Can someone tell me what that email said? I got a email from bc student service today to check my fin aid status… did anyone else? I’m worried I forgot something 
Just so everyone is aware, @redpoodles mentioned above “although it could also be that they are sending this email out in batches, because we got ours several hours after others here got it” that holds true for decisions. When BC begins emailing decisions, they email in batches for a period of about 3 hours. They will let you know this on their twitter page.
@Steglitz90 Same here! I am bugged by it too. Other schools have a “waived” checkmark. I like that system much better.
Same situation with us. BC is not known to be generous with merit or any type of aid. Know several athletes from our high school in FL offered a pathetic 25% scholarship yet needing to give up their life to be part of the team. Needless to say, they chose to pass. Offered more money elsewhere. So we wait…
I thought BC was pretty flexible and giving for need based aid since it’s basically doesn’t have a lot of merit scholarships
So since the FA portal was just emailed to us, will we be penalized in terms of FA for sending in stuff this weekend? I wasn’t aware of the additional requirements
is it true that BC, like most colleges, calculates financial aid only after acceptance? And since the financial aid reminder email didnt go to everyone who applied to the school, could it be a good sign? After all, decisions are arriving in less than 2 weeks. Also the email didn’t have a fancy banner with the name of the college like you would see in a general email to all applicants…
@tj2145 Do you mean after official acceptance or after admissions makes a decision and passes it along to FA office?
@tj2145 not really. The email is simply to make sure everybody has all of their financial aid materials submitted before they look at them. It does not necessarily mean they are going through them and sending them only to particular people. They just want to make sure all files are complete before going through the ones they are going to go through more carefully. Assume nothing until you get your letter.
I received an email from another school from a financial aid director asking me to explain numbers in my CSS because it seemed to be inconsistent. My mom was able to offer valid explanations but I heard conflicting things about whether it means they were making me a package (aka have accepted me) or just went through everyones CSS. I feel like for all schools we just shouldn’t read into anything besides a “you have been accepted” lol
after admissions makes a decision. Someone who ed’d to Cornell got an email about FAFSA discrepancies a few days before decisions were released (he ended up getting in btw) and asked if it was a good sign. Someone who was a hs senior last year answered him, saying that it was. This person was waitlisted from CMU and Cornell last year and he contacted his schools about his financial aid package after learning of being waitlisted. CMU was able to show him a potential financial aid package even though he was only waitlisted, while Cornell was unable to do so, telling him that they don’t calculate financial packages until acceptance.
if BC rolls like these schools, perhaps the email hints waitlist or even acceptance? i wouldn’t get too excited though… you never know
@tj2145 thank you for that! I’m at least a little hopeful that the person who emailed was verifying low numbers (feeling that they should be higher, but again we had an explanation) so if I do get in, maybe the aid will be decent :))
I too feel it’s fair to guess you are accepted if they are asking pointed questions particular to your file–repeat-- pointed questions about the numbers in your particular file!
This email was not that. It’s a generic request to check your status in the finaid portal and make sure you sent them everything they wanted you to send them. The finaid portal is not new–you just didn’t know it was there before, but we saw it back in January because I went looking for it (2nd timer here so I knew they’d want mailings and don’t use IDOC). At this point I promise it means nothing. Months ago the guy in the finaid office at BC told me that they would still look at my child’s file and put together a package even though we have an item marked missing. They just want as much data and confirmations as they can get, and they’d like it up front if possible. So send everything in as soon as you can if you haven’t already, or your package may not be ready with your decision. This happened to my older child and it took about a week for them to get back to us with a (very bad) package.
@redpoodles true… We’ll just have to wait a little more than a week to find out the truth haha!
@redpoodles I sent them out on saturday, yeah I wasn’t aware there were separate portals-- so you’re saying it won’t affect my aid?
I still haven’t received that email about financial aid. Anyone else?
@redpoodles - may I ask what you did with your older child’s bad package? Did you appeal? My D was accepted EA but her FA package is horrible. We are waiting to see where else she gets accepted to compare.
@gratefulmama, our package came very late–I don’t know why–they forgot to make one for her in time or something. I think we didn’t get it until the end of March or maybe even April. I wrote to the financial aid officer asking “this can’t be right” and “here’s what she got at BU” and the answer was something like, “yeah no it’s right.” In the language a 20 year old would use. That’s how it felt anyway. But I wouldn’t call our interaction a formal appeal. I kind of feel like my D’s particular aid officer was very lazy, or else she was new, or very young and clueless-- I don’t know, but I didn’t feel like she was going to bat for us or even lift a pencil. I did not feel in good hands. I actually googled her and found out she was a 1st year grad student there so maybe she was new to it all and/or this was her part time work study-type job that she didn’t care about. This is not to speak about the entire office–just our particular interaction with it.
My D had other options so put NEU out of mind.
I think others have had some small success, however. It’s worth going after. Go after it hard and work up the ladder if necessary if you get the same lady we got.
@redpoodles - thanks. We have pretty much written BC off at this point, due to the FA. It’s too bad because my D loved it when we visited and the admissions was so welcoming and sweet when she got accepted. Once we have other offers in hand, we will decide if it’s worth it to go through the trouble. The concern I have with going through an appeal is it only covers one year (assuming the appeal is successful). The following 3 yrs you are on the hook with no leverage.
Oh my God I just realized I talked about NEU on the BC board. Please disregard! Sorry!!! Ha ha I should really drink coffee before posting anything.
^^^That story is true for context.
BC’s package was on time but also the worst one we got. (NEU was second worst.) We did not formally appeal mostly because we spent so much energy trying to get attention at NEU and were exhausted by it. But I think the BC office is much more professional in demeanor than what I describe above at a rival school. The BC package seemed to be based entirely on our assets because my husband had a job loss that year. Fair enough. But I wasn’t taking out a second mortgage or empty our entire savings to pay for college, and two years later, I’m very glad I didn’t. Definitely appeal.