<p>OP, I understood that the $700 was a per month cost. That is not at all unusual these days and either is your annual out-of-pocket cost. </p>
<p>Best of luck.</p>
<p>Your insurance costs aren’t unusual. We pay about that much and our OOP is $2800 plus 10%.</p>
<p>I don’t think insurance is going to be less no matter what happens…We’ll either pay for it in premiums or we’ll pay for it indirectly thru taxes/VAT/or something else that is dreamed up.</p>
<p>However, I wish you luck. </p>
<p>IF this doesn’t work out, I would report the issue to the NCAA. There is no justification for a school to have a student sign a NLI w/o an FA package. Can you imagine if a school did this to a poor student athlete who then had no options to go elsewhere???</p>
<p>If things seem to be going nowhere with this school, the threat of filing a complaint with the NCAA may scare them into coughing up more money.</p>
<p>good idea as a last resort if the appeal tanks. I would do that. Because you are right, this is not fair.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Give the coach and athletic director a “heads up” before you do. The AD may want to put pressure on the FA office to avoid any NCAA problems.</p>
<p>And if your appeal letter DOES close a $36K gap, let me know – because I will hire you to write a few letters to FA offices for my family.</p>
<p>Ok, today I spoke with the FA officer at length, and sent the letter. I estimate I spent about 10 hours on the letter, with research and rewrites. Every word, every phrase, every sentence was carefully crafted, because this is the only shot we have. I laid out the entire story, from how our search led us to them, to the offer of the NLI, to the research I did checking out the schools typical aid packages, and our decision to believe what was listed in multiple places. As well as lots of other information that the FA officer said I should include. Now we wait.</p>
<p>Of course I will post the end to this story when I know it, and for all of you that gave advice and support for my problem, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.</p>
<p>I hope it works. It is a cautionary tale for all of us who assume that kids with an athletic NLI always get great financial aid. I guess it is just another old wives tale, along with the one that poor kids all get full rides.</p>
<p>Fingers Crossed!</p>
<p>Agree with Arabrab…let this be a cautionary tale for others…sign NOTHING until you see the FA package.</p>
<p>Another cautionary tale: If it is a problem in November it will probably still be a problem in April. Deal with issues early.</p>
<p>new chapter: while working on the appeal letter for the FA dept. a thought crossed my mind. send a letter to the university president and tell him of our unusual situation. I mulled it over for a couple days, and then while talking to my neighbor about this mess (who had 3 kids go through this same school, and one rowed for this coach) HE SAID: Send a letter to the president. </p>
<p>I didnt’t know what to do, because I didn’t want to rattle the feathers of the FA person that is handling my case. But I have been in touch with her monthly since November and a whole lot has not happened for us. And while she was very sympathetic yesterday and promised to do her very best for us, she did end the conversation with, just don’t get your hopes up. UGH. </p>
<p>So this morning my husband said : send it, it can’t hurt. SO I DID. I actually sent a letter to the president and told him the whole story, start to finish. I wonder what will happen? Of course, I will keep everyone posted with this new detail.</p>
<p>Now I must go, because I think the Lifetime channel is calling because they are interested in this story for one of their TV movies… ;)</p>
<p>It can’t hurt, right? I mean, as long as you didn’t disparage the FA person in your letter (“… and when I told that to the stupid cow you have working at your Financial Aid Office, she bleated that I 'shouldn’t get my hopes up…”)</p>
<p>The University President undoubtedly knows that this is a very anxious time for parents, and it’s not surprising or unbelievable that a parent will take any opportunity to make their case for the financial need that they desperately need to make their child’s college plan reality. The worst that can happen is that they simply won’t be able to meet the full gap any better, and the best case scenario is that there are some opportunities (heretofore overlooked institutional scholarships or some of those weird grants that go towards red-headed Polish immigrants who can play the ukulele blind-folded and things like that) that will help, if not eliminate, at least reduce the gap to something that is more manageable.</p>
<p>HAHAHAHAH. LOVED that part about the cow. 
yes, if only I could say exactly what I want, how i want, but yes, I did have to be careful and temper my emotions and frustration with the FA office for the letter. regarding the quirky scholarships - she did ask us what our ethnic heritage was? She said, are you italian-american, irish-american, german-american, and I said yes, yes, yes!!! It was so random that she rattled off those ethnicities off the top of her head and our daughter happens to be all of those. so we will see.<br>
My neighbor who had his kids go through that school and row for the coach called the coach yesterday on our behalf and the coach told him they will probably get us a couple thousand more dollars or something more (exact words), which is nice, but still a bit short. why can’t they just pull 10k out of the blue??? well, thanks for the funny post. I am wondering if they will resolve this thing by week’s end with the may 1 deadline so close. hoping.</p>
<p>got a letter saturday from FA saying they were still reviewing it and please be patient. over the weekend, we were strategizing about what we should do in terms of trying to find another school for her at this late date. Should we start the ball rolling NOW with the apps, the recs, the calls to coaches, admissions to see if she could come, do they need another rower? then the FA waiting game starts again.</p>
<p>Or do we wait to hear from this school - which we have all kind of soured on during these past few weeks of hell. the schools we would be trying for are the ones she was in contact with & had visited. a few of them are totally closed for apps, but a couple would look at her for a fall 2010 admit. it is a total crapshoot at this point. it is almost may 1st, and none of the schools on her radar last fall had rolling admissions so we would be at the mercy of someone else just for admission.</p>
<p>What other options do we have??</p>
<p>Lovepyrs- wow, I just read this thread for the first time. My heart goes out to you. It certainly is a cautionary tale that should be read by others before they go through the recruiting season next year.</p>
<p>*over the weekend, we were strategizing about what we should do in terms of trying to find another school for her at this late date. Should we start the ball rolling NOW with the apps, the recs, the calls to coaches, admissions to see if she could come, do they need another rower? then the FA waiting game starts again.</p>
<p>Or do we wait to hear from this school - which we have all kind of soured on during these past few weeks of hell.*</p>
<p>I would NOT wait. The later you wait, the less options you’ll have. Besides, this school needs the competition.</p>
<p>Get some apps out there and contact some coaches. :)</p>
<p>I don’t have any input, but am interested in knowing what the wait time is for an answer once you have submitted a financial review form.</p>
<p>I agree with Mom2collegekids. We have a friend (class of 2010) who just picked up a D1 this weekend. She visited the school Friday-Saturday. So, it can still be done! There are coaches still looking to fill teams.</p>
<p>We were offered a terrible FA package from one college when my eldest S was applying to schools. We did appeal and they offered a little bit more, but still not what we could live with. </p>
<p>Even so, remember that if you close the gap (my guess is that you are talking about NYU - notorious for not being very generous, no matter what their stats say), you still have three more FA apps to go, and once they have you, they have less and less incentive to be generous…</p>
<p>You do have the athletic advantage, so I wish you the best of luck! <em>hugs</em></p>
<p>Again, you cannot contact another coach once you have signed that LOI.</p>
<p>Ask the first coach for a release for financial reasons. And read the transfer rule booklet you can download from the NCAA.</p>
<p>Hi all, we found out April 28 about our appeal. certainly gives us lots of time… anyway, they added a whopping $2500 to her grant reducing the gap from 36K to 34K. not what we were hoping for, and I did call and try to get some kind of explanation about the rationale used, our situation, the information in the guidebooks saying they met 75% of need, was there something in particular that worked against us? no real answers. </p>
<p>We are now in touch with one of the schools that was interested in her back in the summer/fall of 09. Luckily, the admissions people at this excellent university will look at her app at this late date. So we begin again. OUr school college counselor has also called a couple other schools she was looking at last fall and they are receptive to looking at her app. These are not schools with rolling admissions, so we are very lucky.</p>
<p>But now we must get her accepted, then see what kind of FA they can put together after it has all been doled out. CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS??? AND WE HAVE TO SEND OUR DEPOSIT IN TO THE ORIGINAL SCHOOL BECAUSE WE HAVE TO HAVE SOMETHING IN THE WINGS. We are hoping one of these other schools works out.</p>
<p>That is the latest in this saga. Thank you all for the posts of support, the suggestions, advice, everything. BTW, father5 ^, the coach and AD can release her from the NLI, so that will not be a problem. they checked with the NCAA.</p>
<p>I will update.</p>