<p>Has anyone done it? Is there a specific person/department I should ask for? Any ideas on how to start the conversation? lol</p>
<p>Look at the school website and see if there are any official policies in place on appealing…timeline, documentation, whether they consider other offers, etc. If not, call the FA office and ask.</p>
<p>The wording that worked for us was asking for a “review” of my D’s financial aid to see if any more aid was available. It wasn’t with Cornell, but another school. We also had other FA offers in hand, and let them know that College X (a comparable school academically) had made the cost of attendance $X cheaper, so D was having a hard time picking their school because of the cost differential. However, given the timing of your question out here, maybe you don’t have other/better offers from comparable schools in hand. </p>
<p>Schools often want to know if there is something they misunderstood about your financial situation. A trust that has terms saying it can’t be distributed, a small business that has a lot of the value tied up in inventory or something, high medical expenses for a family member, etc. Stuff that maybe does not show up on the FA forms you have already filled out could help. I always think that the FA people are not accountants, so if my small business isn’t as valuable as it looks on paper, I have written a letter of explanation in the past to the FA office to explain what is not obvious in the forms they ask for.</p>
<p>I appealed financial aid last year and the wording I used was “appeal”, I added more background because I felt my app was misunderstood. There is a form you must fill out [Appeal</a> Application | Financial Aid](<a href=“http://www.finaid.cornell.edu/pdf/appeal-application-0]Appeal”>http://www.finaid.cornell.edu/pdf/appeal-application-0), you also need two unrelated parties to act as witnesses, they must write a short letter saying your claim is in fact true. You also need to back up whatever you changed with documents and statements, if you honestly can’t afford it you will most likely get an increase in aid and if not, your application may be rejected or the change may be very little. I got more aid by the way.</p>
<p>Just as a note, Cornell initially offered my $10k a year and another comparable school offered me around $25k a year (all need based). I called Cornell and they told me many times that I can appeal, but it’ll most likely fail. I appealed, got it upped to ~$20k, and am now currently at Cornell.</p>
<p>Don’t listen to the people on the phone. Appeal if you have the slightest hint that the aid is unfair.</p>
<p>Thanks guys! I filled out the form that Lelyke linked a few days ago, and scanned it along with the proof and uploaded it online using the Financial Aid upload thing on the website. Should I still call, or wait?</p>
<p>Wait, they’ll send you an updated fin-aid email before the 24th so you can determine if you want to attend or not.</p>
<p>Well considering I did not submit any other applications, I have to. D:
Hopefully they review my aid</p>