<p>I also posted this in the Colorado College forum, but I thought I might get more advice here.</p>
<p>I have just received my financial aid after being admitted EA, and while I know this is only an estimate, I was wondering if anyone here has had any experience appealing the aid office for more money. The current offer is about 3k more than the MOST my parents have told me they would be able to afford and already includes a 5.5k loan for me, which I assume will only increase as the years go on. I think the offer they have presented is decent, but if I could get even more, this would make it possible for me to attend CC. Can anyone tell me how one goes about asking for more aid? Would I send them copies of my (better) aid offers from other schools?</p>
<p>One should always be humble when asking for more aid. Let them know that this is your first choice school and you want to make this work but it is more than our parents can afford and it uses up the $5500 Stafford loan buffer you had hoped to have. Yes, le tthem know that you do have other offers and that your parents are pressuring you to consider those schools. Ask if there is anything they can do. Also let them know that you are already going to be looking ot work part time while there.</p>
<p>Be aware, however that colleges tend ot look seriously at other offers only from schools that they regard their peers or more selective than where their ratings are. But do give it a try. And, again, be humble and don’ t paint yourself in any corner.</p>
<p>COA - EFC = Need</p>
<p>Does the financial aid (including student loan) from you school meet your Need?</p>
<p>The school MAY give you more FA if you could lower your EFC.</p>
<p>That is the case, 4kidsdad, but Col College is a private school that uses PROFILE as well as FAFSA and it is difficult to find out what might be some factors that this school uses in terms of defining need. ALso it’s late to reduce EFC for 2012 at this point The final numbers for students’ financial aid are not yet out and will be based on actual 2012 figures. The best the student can do right now is let FIn Aid know his situation.</p>
<p>If the current offer has estimated that your family contribution is $3k more than your family will pay, then you can make that up by:</p>
<p>1) a summer job - working as much as possible can net you $3k at least. </p>
<p>2) economizing with personal expenses, books and travel.</p>
<p>3) Have a part-time job during the school year (if you’ve been given adequate work study, then this may not be an option). </p>
<p>4) sometimes you can choose less expensive housing or meal plan. </p>
<p>The amount that is the "family obligation"is not the amount that you pay to the school. Some of it may be, but a good amount will be for expenses that can be minimized. </p>
<p>If your school does give you more money, than fine. But if it doesn’t, you can still make it work if you want. It’s not unusual for a school to estimate a higher “family contribution” than the family can pay. That’s why there’s always so much “sticker shock” when aid pkgs are rec’d.</p>
<p>What is the COA breakdown of CC? </p>
<p>How much are you being given in:</p>
<p>grants:</p>
<p>loans:</p>
<p>work-study:</p>
<p>other aid: </p>
<p>Was your aid much different from what the NPC had estimated??? </p>
<p>How much will your parents pay?</p>
<p>2012-13 Tuition… $41,332 *
Student Activity Fee… $410 *
Room Allowance …$5,496 double room in residence hall
Board Allowance …$4,232 meal plan C
Books & Supplies… $1,214 estimate
Personal/Travel… $1,516 non-Colorado residents
<em>… $966 Colorado residents
Total cost… $54,200… non-Colorado residents
…</em> $53,650 Colorado residents</p>
<p>merit scholarship: 7k
grants: 14.5k
loans: 5.5k
work-study: 1.5k
total: 28.5k</p>
<p>I figured I could buy used books/pay for them myself with a summer job. This is actually much better than the NPC had predicted, so I was kind of happy with this, but my parents basically said “more than 20k is too much.” The mortgage is almost paid off, but we may have to replace our other car, and yeah… I want to avoid taking out tons of loans like those horror stories we hear so often these days, but I don’t really know what to do beside apply to 20 schools and see which is the cheapest.</p>
<p>So if your parents are in fact willing to pay 20K, you’d have 47K toward your direct expenses. (The 1.5K from work study you’ll earn gradually during the year.) Billed expenses are ~51K. You’d need to earn about 5K between now and August to make this work (4K to cover the rest of your direct expenses, and ~1K to get you started on textbooks & supplies, though you can probably do a bit better than that) Then the 1.5K you earn throughout the year at your w/s job could cover your personal/travel/incidental expenses. </p>
<p>5K is quite a lot to earn over the summer though. What are your prospects? You’d have to do at least that every summer, though that may become easier as you move forward in your studies and have more sought-after skills. your loan amount will go up a bit each year, but so will tuition and fees.</p>
<p>It certainly doesn’t hurt to appeal. If you already have better offers, do share them when you appeal. If you don’t, try applying to peer schools you expect may give you better aid, so that you can either attend those schools, or use their offers to help you convince CC to increase your aid. You aren’t miles away from it working out, so hopefully they can bump up your aid a little bit and make it work for you. Good luck!</p>