Can I dispute my merit aid award?

Paying for College
21

Yes, you can and should be discussing your financial package with Belmont, and ask if there is any way any more money can be found for you. Yes, you can mention the large award NYU offered you as well. You should give it a try. Sometimes, you can get more money when you let an admissions officer know you want to go to a school, especially those private schools without a lot of name recognition.

My son was able to get additional merit money from a small private school, and he did let them know he had been accepted to Cornell University. However, cost for him to go to Cornell, to one of the land grant colleges, would have been less than what the LAC was going to cost. Even with the additional bit of money, it cost more to go to the LAC. They did not match the bottom line cost of Cornell. But they did come up with more in grant money.

In your case, the difficulty is going to be that it costs MORE for you to go to NYU than it does to go to Belmont, from what I can gather from your post. THat issue might be raised by the financial aid officer or admissions officer.

What is your EFC? Most always, schools do not give more money than what will have you paying your EFC. If you have a mixed merit and financial aid award, it’s rare that the merit portion will be raised, if you are at that EFC level. Certain financial aid, like PELL, can not be given on top of scholarship money. It is given for need only. So if you get more scholarship funds so that you are reducing your payment below your EFC, the PELL has to go away. So it can be a tricky situation for the financial aid office.

I feel anyone who is thinking about discussing their award, whether it is merit or need or both, should discuss the matter with the appropriate school officials if for no other reason, but for peace of mind. There have been cases, when the discussion results in more funding. However, do manage your expectations. I have not known any cases, other than outright mistakes that were made, where substantially more money was added. Often it’s some loan. It’s at the tail end of the season, so funds are tight.

Good luck in this endeavor and let us know how it goes.

22

Thank you so much! This was incredibly insightful. My EFC is 0, so I don’t think I need to worry about any offers lower than that! I was kinda hoping that the fact I was even accepted into NYU and received so much money (I’ve heard NYU gives scholarships sparingly, even if needed, as merit is highly considered), yet I would still would prefer to go to Belmont would make them consider boosting my merit scholarship by a few thousand. I understand NYU is still more expensive, but I would be paying more for a better school academics-wise, so maybe they’d consider that? I don’t know, but I will be sure to contact my counselor.

23

Belmont costs $48k. You said they gave you $8k and you received a ~$6k Pell Grant. That leaves a ~$30k gap. You qualify for full Pell, so your mom isn’t going to be eligible to help you borrow over $100k. This school is unaffordable.

Are you from Texas? Did you apply to any of your in state public schools? Are there any schools you can commute to from your mom’s?

24

I have 36 thousand from them as well as the option to take out another 5 thousand in direct loans by myself. With my mother, I was offered a direct parent plus loan as well to cover anything else. It’s my only option or I’m not going to college.

25

$20k grant, 8k merit, $6k pell, $5.5 fed loan, $2k work study equals 41.5k. Tuition and fees are $35.6. Cheapest option room and board $9300. And since you have 10k in savings its doable. Its tight but if they have RA positions as upperclassman in return for housing that would save $6k. Also if you are willing to work $2k is a low estimate for potential earnings. Working 20 hours a week during school and more during vacations you should be able to make at least 10k yearly. I think its worth a discussion with Financial Aid if they can do a bit more. Its possible to make this work.

26

How many grants did Belmont give you? Is their merit separate from need based grants? Work Study is only paid as you earn it. Look for a WS job as soon as you get to campus.

What major are you considering?

27

Books - rent in advance usually they have a 30 day return policy before peices go up, buy second hand, also generally speaking students sell old textbooks to fellow students. Contact the professor in advance as sometimes what the bookstore states you must have is not accurate and another edition works fine. The most expensive books are the one’s that require an internet access code. Although my child went to another university we kept the cost to a fraction of the estimate. Some profs also provide PDF’s. Travel expenses can be greatly reduced and as you said you have rides from Texas. I assume you have health insurance. If so, that is already being paid so does not factor in to this. There all kinds of ways of saving money for everyday stuff such as couponing, rewards programs, cash back with a credit card, opening a new bank account with a cash back offer.

28

Only option? No. There is not a single instate college in Texas that would be cheaper than NYU or Belmont? Not true.

Go for broke- make an appointment to speak with a financial aid officer to walk through your offer, explain that your mother is not a position to co-sign a loan and that with your 10K in savings you can make freshman year work but can’t figure out a plan for the next three years. See how that conversation goes.

In the meantime- start exploring which instate options are still accepting applications. You are obviously smart and talented-- kudos to you. Use those talents to figure out your plan B. Going off to Belmont with a plan to work 20 hours a week (do the math- that’s a LOT of hours), sell plasma, plus spend down all your savings and take on a boatload of debt- you are smart enough to get cracking on a viable four year plan.

Have you looked at what your monthly payments would be on all these loans? What kind of job can you possibly get which will allow you to pay rent, eat, AND make your payments???

Stick to the federal loan limits (those parent plus loans are a trap). See if Belmont can make it work AND explore a cheaper, closer to home option. I’m not seeing how the math works for you right now. If your EFC is zero, under what scenario could your mom help you with those loans??? Winning the lottery?

29

Do you have health insurance? If not, that will add another couple of thousand dollars to the cost of college.

30

Really?

You state in another thread: “My mother is very mentally ill and she, my brother, and I suffer from significant health issues. My mom actually dropped me off at a boarding school across the country this summer (she told me we were going on a short vacation) for revenge because I had her forcefully admitted to a mental institution 2 years ago after she had a mental breakdown.”

In other threads you mention free/full rides to other places. ?

31

@annabellaadora

Please be honest with us…

You say you were a Questbridge finalist. Did you not get this award?

You say you were eligible for a Hispanic scholars thing full ride at Fordham. Did you ever apply there? Did you get the award?

You also claim you are a resident of both Texas and Connecticut. What schools did you apply to in Texas? Any?

On other threads, you have a list of some very pricey colleges.

I’m from CT…and as far as i know…boarding school students are considered residents of the state in which their parents reside. We have a lot of boarding schools here with a lot of OOS students. I don’t believe theynget instate status in CT for college purposes.

What was your safety school…you know the affordable one where you were guaranteed admission?

32

As others have said upthread, yes, it may be possible to make it work even if Belmont does not up your package. Going down a path like that is painful and riskly. Bad things happen in life, and if there are other choices (and, yes, you do have them), it’s wise to have something in reserve to make things a bit easier.

To saddle a parent with a zero EFC (not to mention health issues) with a loan, to me is unconscionable. I would not have done that to my parents who were very much lower middle income. It would have added stress and made them undergo austerity regiments that I would not do to those I love. As it turned out, things did a downturn for them a few years after I was out of college, and thankfully, they were not burdened with college loans or costs at the time. It was painful enough.

33

What other schools did you get into and what are the net costs?

34

Looks like Belmont is $48,000 a year for tuition fees and room and board.

You got $28,000 in aid from them. The Pell Grant is about $6,000. $34,000.

So you need another $14,000

You can only borrow $5,500

For NYU you need $22,000

Neither one you can afford on your own.

You might need to attend a local instate college where you can get enough merit or aid to leave a cost of about $11,000 (Pell and loan).

Can you commute anywhere?

35

Is your mother’s income low? Because with $10,000 in savings you would not have a $0 EFC unless you qualify for auto zero EFC or simplified needs test on FAFSA.

Are you going to be majoring in music? You should try and keep debt low. If your mom is low income ($0 EFC), then she might not be able to qualify to co-sign for you. You don’t want to start at a school and then have to leave because you can’t pay your bill.

How about U North Texas? Do you have stats that would get you merit? I assume you would get a TX state grant as well as Pell and student loan.

I think Texas A&M has the Aggie Promise where families under $60,000 income can get free tuition.

36

You cannot count the work study up front, you won’t have that money until you get a job, work and get a paycheck. That money you will need for books, personal expenses, travel.

37

I have a friend whose child wanted to go OOS for college. He had a $0 EFC and parent could not help with college expenses.

The OOS school gave some merit and need based aid, but it still left too much to cover.
He still wanted to go, thought it would work out.

He came home after a semester.

At the local college, he would have had a merit scholarship, state grant and Pell Grant, which would have mostly covered his expenses if he commuted, without taking any loans.

38

$48,000 minus $28,000 merit and school grant, $6,195 Pell Grant, and $5,500 student loan leaves $8,305 to pay.

You cannot include the work study in this.

That’s for the first year, plus books, maybe health insurance, travel expenses.

It will be more in future years.

That is too much for a student paying on their own.

If OP uses the $10,000 savings, that would only cover the first year.

39

On a student payment plan, it will come to about $1000 a month. Most schools will work with a student to pay that way. Work study and additional work , and then working during the summer to replenish what was paid out of the $10K nest egg, makes it barely possible. It’s too tight for me, especially when there are other alternatives out there. The temptation will always be there to get Mama to sign for a loan.

40

@cptofthehouse, At the end of freshman year to OP will be broke. She can’t earn $8k-10k over the summer.