Hello, our daughter was thrilled to get accepted to Yale Early Action. Our finances have been haywire this past year (I lost a job, got a generous settlement, but have not worked in over a year) and even though we explained our circumstances on the CSS, we were only offered $6000 in aid. There is no way in hell we will be able to come up with $66,000 a year! We are filing the financial aid review form, and I contacted the admissions officer who championed my daughter’s application, but wondered if there is anything else we should do? We were hoping to avoid loans, but I’m willing to do almost anything to keep her from missing out on this opportunity. She is also applying regular decision to Vassar, Brown, American and Howard, but we’re wondering if we will face the same problem with aid at those schools too, assuming she gets in.
It’s very likely that your “generous settlement” income is what is giving you the net cost you are getting.
You need to get the special circumstances consideration process for ALL of these colleges. BUT keep in mind…the colleges are not going to ignore that generous settlement.
You have a smart daughter! Did she apply to any schools where she would get guaranteed merit aid? Merit aid would not be income (or generous settlement) dependent.
You mention your job loss…but what about the other parent? Are they working? Without knowing their income, it’s hard to say if the net cost at Yale is “off”.
Any chance your daughter is a NMF? If so, it’s not too late to apply to University of Alabama where she would get an amazing scholarship.
ETA…I found it…and she likely is! @mom2collegekids please give the details of this scholarship!
I know…it’s not Yale…but it’s also not going to cost you $250,000 over the next four years.
You also say your kid isn’t all that taken with the Ivies…on your other thread.
With your daughter’s truly superb stats and talents, I bet she is likely going to be offered a full ride at Howard and significant merit $$ at American. Others on here can offer you some specific advice on how to craft an appeal to Yale, but for now I might just sit back a little and see how the admissions season plays out, and then reapproach Yale in April with competing offers and see what can be done.
@ChangeTheGame could possibly offer some more insight here. In the meantime, congrats on your daughter’s success so far and good luck going forward.
Did your daughter warm up to Yale after her visit? You described it as “agnostic” which led me to believe she really had no feeling for the college at all. If that is the case…why did she apply SCEA?
And does she really want to attend this school?
I agree that this student has the potential for great merit aid at Howard, and American (if she has shown demonstrated interest at American).
In terms of competing offers at the end…really the only completing offer Yale might consider is Brown. I doubt that Yale considers Vassar, Howard or American to be peer schools. Plus, if the daughter gets merit aid, Yale won’t care…at all…because Yale doesn’t give merit aid.
I DO think this student will have a really good, affordable option at the end of the admissions season…but it might not be Yale.
If the “competing offers” are financial aid–as opposed to merit scholarships, then Yale should reexamine their calculations.
https://finaid.yale.edu/award-letter/requesting-review
Here is what Yale says about requesting a financial aid review.
Note…it mentions nothing about offers from other colleges (although…nothing ventured…nothing gained, I guess).
Yale is pretty clear that they do these reviews if something has changed between when you submitted your financial aid application forms…and when you receive your award letter. That doesn’t sound like the case for the OP.
Yale will rerun the numbers based on FA offers from peer schools, which from the OP’s list would only be Brown.Note that they only compare need-based offers, not merit. And it’s semantics, but Yale does not “match.”
@crankylibrarian a few years back the Yale Daily News ran a very detailed article with with information on appealing Yale Financial Aid awards. The article can be found here: http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2016/11/11/how-generous-is-generous-enough/
@crankylibrarian Congrats on the acceptance of your daughter EA to Yale. When it comes to Howard, the majority of the merit aid tends to be given students who apply early, but with your daughter’s outstanding stats, I would think that she would have a shot at a good merit aid package (would have definitely been a full ride or close if she would have applied early) but may have to wait and see who commits to Howard. I think your daughter would have a been a shoo-in for my daughter’s scholarship program (Bison STEM Scholars) but they take all of their students from Howard EA. The one thing to note is that Howard does not have a Biochemistry major, but my daughter is majoring in Chemistry and getting a Biology and Math minor since Biochemistry is not an option. I hope the money works out for your daughter at Yale and good luck.
The explanation section for other info often not used.
The colleges all have a process for dealing with substantial decreases in income. You will need a special circumstances consideration at all of these schools if you want them to consider your lower income.
Each college has a process for this. They are handled on a case by case basis at each school. You might get an increase in aid at one college…but not at another.
Find out what you need to get ready to submit to these colleges for this. Then…do it. You will also want to ask how long it takes for this to get completed by the college.
If it were me, I would start with Brown…because that is viewed as a peer school. Plus, you want Brown’s final financial aid offer in time to get this all resolved with Yale before May 1.
As I think about it…you have two issues. If your generous settlement was given in 2017, it was viewed as income in 17. In addition, if it’s sitting in one of your accounts…it’s also viewed as an asset.
And any income from your spouse, plus your assets in total will be included.
One other thing…what was your FAFSA EFC? Is there any chance you did a retirement rollover in 2017, and this wasn’t noted correctly on the FAFSA? If that is the case, that rollover would also have been viewed as…income…if you used the IRS DRT.
The article linked in post #8 above is well worth reading. The process is not as formulaic as one might think, and all these schools will stretch to get kids they really want.
Thank you so much for all your comments! yes, my daughter did warm up to Yale after visiting; she has bee in touch with African American alumni and students and she likes the idea of being in New Haven which has a large black community. The settlement money essentially replaced my lost income for 2017. We are filing our 2018 taxes ASAP so we can demonstrate how much our income has dipped since then (settlement money is long spent). I’ll be happy for her if she ends up at Howard, but Yale is the only one of the Ivies I think she’ll feel comfortable with.
@crankylibrarian congrats to your daughter!! When my son was accepted we successfully appealed our financial aid offer - which was initially $0. I think it may have taken two tries but he’s about to graduate so I don’t recall the exact timing. Our situation was atypical and we submitted tons of documentation to show our need. Yale came through. We still paid a lot out of pocket but I am grateful for what we got. Once my sons college fund was gone we got substantially more (in later years). So, definitely speak with a live person if your appeal doesn’t work. Good luck!
A quote from that article in post #8
IMHO, it doesn’t make any sense to ask Yale for a financial aid review now, as your family DOES NOT have financial aid offers from other colleges. As such, you have NO leverage.
I would wait until April 1st when you have financial aid offers in-hand from other colleges and can email or FAX those more generous offers to Yale. When the Yale FA office sees one of their admits ready to walk away from the school, there is MORE incentive for them to find more aid for that student.
Wanted to update everyone: thanks to all your wonderful help (especially that yle Daily news article) we successfully applied for and received an increase from $6,000 to $45,000! She got into Brown and Stanford as well, and their offers were nearly identical from the start (which makes me wonder if they check in with each other first, but no matter).
We are absolutely thrilled and she will be starting at Yale in the fall! Thanks again to everyone for your kindness and your interest.
Congratulations! What fantastic news 
And thanks for letting us know.
Congrats @crankylibrarian !! ??? Wonderful news.