My daughter has been accepted at a competitive private regional university in the Northeast but we’ve been ‘gapped’ to the tune of $15,000 a year. She was also accepted at the top public university in our state and she is seriously considering both schools, but only if the private school can help close this gap. My question is, when contacting a college or university to appeal for more financial aid, who should take the lead - the student or the parent? When we went through this process five years ago we were advised to have our son make the call. His appeal was not successful - he did a good job laying out his case but I felt that the person he spoke with politely but firmly brushed him off and that was that. My instinct this time around is to take the lead, with my daughter also on the call. We just want to put our best foot forward.
I understand that we all want our students to take control of their financial futures, but the package we received has my daughter taking out the max in Stafford loans and my wife and I are the ones who are expected here to go into greater debt to finance her education.
I think in your case I would be the one calling. As you say, it’s your money that would be walking out the door. However, be prepared to be told no change. Few competitive private Us would consider a public U as a peer.
How much are you willing to pay for your child’s college education? Do you qualify for financial aid, or does she qualify for the top merit scholarships? Stafford loans should not be a huge problem after she graduates - no one LIKES loans, but they can be set up so that payments are manageable.
What is the basis for your appeal? You need more than “we don’t want to pay this much”. Have you done the financial aid calculators for the schools to see if their offer is on par with the calculator? You have the best odds of appeal if you can provide specific and arguable justification for your request.
It was my money, so I just made all financial aid/grant/scholarship calls. She was already admitted, no one left to impress at the school with how mature she was. Even with her athletic money, she asked me to step in and deal with the coach. She was 16 at the time and just didn’t have any idea how all the pieces of the financial puzzle fit together or what all the rules were about taking money from different sources (I don’t think I even understood it then!)
I just filled out the financial aid appeal for her for this current year. The forms all required the parent and student signatures, and the appeal is technically coming from the student, but all the information is from the parent and there is no way the student would know it - taxes, parent earnings, reason for change in earnings, etc. I don’t think anyone in FA believes the students can appeal, it is really the parent. I put all the documents together and just had her sign them.
Just remember that financial aid is year to year. Even if the school agrees to cover your gap this year does not mean it will agree to do so next year.
I completely think the parent should call. On everything else - getting into honors programs, requesting some specific dorm, appealing a grade – the kid. But on the money that we’re going to be shelling out over the next 4 years? Us. The parentos!
To clarify, I have spent hours on the school’s website and other online resources researching this. It is not a matter of ‘We don’t want to pay this much’ - it’s a matter of ‘We can only afford to pay this much’. My daughter will be taking out loans (Staffords and a small Perkins loan), just as her older brother did. I submitted the FAFSA and I’m well familiar with the EFC. We will be paying this and even going beyond, but we have our limits. I get the feeling that the school looked at our PROFILE information and thinks that we can just take out a home equity loan but we’ve done that already, in part to finance her brother’s education. Another loan is not on the table.
OP- unless you haven’t posted some relevant facts, my guess is that it doesn’t matter who makes the phone call (your original question) since the answer is likely to be no either way. But if you’ll move forward knowing you gave it your best shot if you do the “ask”- then go for it.
I don’t see here enough grounds for an increase- of course, you are entitled to your privacy if you’ve chosen not to post those details. If there has been an error- computational or otherwise, then I’m wrong. But if the basis of the ask is “another college came in much cheaper and we can’t afford the package you’ve given us” then I think the answer is going to be “well then your decision is an easy one”.
We are dealing with a very similar situation in my house right now, gapped about $7500 more than the NPC suggested at a very top LAC. Luckily, another top 25 LAC has come through with incredible F/A about $4,000 over what was suggested by the NPC all with the same tax forms FAFSA and PROFILE. D sent in an Email and is planning to meet face to face with the Fin aid people during accepted students weekend if they are at all receptive to her E-mail. The top school has a great reputation for meeting need so I am very hopeful things will work out. Yet i can’t help but wonder how two fantastic schools see exactly the same thing yet define “100% need met” $11,500 a year differently?
I don’t believe it matters whether a parent or student makes the case… It’s all about the way administration wants to deal with these issues.
The relevant fact is that there is a $15,000 annual gap between our EFC and the combined package of scholarships, grants and loan aid that was awarded. So, yeah, I guess I’m saying “another college came in much cheaper and we can’t afford the package you’ve given us”. I’m under no illusions that this will likely work but at least we will give it a try.
If it is not a meets full college, then it is likely not going to give enough aid to meet your EFC and you are going to be gapped. You could give it a try. Why not?
We’re in NYS and one of our IS privates brought the cost down to roughly the same as a (public) SUNY (but without our prompting), so you never know. I suspect it depends on the policy of that particular school. It doesn’t hurt to ask. Let us know how it works out.
When comparable LAC’s that claim to meet full need come up with very different financial aid awards, then it’s likely that they calculated something in your family finances differently from each other. In my son’s case, it was home equity - some schools accepted my assessment of home equity, and others recalculated home equity (and came up with a much higher figure). There is no way my son could have handled this on his own - he simply isn’t familiar enough with our family finances to have explained to the FA office where they made their error.
I guess if all you’re doing is begging for more assistance - “This student can’t possibly attend College X without more money!” - then the student may as well make that telephone call himself or herself. But if you’re going through the FA office’s financial calculations with a fine-toothed comb, and contesting some of their calculations, then that’s the parents’ job, not the student’s.
And, for the record, it’s this latter type of appeal that’s more likely to have traction. Show them where they made a mistake, and they will (more often than not) be willing to correct it.
First off, you can’t really be using the FAFSA EFC as your guideline. It doesn’t really mean the amount that you’re expected to pay.
This school uses CSS Profile to determine aid.
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. I get the feeling that the school looked at our PROFILE information and thinks that we can just take out a home equity loan but we've done that already, in part to finance her brother's education. Another loan is not on the table.
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Did you indicate the equity correctly??? If there is already a loan against the equity then did you indicate that?
For instance…
If home is worth $300k
and you have $210k mortgage
then equity would be $90k
but if you already have a Home Equity loan of $50k, then suddenly your equity is now $40k, not $50k.
Something similar happened to us. We asked our son’s HS guidance counselor how to proceed.
We were advised to find out who the financial aid director is, and then if it was a man, then my husband should call, and if a female, I should call.
The inherent sexism of that advice bothered me, but my husband ultimately called and successfully got better numbers for my son. He decided against that school anyway due to fit.
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I believe the equity amounts are correctly accounted for on the Profile documents.
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then why do you think that they think that home equity can be tapped if you’ve properly indicated how much is available?
Are you saying that EVEN after subtracting loans for son’s education, there is still a good bit of equity, but you don’t want to tap that equity?
If so, consider this from the school’s standpoint. You borrowed for your son, you don’t want to borrow for your D. You’re essentially asking the school to help you with your debt for your son by giving you more money for D’s education…or you’re saying…well, we borrowed for son’s education but won’t for D. How is the school supposed to respond to that?
Good point @Dodgersmom, but perhaps there is value in having the student advocate on their own behalf.No doubt the F/A professionals at the college can tell you “why” the packages differ from what you expected. And it is possible the student won’t understand completely and may need to consult you in order to solve the problem, but, it is part of growing up. Probably it depends on the kid as well. My D has been pretty involved in finances even working as an intern reporting to the FEC for our local congressional candidate, We have been very up front with her about our fiscal situation so she is somewhat aware. In the end though, I wouldn’t be surprised if i still had to get involved and recant all my hopeful rhetoric.
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but my husband ultimately called and successfully got better numbers for my son. He decided against that school anyway due to fit.
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Please do not bother FA officers to increase aid, which they did, and then decline. Schools do not want to jump thru hoops, get necessary signatures to get you want you want…and then have you trot off elsewhere. Not only is this bad form, but it can screw things up for the next person who asks… the FA officer is going to think, why bother going thru the hassle to give this person more aid.
If you bother a school for more aid, then go into it with the position that you will commit if they “make it possible”.