I was accepted into Dartmouth’s ED Class of 2022 on Thursday. Their financial aid offer was accurately predicted by the Net Price Calculator application, so there were no surprises (thankfully!), but I thought appealing wouldn’t necessarily hurt given Dartmouth’s endowment and low % of students receiving financial aid.
Are there any suggestions for appealing for more financial aid if your family’s situation has NOT changed? I would need to take out a decent amount of loans, and it’d be great if I was able to get some of those covered. Thanks!!
What would be the basis for your financial review? You said your family ran the net price calculator and your package was pretty accurate. There have been no changes in your finances . You have no extenuating circumstances, you did not apply RD where you can present a better offer from a peer school.
Your decent amount of loans as a student would be $5500. This would be you and pretty much every other student attending college in the US whose parents cannot afford to full pay or getting really big scholarships. Remember the overwhelming number of colleges in the US do not meet 100% demonstrated need.
Dartmouth is not going to give you more money because you don’t want loans. Try getting some outside scholarships where the school will first reduce your self help aid (loans and student contribution)
If your parents need to take loans to pay their EFC, then that is a different story. You and your family need to decide if Dartmouth is a financially feasible option for your family. If it is not, ask to be released where you can find some more affordable options.
My parents would need to take out significant loans to pay their expected contribution. It wouldn’t make going to Dartmouth impossible by any means, but it would be a notable burden.
But you and them kind of knew what your EFC was going to be when you applied, especially when you said that your package pretty much matched what came up on the net price calculator. It is highly unlikely that without some extenuating circumstances you are going to receive more money. You can certainly ask but you have to think about their ability to pay their efc for each of the 4 years