

<p>Middle 50% of total aid package $24,725-31,100

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I think you would have to be pretty close to the 2% to get the 30k.</p>

<p>Does your school rank? where did you fall in the rank. With a 36,000 demonstrated need, you needed to rank within the top 2 to 6% of your class to get enough money to cover your need.
you wrote on the other thread</p>

<p>
[quote]
according to that table I should get at least 30,000 in aid if not more...I don't know what went wrong...

[/quote]
</p>

<p>To get the 30k even in the second tier, I think you needed to be with in the top 5% of the class, unless you attend a really grade deflated school a 3.2,which is slightly below a B+ would not place you at the top 5% of the class. It definitely would not place you at the top 5 % of their admitted applicant pool.</p>

<p>Is your 13k EFC based on the FAFSA or the CSS profile. I agree with momwith3 that it is safe to say that your demonstrated need on the CSS profile is going to be higher). If you feel that there is something that BU overlooked by all means make sure that you mention it in your appeal letter. However, I do not expect this package to change.</p>

4

<p>sybbie thanks for the detailed response. I guess you're right about the merit aid part, but I was hoping to get at least a little merit aid. My EFC if 13k is based on FAFSA and not CSS. My school, however, does not rank, so I'm not sure what percent I am in my class. I definitely will be appealing the aid because my parents just started a business in August of 2007. Therefore, we have no income (all income is going towards expenses for the business). Also, Case Western offered me 36,000 in financial aid, meeting my EFC. Its broken into:</p>

<p>22,500 Scholarship (this was the reason why I thought BU would give me money)
3,000 Grants
10,500 Loans</p>

<p>If I present this to BU, do you think they will match it?</p>

<p>Thanks a lot</p>

5

<p>BU definitely looks at grades and class rank. DS HAD the SAT score but not the grades or the class ranking. He got no academic merit aid from them (he was a music major and got a great performance award...but no academic merit money). They really look at it all for the academic merit and they have tons of applicants who meet all of their academic requirements.</p>

6

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<p>You can certainly try it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. But be realistic about BU's criteria for merit aid.</p>

7

<p>Thanks thumper..yea I guess I thought I would get some because of Case's scholarship</p>

8

<p>i didn't get any merit aid at BU either, and I was a little suprised. </p>

<p>My stats:</p>

<p>1340 SAT I
700 Math I
730 U.S.
rank 2/800
4.0 uw/4.5w
tons of extracurriculars</p>

<p>i got an 11,000 grant but no merit : ( I knew BU favored high ranks and gpas, but i guess it just didn't work out for me</p>

9

<p>^
wow...and I thought I should've gotten merit...</p>