Aspiring Student- Financial Aid Help?

Paying for College
1

<p>I apologize, this is lengthy, but I do need some guidance. I am a h/s senior who has been completely on my own throughout the college process. My mother is a single mother and is mentally and physically disabled. I have more responsibilities when it comes to contributing to my household than she does, and there is no way around it. It has been difficult as the oldest child, with no help from my small, non-competitive, public school's guidance counselors. They have insisted that community college is for everyone. </p>

<p>With my SAT scores, GPA, job, and extra curricular activities, I have higher goals for myself. I managed to apply to a handful of good schools using fee waivers and managed to fill out the FAFSA with help from a family friend, mid-February. With merit/FA I have the option to go to a state school for almost nothing. After being accepted to better schools I hope to not go this route. </p>

<p>I was not aware that the CSS Profile was required to be considered for aid until on or around most schools' deadlines. I had to save up to pay for the CSS Profile once I learned it was necessary. I completed them a few days after the deadlines, as my guidance counselor suggested, and then a few days later provided each school with a non-custodial waiver (I do not know my father.) </p>

<p>My counselor said she would contact the schools asking them to review the CSS Profile...None of them would. Now I am without the $75 and in addition, paying to submit it did nothing for me. I know that $75 is a small amount to some but it goes a long way for my family. </p>

<p>In addition, a couple of schools have provided me with the Pell Grant, at the maximum amount, which I am grateful for. However for BU this was the only aid they offered. I have no knowledge of utilizing student loans and have been applying for every scholarship that I am eligible for. </p>

<p>My counselor told me to "cry on the phone" to financial aid representatives and see where it gets me. I am so disappointed that I won't be able to thrive in a school with other students of my intelligence level. Many students at the state school I would be attending cannot write a proper sentence; I could not see myself enjoying discussions with students who do not want to be at class to begin with. </p>

<p>What are my options? Would writing letters to FA offices be a waste of time? Would I be able to get more aid if I re-file everything next year, and transfer from the state school? I need some type of guidance and the Internet seems to be my last option.</p>

2

<p>

No. Few schools offer much aid to transfers. If you are all that fired up to attend a four year school it may be best to take a gap year and work. If you supply your stats posters here may be able to make some good recommendations. However, there is NOTHING wrong with attending a CC for two years and then moving to the four year school. Many students (most?) do that.</p>

3

<p>First, I would say you want to adjust your attitude about those intellectually “inferior” students at the state school. Sure, some really didn’t have many other options due to pat performance. But others are there because the state school is affordable. You will not be the lone intellectual bright spot in a sea of dullards. </p>

<p>But that is not your question. Should you call and cry to the schools who’ve accepted you but without sufficient aid? Sure, although I personally wouldn’t suggest “crying.” Lots of people people do every year. Few see huge increases in their packages, but increases are given every year. You don’t know if you don’t ask for a review.</p>

4

<p>(1) I would contact the CSS schools yourself - just to make sure they won’t consider the Profile you submitted. Hey, it’s worth a try!</p>

<p>(2) Erin’s Dad wasn’t entirely correct about aid for transfer student. If you get admitted to a school that meets full need, then you’d be covered. Such a school meets the full need of ALL student, whether they enter as freshmen or transfers. But if you were looking for merit aid, no, you wouldn’t have much chance at all as a transfer student.</p>

<p>(3) I’d take another look at the state school if I were you. Sit in on some classes and see what you think.</p>

<p>(4) But if you’re really not willing to go to that school, then taking a gap year, as Erin’s Dad suggested, would be your best solution. You can regroup and reapply next year - with no missed deadlines!</p>

<p>In addition to the schools you’ve already looked at, you might also want to consider some of the following schools if you decide to take a gap year and reapply:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“Competitive Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Competitive Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;
[Work</a> Colleges Consortium](<a href=“http://www.workcolleges.org/]Work”>http://www.workcolleges.org/)
[The</a> Women’s College Coalition](<a href=“http://www.womenscolleges.org/]The”>http://www.womenscolleges.org/)</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

5

<p>First of all, you should have gotten a fee waiver from CSS PROFILE. It is automatic if you met the criteria. I do not know if you can get that money back.</p>

<p>As for not getting financial aid from a PROFILE school, be aware that most of them are private schools giving out their own money to pay for their big price tags and they can give it out any way they want to do so. Some such schools do guarantee to meet 100% of need BUT, at that’s a big BUT, they define that need. They do not use FAFSA EFC, but calculate their own and each school does so differently. They do not have to use FAFSA rules for their own money.</p>

<p>BU does not guarantee to meet full need, nor do they meet full need for all of their students. Also if you are late for any financial aid decisions with late forms or attachments, you risk being considered for a lot of the money, because when it’s gone for the year, it is gone. To get money you have to be on your toes, and dot every single i and cross every single T and keep your fingers crossed at such schools, because it can be a matter of luck that whether you get a dime from them. It’s their money, and their call. So, yes, you can appeal to BU. You can call the admissions director who accepted you, thank him/her for the acceptance, tell him how much you want to go there, and explain about the financial aid and ask for advice and help as to how to best approach financial aid for enough money to make it possible for you to go there. You can do the same for each of the other schools, and see where it gets you. You can also ask your GC to write a letter–in fact write one for your GC to use as a template, make it easy for her/him to send to financial aid addressing the salient points of your situation. </p>

<p>That’s about the best you can do, as these are privates that have guaranteed nothing, and you did not meet the requirements they have set clearly forth on their websites and instruction in terms of deadlines. You miss the boat, it does not usually turn around for you. But you can give it a try. Do be aware that a school that does not meet full need, does not have the funds allocated to do so and that a lot of people are hammering on their doors and burning up the wires with appeals. I guarantee you that you are not the only one who was accepted and did not get enough money to go to any number of schools. Most schools are need blind in admissions, but no where meet full need, especially FAFSA driven need definitions, so you are in good company with most college applicants. I don’t know a single school that guarantees to meet full need as defined by FAFSA, so if you have one packages that does this, you are one lucky duck. </p>

<p>As for the CSS PROFILE fee, you might want to call them and find out why you were charged. There might be some provision you did not meet or maybe erroneously did not answer properly, or maybe you did not qualify. </p>

<p>Going to a state school with a graduate department and research facilities offers students endless opportunities. I would not diss or dismiss state schools. I have two kids who went to them, and they got educations that were as good as any, and better than most private colleges.</p>

6

<p>Dodgersmom, true about schools that meet full need but I felt four dozen colleges out of 3000 qualified as “few”.</p>

7

<p>Does your state school have an honors college or honors sections of classes? That may be a way for you to have your intellectual needs met while still attending the state school at a reasonable price.</p>

8

<p>Not all colleges that promise to meet need for all incoming frosh do so for transfers. And, since those schools use CSS profile, they can decide what the “need” is for transfers. </p>

<p>There are even “full need” schools that are “need aware” for incoming frosh off the WL. The devil is sometimes in the details, but they’ll use “generous wording” on their FA sites. </p>

<p>I don’t understand why a NCP waiver wasn’t granted. I think some adults need to get involved with that. Certainly there are cases when NCP info isn’t used. Not every child has a NCP…single adoptions, father unknown, etc. So, it would seem that “going up the ladder” (not just talking to the powerless person who answers the phone) might get somewhere.</p>

9

<p>I’m not reading that the NCP waiver is the problem here, but rather that the CSS Profile was submitted “late”. Still I’m surprised that none of the schools will even consider it.</p>

10

<p>^^</p>

<p>ahhh… I misunderstood.</p>

11

<p>This might be a good time to consider a gap year. Apply to schools that potentially offer merit and FA, and track the due dates for submission of info.</p>

12

<p>Thank you all for the very helpful information. </p>

<p>How do highly ranked schools view students who took a gap year? Would I be applying as a freshman? Would a gap year be better than attending a community college nearby for free?
Is there a thread on gap year info?</p>

<p>A classmate is about 20k short in paying for a school she is considering, and after negotiating aid they said if she retakes her SATs in May, and her score is in the next level of their scholarship chart, they will provide her with the higher scholarship. Many schools I applied to use brackets of SAT scores to determine the scholarship that is awarded. Is it uncommon for a school to allow you to move up a bracket with retested scores from the end of senior year?</p>

13

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<p>Quite possibly, since most colleges give better scholarships and financial aid to first time freshmen than to transfers. You’d have to try to figure out whether the money you’d save by doing a year or two nearly free at the CC would offset the higher costs for the remaining years at the 4-year college.</p>