<p>The "how to" is because I don't know how to get some of these loans converted to grants, but wish I did. Has anybody had ANY success in having a college loan offer converted to a grant, either inside or outside the appeal process? Is it better to jump the shark, so to speak, and write a letter prior to receiving your childs FA award, or is it best to pursue it via the actual appeal process time frame. My D's FA officer has indicated that the only aid we should anticipate is loans, i.e. Stafford, Parent Plus... Would mentioning declining home value and rising taxes help?</p>
<p>Parent/Student loans to college grants? I’m hard pressed to believe that many colleges would do that in these economic times unless the student was a superstar and the college aboslutely didnt’ want to loose him/her. One can only ask I guess. If you don’t ask you’ll never know. Outside of a small circle of schools, grants are pretty rare and I thought are generally expressed/given as “scholarships” by the colleges/unis.</p>
<p>I don’t think I’ve ever seen the question expressed this way before. Usually, the approach is to have the student apply to schools where she is likely to be at the top of the applicant pool and thus in line to be offered scholarship money. Are any of the schools on her list known to be generous to a kid with her stats?</p>
<p>It’s very hard to predict financial aid in any individual case. And that is the reason to have at least one safety school that you know you can afford.</p>
<p>I don’t think any school will convert loans into grants. If there is some special situation (high medical bills, loss of income) that is not reflected on the financial aid application then they may make an adjustment to reflect this and that *may *lead to eligibility for grant aid. </p>
<p>If the school is a FAFSA only school then the home is not reported anyway so it’s value has no impact on the EFC one way or another. If it is a school that uses CSS then the home value reported on CSS should have reflected current value.</p>
<p>If loans rarely get converted to grants how are special circumstances handled in an FA review? Is a merit scholarship increased? For instance if a student at a college with a COA of 40K has a 15K scholarship, 2K work/study, no grants, and 23K in loans, (Stafford, Parent Plus), what would the FA officer do if he did find that circumstances did dictate an increase in FA. If the loans are not converted and work study is already figured in, how would they lighten the financial burden for a desirable student whose family cannot take on any further debt due to, what the institutions finds to be, legitimate circumstance?</p>
<p>Some people convert loans into grants by not paying back the loans. I don’t recommend it as a good strategy though.</p>
<p>I don’t think any one college’s FA department would respond the same way, if at all, so it’s impossible for us to know unless someone was successful and can answer in their experience although that would still be based on a specific school.</p>
<p>Unfortunately FA does not always meet what you need it to meet and it may end up being a school that is not an option. Just because your EFC says one thing, a school does not have to meet the gap between your EFC and their cost, nor do they have to do it with anything other than loans. It is then up to the family to determine if that school is an option they are willing to commit to, loans and all.</p>
<p>Good luck though! I think though chances are very slim they’ll change the offer.</p>
<p>[“I’m hard pressed to believe that many colleges would do that in these economic times”]</p>
<p>Well if the applicant pool is down and many, many, families do need more help, due to the economy, these colleges do have to fill the seats. Obviously this is not such a problem at the top tier places… but there a lot of colleges out there.</p>
<p>To have a better prospective, how much are you hoping to get converted to a grant - $1000? $5000?</p>
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<p>Time will tell, applications are lower in general, but we won’t know until spring/summer if enrollments are down at the private colleges. Applications have been steadily increasing for a number of years, but the boomlet is cresting so apps were expected to go down alittle, this economy probably curtailed some families desire to look at private colleges. I know my alma mater has not traditionally “enrolled” more students in three decades. Apps fluxuate up and down, but enrollment stays pretty similar each year. Now our public flagship is up in apps and raised enrollment last year, hard to say what will happen this year…dorm space is maxed. How much privates are willing to pay for students is a whole 'nother unknown.</p>
<p>Nightingale - it would depend a lot on the school and it’s aid policies. My daughter did get extra grant money when we asked for a special circumstances adjustment for medical expenses and loss of income. But it was only because it dropped her EFC down to where she was eligible for more Pell grant and to where she became eligible for a State grant. If our EFC had not dropped down to Pell eligibility level we would not have received any grant money (this is a State U that only awards federal and State aid for need based aid, no institutional).</p>
<p>Based on the fact that you have been offered only loans (other than the scholarship) it sounds like the school you are talking about either does not offer much or anything in the way of need based institutional grants, or that they do not consider you to have financial need. The only way this is likely to change is if you can show them some special circumstance that increase your need. </p>
<p>If you were eligible for federal grants they would be included in the package - your EFC has to be very low for federal grants, 4617 or less. They cannot offer you federal grants unless your EFC is low enough for them. So it all comes down to their policies for institutional aid. It is always worth talking to them to see if anything can be done. $23k in loans does sound pretty awful. Good luck.</p>
<p>OP, keep in mind that the FAFSA methodology does not take debt, home equity, taxes, or the cost of living in your area into account. Debt is regarded as a lifestyle choice and does not get you aid unless there are extraordinary circumstances such as huge medical bills. Even those allowances are few and far between.</p>
<p>[“Debt is regarded as a lifestyle”]</p>
<p>Do colleges view debt differently if it is associated with debt you’ve incurred sending your children to their college vs. say buying a new car every year? I mean if you’ve been a full pay (except for merit scholarship) and then child #2 hits college do that view that debt differently …or is debt simply debt?</p>
<p>["To have a better prospective, how much are you hoping to get converted to a grant - $1000? $5000?']</p>
<p>Answer: $5000 or more to make attendance doable.</p>
<p>A lot depends on the college. My son goes to a public in-state university and a while after we got the financial aid package in the spring we had an “assistance grant” from the university show up on it. It just showed up and lowered the loans. It was late spring or summer. It was a surprise.</p>
<p>Well, actually it just lowered the price we had to pay. We still had loans listed but luckily didn’t have to use them.</p>
<p>^^^^ That’s pretty unusual. But lucky you!</p>
<p>$5000 or more is a lot of ground to cover. $5000 less loans would make a lot of schools more “do-able” for a lot of us. Because you’re talking $5000/more a year, right? Which translates into $20,000/more over 4 years???</p>
<p>“if the applicant pool is down…”</p>
<p>Sorry to be a bubble buster, but read the ‘applications up’ thread- of the 30+ schools listed, all are up, some by quite a lot, including cal state system up 50%. Doesn’t sound like there are many seats going begging.</p>
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<p>LOL - Don’t hold your breath. Applicant pool down? Depends on the school - and down from what level - the historical highs of recent years? Still pleanty of bodies to fill the seats without having to resort to desparate measures and buying students (especially if the students haven’t qualified for merit aid already)</p>
<p>^^I don’t often agree with you, but I will this time! Applicant pools have been at record highs but if you look at enrollment numbers they did not rise at the same percentages. The worse case scenario is taking a hit on the USNWR because enrollment management objectives shift every so slightly.</p>