Appealing financial aid

<p>Hey everyone, so I applied to a lot of schools, mostly small liberal arts colleges, but in order to attend my top choices, I'm definitely gonna have to appeal their financial aid. I got into a fairly wide range of schools, and I have a couple with good financial aid packages. One is ranked in the fifties and after financial aid, my EFC would be 18k. I also got into two other schools ranked in the twenties; at both, my EFC would be about 25k, which is the very most my parents can afford. One has no loans in the package, which means that if I went to that school, I would take a small loan to lessen the burden on my parents. The other already includes the standard 5.5k loan.</p>

<p>So my question is, do you think that if I appealed all of my schools, ranging from the top ten to the mid-forties, I would have any luck getting them to match at least the 26k if not the 18k offer? I know it's not guaranteed that they will increase the FA, so I'm prepared to go to one of these three options, but I know several people who have gotten a few of these schools to increase their aid, so how should I go about phrasing my appeal? Thanks for the help.</p>

<p>You can ask but you also have to be prepared for them to say no. Even some schools within the top 50 don’t view others in that number as peer schools. Remember that there generous schools use the profile (right?) to award institutional aid…and your difference just might be the difference in formula that they use.</p>