<p>i’m a transfer student i just got my financial aid–only a $2k grant and a few thousand in loans. i’ve heard of people calling the school and asking for more. i think someone said something along the lines of “they have the money to give out, but you have to go after it”</p>
<p>have any of you called for more aid? what would i say to them?</p>
<p>can u tell me what your HS stats where, the college you are coming from and your college stats plzzzzz????</p>
<p>yes you should definitely call - if there are any extenuating circumstances that were not articulated clearly in your financial aid app, they will reevaluate your package and perhaps offer you more aid if u explain to them ur situation- I was in the same boat.</p>
<p>i dont think we have extenuating circumstances...i'm not even sure what that means</p>
<p>but, family income is around 120k and yes that high in the financial aid game but 2k? jeeze.</p>
<p>I also got royally screwed by financial aid at Penn. I would suggest that you appeal (but that does mean having to fill out a mound of new paperwork). If you're a transfer, are you also a dependant to your family? Or are you independant status...that could make a significant difference. In my case, the appeal didn't work, but I would still say that you should call up the Fin. Aid office and ask why you were denied more money.</p>
<p>To be perfectly honest man....there's tons of people in the same boat you are and I would be upset if Penn gave out finaid like it grew on trees. They keep increasing the tuition, it seems like it is to subsidize the finaid. It kind of ****es me off. However, I DO think financial aid is a good thing, don't get me wrong.</p>
<p>It's just I recall reading in the DP this year:
headline: "Financial Aid program restructured! Now xxx millions more will be available!!"</p>
<p>1 week later:
headline: "Tuition will increase to $45,000 next year a 5% increase" something like that</p>
<p>are you really that surprised?</p>
<p>so does penn generally make your family pay 1/3 of their total income out of their pocket? with siblings?</p>
<p>lol, many colleges do
they're giving your parents that leeway to pay for the siblings and other expenses.. =/</p>
<p>well I mean, to them, it's not really like they're paying 1/3 of their income. Sure its 1/3 if its just one year. The finaid is really under the assumption that over the years families' would have saved up a certain amount.</p>
<p>That's at least how I understand finaid to be.</p>
<p>There are soooo many factors into the financial aid equation other than income, though. From experience I can say that simply having a certain gross income does not necessitate any standard amount of financial aid. Stuff like home equity (boo), siblings, educational expenses, investments, ownership of businesses, land, houses, other property, trusts, etc all play a role in determining one's financial aid. It's definitely not simply 1/3 of one's total income, but that may play a part (I don't know too much about the whole system either).</p>