<p>Has anyone had success in appealing a financial aid award in the past? Georgetown is saying I have to come with $31K for my son to attend. That's pretty unmanageable, so we were hoping to appeal.</p>
<p>What is the appeals process? I would interested in learning about your experience if you should try.</p>
<p>We’re going to find out today, hopefully.</p>
<p>How’d it turn out?</p>
<p>We’re working on it – It’s a challenging process to say the least.</p>
<p>Keep me informed.</p>
<p>mdterp63…I was wondering if you had any success. We have been appealing the financial aid package for about a month now and still no word. The financial aid office keeps coming back with more questions (one about a tax return item and one about my disability last year) and we answer them immediately and then we wait. My d is waiting to make her decision and it is taking a long time. I keep telling her to assume the aid package is not going to change, but she is holding out hope 
Up until last week the financial aid office has been very responsive. They asked a question last Tuesday which we immediately replied to as the review committee meets on Wednesday and they have been unresponsive to our communication effort since.</p>
<p>Don’t give up. The Fin Aid office was very busy last week with tons of students and parents on campus for GAAP. Their offices were swamped with parents waiting for appointments. So maybe this week, now that the dust has settled, you might get a response.</p>
<p>@Dustysdad - We hope to hear by Thursday or Friday. We’ve had a few bumps in the road but we are hopeful.</p>
<p>Are you contacting them through email?</p>
<p>We were in contact via email and telephone. They did get back to us last night. The financial aid department is very professional and in general responsive. They did increase the financial aid reward and we are very greatful. Unfortunately, it is still too much debt for our d considering she is likely to continue on after her undergraduate degree. We are very fortunate that she received a full tuition scholarship to Goucher. I wish we could have made Georgetown work for her :(</p>
<p>This illustrates the insincerity in Georgetown’s commitment to make tuition affordable. Georgetown would like us to believe</p>
<p>"The University works to provide eligible students 100 percent of their demonstrated financial need through scholarships, loans and other forms of assistance. Our practices mean that every eligible undergraduate student, once accepted, can afford to enroll. "</p>
<p>All schools that meet need uses their own definition of need. It’s not just Georgetown.</p>
<p>I think GT attempts to define “need” when they say:</p>
<p>“Our practices mean that every eligible undergraduate student, once accepted, can afford to enroll.”</p>
<p>Of course, to understand this statement one needs to know GT’s definition of “afford”. This statement allowed me to believe that we would be able to afford the tuition. But, now that I understand that “to afford” to GT means “to be able to incur dept,” I understand the statement perfectly. </p>
<p>I propose the following edit:</p>
<p>“Our practices mean that every eligible undergraduate student, once accepted, can afford [to borrow enough funds] to enroll.”</p>
<p>I know how you feel; I felt the same way about Hopkins, but you have to get over the fact that you won’t be attending because of financial reasons, even though they met your need as they define it.</p>
<p>It’s a difficult pill to swallow. GT is such a lovely school with an apparent commitment to public service. It’s easy to forget that GT is also a business and, as such, has no problem putting some misleading ad copy on its website. I guess I can feel grateful that our family has the means in GT’s opinion to incur ten’s of thousands of dollars in debt.</p>
<p>How does the Georgetown aid package compare to other private institutions where you child was accepted?</p>
<p>Univ of MD lowered our EFC by $10K. Another school, even with a tuition roughly $20K less than GT, offered a package similar to what GT offered.</p>
<p>What was your federal EFC? How about income and home equity?</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter. We will come up the money somehow. We will owe a lot of money after 4 years, but that is our decision, not GT’s. It was my mistake to believe that GT would not expect me to borrow so much. I read that a lot of people carry large debts, especially after college. So, we will be no different.</p>