Has anyone successfully appealed for more money from a college?
College A only awarded me $26,000 (4yrs) and College B awarded me $68,000 (4yrs) I want to attend College A, because it has one of the best business schools in Minnesota. I’ve called the Finance department, but didn’t get much help.
Is it financial aid or a merit award? You have to know exactly what the award is and what department awarded it before you can have a good chance of appealing You have to have your facts straight, or you will get no where. You’ll get blown off most likely.
Usually merit awards are made by admissions, and you need to discuss the matter with them. You should go on the web site and see what awards and scholarships that Admissions gives so you can intelligently discuss your award and what options there are out there. If it’s a financial aid award, you need to do work in terms of your need, the NPC, and work with them. They are two separate departments.
The answer is yes, but you have to know what you are talking about and make sense.
@cptofthehouse It was a merit award from the school, not from a specific department. When I called they directed me to the Finance department.
To successfully appeal for more money from a school, merit or financial aid, you usually need to show them that you got a better offer from a comparable school (a peer, in their view) AND they have to have additional money available. If your financial offer was better from a less selective/attractive school, School A probably figures that they don’t need to match that offer because they know you’d rather attend their school and, if they think they’ve given you enough aid to do it, that you should be willing to make the additional sacrifice. Your family may not agree, but there isn’t much you can do about that. Of course, sometimes School A would love to match the offer you received, but they simply don’t have any money left for that purpose.
The way to approach this is to contact the financial aid office in writing. Let them know that they are your first choice but you have a more generous offer from School B, which may force you to regretfully decline their offer. Is there any way they might be willing to provide any additional assistance so you could come to School A? It is likely that if they are willing to entertain the idea, they will ask for a copy of your financial aid offer from the other school. But if they say no, you will have to make your decision with what you’ve got.
First, they need to be peer schools. Second, they usually would look at the final cost rather than the aid amount.
@billcsho Both schools are literally down the street from each other and they have the same set price of 38k. School B is more selective than School A
It could be as simple as school A’s pot of money being smaller – or they are looking to attract more kids than school B. Or there’s something particularly compelling about you to school B than school A. You can try but don’t bank on anything.
Here’s an option for you: one of the benefits of school A will be the recruiting. If you attend school B, just stay in touch w/the job/co-op fairs taking place at school A and just attend – your actual education will more or less indistinguishable in all likelihood. Accounting 101 and Econ 150 are the same everywhere…
Price and location do not make the schools peers. However, if school B is truly more selective that may do the trick. Make an appt with the FA dept and bring both offers.
@"Erin’s Dad" @T26E4 So if the suggestions you gave don’t work…should I start an appeal letter?
What would your appeal be based on? I got more someplace else? AFAIK you can appeal a financial aid offer because the school may have misunderstood the numbers or there is a special circumstance like medical bills. I’ve never heard of appealing a merit aid offer, unless you know there is a published scholarship for which you knew you qualified and you didn’t get it.
Sit down with them, say I’d really like to attend your college but I have a higher offer down the street and would like to see if you can close that gap. But be prepared to go to school B.
@"Erin’s Dad" If I don’t get the scholarship matched, I’m just going to attend U of MN. Because it’s cheaper even with school B’s offer.