<p>I think it should come from the parents if the concern is affordability and parents will be paying for most costs. If the parent isn’t paying anything and the kid is “on his own,” then it should come from the child.</p>
<p>thanks all…I’ll let you know how it turns out!</p>
<p>Good luck and I agree with Mom2. I think the person that pays the bill discusses the finances plus it takes the parents to input and sign-off on what generally amounts to the greater portion of the expected contribution so…parents talk to finaid if parents are paying in my world…I became bestest friends with my S1’s finaid head during a tumultuous period in our financial history over the course of two college years.</p>
<p>I had a very good conversation with D’s Admission’s Counselor at one school yesterday, and he seemed anxious and willing to help. Fingers crossed.</p>
<p>We had a positive outcome in appealing merit aid. My son talked to the admission’s counselor and in the course of the conversation, other schools did come into it, and he was asked to fax the letters. However, my son handled the entire thing, and it was not in the tone of negotiation. He just let them know his situation and what was keeping him from mailing out the commitment that day, that moment. </p>
<p>Sometimes, it is a total no go. The well might be dry, in which case, there is no way despite any appeal. But it does not hurt to ask. Sometimes if an aid award is so different between schools, something might have been missed . It does happen. But all who do want to open this discussion should know that it is rare that a sizable award is obtained. Most people I know were offered more loans. For us, it really wasn’t that much more we got, but it put the cost within what our limits were for payment. Could we have gone more in payment? Yes, but it would violated the budgetary planning we did to make those constraints and we had really gone more generously than we should have anyways. As an aside, I do want to say that my son’s sophomore year, things happened to raise the cost even higher for him He learned first hand that you can’t just go by the paper and numbers, and that some leeway has to be preserved because things often don’t go as planned. That extra merit made a big difference that year.</p>
<p>Want to throw in some info that might help some parents later on. Kiddos at 2 very different types of schools (ivy and OOS public) also experienced varying FA packages from year to year.</p>
<p>Income did not change but availability of funds at the schools did change. Both for the positive. Realizing that the early bird gets the worm both kiddos sent in the renewal forms as early as possible for remaining years. Institutional grants went up, SEOG amounts went up, major departments had some extra scholie/research/funding monies and work study jobs increased their per hour wage (most don’t realize this can vary by job so more monies can be awarded for less time spent working).</p>
<p>Housing can change freeing up more monies for tuition, thus lowering the amount for loans. So even though D2 was at an OOS public, each year her award/package improved significantly enough to not need any loans although initially included in the package.</p>
<p>Since she had a very high college GPA grants that had merit included also became part of her package even though she had an academic merit scholie to begin with, waiving OOS tuition +$$$. Son’s ivy was more than generous and his package did get better every year + they are a no-loan school. Son’s FA rep also gave him solid financial advice and was on hand for his grad school decsions. Exceptional counseling, still 2 years later.</p>
<p>Kiddos have always used the financial aid offices/personnel as a guide to how their years at the school would be, not the admissions office. Ad coms you deal with once, financial aid is what makes your ability to attend possible.</p>
<p>If the kiddos had a huge turn off from the FA offices, they crossed that school off their list. Sure enough it worked for all of them. No nasty surprises, no unyeilding rules, policies and staff…there are rules that all FA officers must follow, and there are policies and attitudes that can be much more “flexible”. Becoming a valuable asset to the campus doesn’t hurt either!</p>
<p>This might not happen for others but it did happen for us.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>Great advice. I am learning a lot.
Thanks</p>