<p>Hi all.
I'm an international student living in Japan and I was accepted to Macalester College.</p>
<p>I applied for financial aid and was fortunate enough to get an aid package totaling $25,000 composed of Kofi Anan scholarship (they say it's extremely competitive scholarship on the website), MCISL loan (7% interest rate), and on-campus employment.</p>
<p>The thing is Mac's total cost of attendance is a bit more than $51,000 (excluding living cost, health insurance, flights, etc) and with that aid, my parents will have to pay $26,000 in direct cost AND extra few thousand dollars for me. </p>
<p>With this offer, there is absolutely no way I can attend Macalester.
My father is the only one employed and he earns about $120,000 a year (calculated so because Yen is strong). I have one more sibling who attends a private university in Japan and she has 2 more years of college now. (the total cost of attendance including living cost for her is sth like $17,000 a year)</p>
<p>Macalester says it meets 100% demonstrated need of all admitted students and my family's contribution was $17,000 in the Certification of Finances, which I submitted as part of aid application.</p>
<p>I don't know how they expect me to come up with additional $10,000 or more...</p>
<p>Japan's cost of living is extremely high compare to many cities in the USA, especially Twin Cities. It is said that Japan's cost of living is 30% higher than the States's. </p>
<p>BUT... I don't think my family has solid evidence to prove that we desperately need more aid except the future prediction that my sister's tuition may increase a little bit.</p>
<p>Do you think there is any chance I can appeal for my current aid package?</p>
<p>Please help..
Mac is definitely my first choice, and I REALLY REALLY want to attend Mac...</p>
<p>If you need to know my stats, please post a reply. I will try to reply back ASAP.</p>
<p>Thank you for reading this long post.!</p>