<p>After hearing such good things about financial aid for internationals at Williams, I was really disappointed by the aid package I received today.</p>
<p>My family has an annual income of ~35k, which is considered middle class here in Thailand. But regardless of social standing here, it's just an impossible deal that Williams is asking for: a 17.5k family contribution in addition to 4k from me (student assets).</p>
<p>This strikes me as the worst news since April 1st; I won't be able to attend my first choice college because of financial issues. =(</p>
<p>Has any of you received a similar deal? How should I go about appealing to their decision?</p>
<p>I’m being asked to pay the full price, and I definitely can’t afford it. My mom called the FA office and explained our situation; they said they’d consider it. That’s about all you can do.</p>
<p>Did you try the finanical aid calculator on their website? Plug your numbers in and see if you come up with the same figure. I’m not sure what the policy is towards internationals, perhaps they don’t meet full need? Does your family have significant assets?</p>
<p>We received the mailing from the Office of the Comptroller which had nothing personalized in it, just information about payment plans and loans. My daughter applied ED so we did get a letter of estimated aid back in December but are still waiting for the final package. Did regular decision admits get their fin aid letters in that mailing from the Comptroller or is it separate?</p>
<p>sorry if this may sound dumb, but is 120k really a lot (for an American family) in terms of combined assets for my whole family.</p>
<p>as far as i checked, they should meet full need for internationals, so i’m sending in a letter and also having my father write another one to explain why we cannot afford 22k…really. if we do that for four years, my parents’ life savings would be down to some 40k, which is certainly not great security considering that they plan on retiring soon.</p>
<p>electronblue, my EFC on Williams’ financial aid calculator is 5k per year (federal) or 9k per year (institutional), which are along the lines of what we expected to pay. guess something went wrong along the way for me =(</p>
<p>if it helps you get a gauge on things, I’m a US citizen and my mom and dad together make about 79K. We live in an apartment, not a house, so no mortgages. I have a brother attending a very expensive university who’s also planning to go to med school. We also have no stocks or assets at all. Naturally, my fafsa and CSS EFC was $0. (Did you take into account that your parents may have stocks, bonds, assets, additional mortgages, inheritance, estate, etc.?)
At Williams, I was offered about 45,710 including student work-study. My family is expected to pay about 5k and I’m expected to pay 1.5K from my own assets (?) through summer employment. I’m planning to see if I can reduce my contribution because another school offered me about 48K including work-study. If you received more aid from another school, you can see if they can match it – that’s what I’m planning to do, because I would really really love to go to Williams. </p>
<p>Hey guys the aid is low because of the tough economic times. Williams and other top lacs are suffering a lot of endowment losses and they are trying to cut back. (Tufts and Bowdoin have already withdrawn their need-blind policies).</p>
<p>@electronblue: Yeah, I got something from the Controller and it didn’t actually have a personalized package in it. It just gave general information… I’m so confused! I was a regular decision admit, and I need to know what kind of package Williams is giving me!
Why didn’t I get the actual package in the letter?!?!</p>
<p>^^ChandlerBing: I got that exact same package! At first I was like, yes, financial aid package! But then I opened it and it talked about payment plans and what not…haha. I’m thinking about calling to see what’s up, but maybe it’ll come eventually?</p>
<p>Okay, thank goodness it wasn’t only me… I really need to know my package. Do you think I should call today? I’m not completely sure…
I was so excited to see it in the mail and I like ran home and ripped it open and for a moment I thought $49,880 was what they expected me to pay… and then I read it and was relieved. But still, I want to know how much they want me to pay to go there!
Gahhhh</p>
<p>My D got an early write,( early March), but her FA did not come until recent, it will come anytime.</p>
<p>also about the estimated calculator, it is not even close in our sitiuation. We estimated that school would pay half ( 26K) and us pay half. But we only got 12K in total. we are not appealing given the hardship every school is going through, we are appreciative that we got something. My husband and I will borrow our 401K and use our savings to manage the payments. </p>
<p>^ My “Office of the Controller” package came 2 days after postmark, so assuming that you got yours 1 day after postmark (that is, it was postmarked yesterday), I should get mine tomorrow :D</p>
<p>I live an hour away from Williams (in NY) so yeah, it takes about one day for me to get Williams mail.</p>
<p>This is almost like waiting for an admissions decision… since I really want to go to Williams, this is Friday March 27th all over again!
“Sarah is unavailable”… 6:45 (after 45 minutes of refreshing the page, each time more torturous) I get my Williams decision, which I fully expected to be a rejection. I almost considered not checking it. I’m so glad I did!</p>
<p>I don’t know my EFC, it’s just a lot, haha. It’s whatever the price of Williams is minus work study and loans. Actually, I don’t even know if they offered work study.</p>
<p>It’s really lame, since my family makes about $100,000 a year, and is being asked to put half of that toward my education. No way that’s gonna happen, pretty much.</p>
<p>My offer came pretty promptly; don’t remember exactly when. I think it was a couple days before official decisions came out, since I got an Early Write.</p>
<p>I called the Financial Aid Office this morning and here’s what they said.</p>
<p>The letter from the Office of the Controller is just stuff stating how much it costs to attend.
Personalized financial aid awards for RD were sent today, Tuesday 7th.</p>
</p>