My daughter received a significant grant, $22,000, when she was admitted to Villanova University. (Tuition and housing are still VERY EXPENSIVE even with the grant.). This grant weighed heavily in her decision to attend Villanova.
It is now her junior year. She has had straight A’s throughout college. We just received word that she is no longer getting the grant because her older sister graduated from college. We are now faced with an $86,000 bill. Can Villanova do this? I don’t think it said anywhere in her initial grant offer that this money could be taken away. Help!!! She never would have attended this school if we thought they could take this grant away.
Unfortunately yes, the grant can be taken away because it’s based on financial need, and the university makes that determination. This is what the university says:
“The amount of the need-based Villanova University Grant is determined each year based on the information on the CSS Profile and after the Office of Financial Assistance has received and reviewed all financial aid applications and documents. Therefore, this need-based grant amount is subject to change each year as a family’s financial information, household size and number enrolled in undergraduate college changes.”
Unfortunately, our financial situation really hasn’t changed. We still have 2 loans we need to pay back for our daughters. Only now we have to figure out how to pay an additional $22,000 per year on top of what we already owe.
Obviously it could have been more clear, but the award wasn’t really taken away (I get it feels that way), but it is only a one year award that you can re-qualify for each year. You had one of the big things that can happen to change award amounts, change in family size. The other is people that have highly variable income from year to year.
This isn’t a Villanova only issue. You likely would have run into this at most meets need schools. I believe that there are some schools that guarantee aid for 4 years, but I don’t think that it is many.
Our income hasn’t increased. And yes, the award was taken away. I do not have 2 daughters in college right now, but I do have 2 loans to pay off. The financial aid letter should have clearly stated that this grant could be taken away.
You didn’t understand the difference between financial aid and merit aid. Financial aid is adjusted every year, based upon your circumstances. Your older child finished college, so your circumstances have changed. It is very unfortunate, and you can appeal it, but they’re unlikely to change their mind.
Would transferring to your in-state flagship be possible?
My son’s school had a disclaimer at the bottom of his grant award saying it was based on our having two students in college that year and that the grant would go down significantly once our older student graduated.
This policy is standard for colleges, although I don’t know if all of them make it so clear on the grant award.
Think about this. Please. You are no longer paying for your older child to go to college. Is it possible to take the money you were spending on that older child and now fund the younger one’s college.
You don’t any longer have college bills to pay for child one. So your expenses hopefully are less.
Your child is likely financially responsible for this semester already. You can try to talk the the financial aid office. I think this is one time where it is ok for a parent to take the lead. My advice is to not be combative with them. You need to say that you were not aware that a FA award could change this much and it is causing financial hardship. You could say that it may cause her to withdraw next semester. However, withdrawing and trying to finish somewhere else may cost more in the long run.
I am sorry that this has happened to you and your family and has definitely thrown a curve in your daughter’s future plans.
I would go to the financial aid office in person and “beg”. Make an appointment with staff. But please don’t get upset. Stay focused.
Bring copies of her current transcripts;
bring a list of all of her current EC’s. I know they have those on the computer but making copies for her FA file would be good. Try to have her get emails from some of her professors as well as classmates. Bring them in as part of her record. Then hope for the best. Good luck!
I knew that we will be in that situation with new FAFSA that does not take into consideration number of students in college and I knew grants are not scholarship. So at my DD’s school before committing, I asked can they guarantee a grant for all 4 years. They did it! They wrote in writing that grant will be available for all 4 years no matter of the financial situation in the family. So they “technically” converted grant to scholarship for her without renaming it. (In reality, they matched scholarship from another school so it was a bit more complicated.)
I think a lot of families fall into the grant trap and need to be very careful. Next year it will be total disaster for many families with multiple kids in college. They will all lose support from FAFSA in terms of EFC and FWS. That “simplification” will cost many families the opportunity for education…
My daughter was awarded a similar grant from Villanova, when my daughter applied I had another in college who would be graduating the following year, so I knew it would go away (plus it was still way too expensive, we had two more going to college in two years). I knew FA would be recalculated every year, so chose a public with great merit instead. Went that route with the next two (twins) which worked out considering the multiple students in college bonus is being eliminated anyway.
This is the problem. Fin aid is recalculated annually, based upon the family’s financial circumstances, which can change. Even merit money might not be guaranteed, and may require that the person maintain a certain GPA, which might not happen.
I feel that this is not sufficiently disclosed to families. Hard to justify paying almost 300K (as opposed to rack rate of about 350K) for a 'Nova degree, when the same student probably could have done very well, had the same career options, coming out of their flagship state U or another flagship state U with a nice OOS merit scholarship, for half the price or even less.
Our two oldest went in state, so no FA or merit, but I learned a lot more during those years. I had/have two at OOS schools with decent merit, no danger at falling below 3.0, another didn’t get enough merit OOS for it to make sense, plus I wouldn’t trust him not to dip below the minimum gpa (even though he had a 3.7 in HS, he put the very minimum effort in). We fill out fafsa every year just in case our financial situation changes (one income).