comparing aid offers

Paying for College
1

<p>Hi, </p>

<p>I got into two brilliant colleges, dartmouth and duke. Right now, i'm leaning a bit towards duke simply because its more science centered. The problem is that, while my efc at both schools is the same, Dartmouth is offering 46000 in grants, while duke is offering only 43k. The latter is giving me 3000 in loans, while dartmouth hasnt given me any loans. I read somewhere you can negotiate offers between peer schools. could someone tell me how this is done? Also, would it be possible for someone to post like a copy of a letter they wrote to a financial aid office asking for a review? Thanks.</p>

2

<p>Also, when dartmouth was calculating my aid package, they allocated 2700 dollars to travel, while with duke it was 300 dollars. Should i mention this when asking for a review?</p>

3

<p>First of all congratulations, as you got into 2 wonderful schools and both have made it financially feasible for you to attend. Have you considered trying to get some outside scholarships to offset your loan.</p>

<p>It looks as if both schools met 100% of your demonstrated need giving you loads of grant aid (as an international student who got admitted into 2 great schools that are not need blind to international students and then have them both provide you with a fantastic financial aid package, you should consider your self blessed and highly favored). </p>

<p>Looking at your packages, each gave you the same amount of need based financial aid, $46000 with a slight variation in packaking. You probably got "0" loans from Dartmouth based on their no loan policy that they have in place for low income families. </p>

<p>
[quote]
Also, when dartmouth was calculating my aid package, they allocated 2700 dollars to travel, while with duke it was 300 dollars. Should i mention this when asking for a review?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>In the big scheme of things it is really a non-issue because not that they are "giving" you this, it is what they have budgeted. This is money that be offset by the student contribution (summer earnings), and self help portion (work-study) of your financial aid and you will end up footing this part of the bill anyway.</p>

<p>While you can ask Duke to eliminate your loans (what is the worse that can happen? they say no). Keep in mind that $3,000 is not an onerous amount of money for you to have some "skin in the game" and for you to be an active participant in the financing of your education. </p>

<p>Based on their financial aid statistics, it looks as if your loan ($3000) is less than the average loans they give first year students ($4900).</p>

<p>2005-2006 Year Average Aid Award
Grant Funds $22,736*
Deferred Loans $4,011
Work-Study Job $1,606 </p>

<p>2005-2006 Academic Year Packaged Loan Awards*
First Year $4,905
Sophomore $5,440
Junior $5,975
Senior $6,520 </p>

<p><a href="http://dukefinancialaid.duke.edu/prospect_statistics.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://dukefinancialaid.duke.edu/prospect_statistics.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I hate to sound mean but when you ask for a financial review, what will your review be based on? You know what they say about looking a gift horse in the mouth. Also be prepared that Duke may view your request like: </p>

<p>You not wanting to help pay for your education "Dartmouth gave me no loans so I want you to remove my loans too." It almost sounds like entitlement.</p>

<p>You want us to implement another school's policy?</p>

<p>If Duke should say no, take solace in the fact that you will most likely graduate with less than the average amount of student debt and many families (some turning down Duke because they really cannot afford to attend) would be doing the happy dance to have their kids in the same situation, example: jgonzo220, who will be turning down Dartmouth becasue s/he can't afford to attend and would be doing backflips to have your package.</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=331352%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=331352&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>