<p>I’m thinking of appealing my FA decision.</p>
<p>If you don't have any new information to give them, they won't change a thing.</p>
<p>how about comparisons with financial aid packages or scholarships awarded by other schools that the student is genuinely considering? Would they take these into consideration, although they can probably not care and still enroll a brilliant freshman class?</p>
<p>actually, I'm in the same boat as you. Right now, Northwestern's aid package (grant money) is a couple of thousand more and I'm considering taking to Penn about it.</p>
<p>Anyone else have any insight on this?</p>
<p>yea Penn seems to be particularly stingy among the private schools. Neither NW nor Penn gave me grant money, but NW at least offered me a ton more in low-interest loans than Penn. Do you think comparisons with public schools (like UCs) would help since the intrinsic price difference is probably big enough for them to not be competitors in the first place?</p>
<p>complaining to the financial aid people can have a genuine impact on your aid package if you go about it the right way. I've seen instances where the financial aid office actually seriously miscalculated a student's financial package, and corrected the issue after a few phone calls were made. In instances where there's a coule of thousand dollar differences between the two packages, i think Penn is generally willing to listen to your concerns if the better package comes from an institution of similar calibur.</p>
<p>Example: A friend of mine was admitted to both Brown and Penn as a freshman, and the aid package for Brown was slightly better in that Brown does not allow freshman to work work-study jobs, so they gave him that couple thousand dollars as grant money. After calling Penn about this, Penn agreed to transfer the amount listed to him for work-study to grants.</p>
<p>So, I think you'd probably be able to get something out of them if Northwestern is givng you a lot more, but I doubt it would work for any UC's because of the inherent cost differences and the percieved relative qualities of the schools.</p>
<p>what if the UC is Berkeley?</p>
<p>I told my fin aid director that I got into other ivies, and she said Penn will beat or match any offer Columbia, Princeton, or Yale offers me.</p>
<p>Well, Northwestern gave me about $2,000 more than Penn. Do you think I should bother asking Penn for more?</p>
<p>I don't think the UC being Berkeley would make a difference, just because of the simple tuition difference between the two. I think a $2000 from NW is enough to complain about, simply because you have nothing to lose, but I wouldn't expect much.</p>