<p>Northwestern is my top choice right now but my family cannot afford to send me to the school with the aid package I've been given. I've had some unique financial circumstances with my parent's separation/divorce and my dad's changing of jobs, which were discussed to some extent on my aid forms but probably not enough. NU is my top choice, but the aid offers I've gotten from other schools are just so much more within my family's ballpark.</p>
<p>I understand that appealing aid is possible at NU, but is success common?</p>
<p>The best way to go about it is to fax/email copies of other scholarship offers. NU is less likely to just outright add a few extra thousand dollars in grant money because you asked really nicely.</p>
<p>If you explain any reasons why you feel NU didn’t cover your EFC and why other schools are forcing your hand, you may have better luck. </p>
<p>Northwestern has the endowment it does expressly for this reason - so that no student who the university wants (and is wanted back) couldn’t attend. Show them that Emory or Wake Forest (random examples of strong, but not peer, institutions) gave you more $$$ and the university may very well match the offer.</p>
<p>I was told to not play schools against each other, but should I tell NU what I’ve received from other schools? To be more specific, my offer from NU is around $14k and my offer from Johns Hopkins is $30k. Both are need based grants, and I really don’t know why I got offered so much less at NU.</p>
<p>Northwestern’s aid policy for the most part is to cover 100% of COA-EFC. You can appeal if you think your EFC has changed since you applied. If they change your EFC, you could potentially get more aid.</p>
<p>When I got my aid package from NU, I called admissions and essentially asked them if they had any more money they could give me. I got a couple thousand dollars of loans replaced with additional grant money, but they will not increase your financial aid package one cent past COA-EFC.</p>
<p>On another note, playing schools against each other sometimes works, and it can’t hurt to try (they’re not allowed to decrease your offers). I got an extra 10 grand from Oberlin and a couple thousand from JHU that way.</p>
<p>If you have better offers from comparable schools but would prefer to attend NU it can’t hurt to ask them to reconsider and show them the other offers.</p>
<p>I am interested in this question as well. </p>
<p>Is it important that the better offers are from comparable schools? And what does “comparable school” mean exactly.</p>
<p>S has a better offer from an ivy-- does NU try to compete with Ivys? He also has better offers from Middlebury, Kenyon and Vassar. Are those comparable schools?</p>
<p>All of those would be comparable. While this may sound harsh (and it’s a little bit of informed speculation so I may be wrong) NU has little incentive to match a school you’re likely to pick NU over anyway. Thus they’re not going to care if Ave Regina is cheaper- if you have the choice, you’ll pick NU.</p>
<p>School names matter in the sense that it doesn’t give NU impression that what you are getting elsewhere are merit-based scholarships. As long as the school is close to NU, I think the most important thing is that you are showing comparables. For need-based FA, it should be less about competing for students than giving the right amount based on needs. If those are all need-based aids (not merit-based), you have a good reason to show them to NU, especially if NU is the outlier.</p>
<p>Ok, thanks so much for your replies about comparable schools. Yes it is need based and NU is an outlier. I will try to be tactful with NU when discussing it.</p>
<p>^it’s still possible that others were simply too generous while NU did it just right. So along with the fact that NU is the outlier, the most important message, IMO, is that other schools calculations just meet the needs and make it affordable while NU’s does not.</p>
<p>I called and talked to a representative and they pretty much told me the appeals only work well when there are major changes or circumstances that were not clarified before. I’m hoping something will come through because my parent’s are getting divorced (as was addressed on my original aid application), but I don’t feel like the office took into the account all the expenses that the divorce causes (sale of primary residence at a major loss, moving locations, travel expenses to see noncustodial parent, etc. etc.) So I’m submitting an appeal Monday about the circumstances and the large differences between NU’s aid package and the other ones I have received from similar schools (NU wants me to contribute around $49,000; JHU wants me to contribute around $30,000. UC’s want me to contribute around $14,500). I’ll hope for the best, but will be really disappointed if I can’t attend NU solely because of money.</p>