Appealing for Aid

Hello! Hopefully, something similar hasn’t been posted recently, but I was wondering what the best way to go about appealing institutional scholarship offers is? I’ve heard various things such as admissions often being more generous than financial aid offices. If so who should I contact? Director of recruitment? Student affairs? Just the general admissions office? Also, is it sleazy to bring up higher test scores or gpa than the average admit? I’m looking to appeal my NYU Tisch offer, also if that helps. Thank you so much for your help!!

Merit awards are usually awarded through admissions. If you are. Tisch recipient, you likely need to deal with that department in terms of merit awards.

If it’s a merit award through Tisch, it likely was based on the strength of your audition or your portfolio, not your GPA or test scores.

In these financially difficult times, it’s going to be a challenge for colleges to provide additional financial aid of any kid to the many many many students who will be requesting this.

@soozievt any suggestions for this Tisch accepted student who needs more aid to attend.

You could contact admissions or the financial aid office. Find out (unless you already know the answer) if your award is purely merit or a combination of merit and need. I have a daughter who went to NYU/Tisch and received a substantial scholarship (not this year), and my understanding is that scholarships there involve both need and merit. But I am not an authority on that and so I suggest inquiring. I would not bring up that you have a higher academic profile than average for the school. They know that. It likely accounts for why you got some merit aid. I think a better angle is 1) has your family’s financial situation changed since you applied? and/or 2) do you have a better scholarship offer from a comparable college?

One thing I differ from that @thumper wrote is that merit was mostly based on the audition or portfolio, because at Tisch, 50% of the admissions decision is academic and 50% is artistic. Both matter equally at Tisch.

Thanks @soozievt.