’Tis the season … for good news from admission offices and for bad news from financial aid offices. As students and their parents celebrate Early Decision acceptances, some families are wrestling with aid packages that make matriculation seem unwise. Even those who used Net Price Calculators to help predict aid awards are sometimes blindsided by the actual amount they’ve been offered.
While students can bail out of an Early Decision commitment without penalty if the money doesn’t work, an appeal should be the next step for those admitted to a top-choice school who aren’t ready to walk away.
Here are some tips to help make the appeal work:
**1. Provide a specific amount that’s required rather than taking Oliver Twist’s “I want some more” approach.
Try to justify that figure using documentation when possible (e.g., the bill for the unexpected new roof on the house or for an uninsured medical crisis).
If there’s a big discrepancy between the number that the Net Price Calculator spit out in the fall and the amount in the aid award letter, be sure to let the college folks know. They can feel sheepish when their NPC is way off target.
If the student has already been admitted to a comparable college and received more aid, you can try to use that as leverage. But the key word here is “Comparable.” And if the ED college gives only *need-based* aid, then you probably won’t get much mileage out of presenting a *merit*-aid offer from another school.
Be polite but persistent. Act grateful for what you’ve already been offered rather than entitled to extra, but don’t give up easily either. Colleges really don’t like to lose admitted students, so the financial aid officials want to work with you, especially if your goals are reasonable. **
While it’s still early to know this season’s aid-appeal outcomes, I think that many CC members can benefit from hearing how other families have fared in the past and will welcome additional suggestions on how to get more blood from a stone.
@Sally_Rubenstone for early decision…this would be an unlikely scenario:
Early Decision acceptances are coming out now. In the very vast majority of cases, students won’t have another financial aid offer in hand…unless their flagship has rolling admissions and also gives an aid award. But many of those won’t be comparable colleges to the ED schools.
So…where will these “comparable college offers” come from??
@thumper1- It’s not unusual for students to apply EA to several colleges and then ED to just one, with the understanding that, if admitted to the ED school with adequate aid, then the student must accept the ED offer. And it’s also not unusual for at least a couple of these colleges … if not all of them … to qualify as “comparable.”
Students are typically permitted to apply to both ED and EA colleges concurrently as long as the individual colleges don’t impose restrictions, which some do.
Of course, because this mix-and-match practice is common, I routinely see students who say “No Thanks” to the ED college in spite of a decent aid offer because an EA school has made a better one. And lots of folks would say this is fine while others would insist that it violates the spirit of the binding commitment if the ED college’s offer was reasonable, even if not the best one.
But that’s not what this thread is about, and I don’t want to go off on a tangent. Instead, I’d like to hear from families who have appealed ED aid awards … ideally successfully, but any such sagas should be helpful to others.
Maybe things have changed…but my kids applied and were accepted EA to several colleges. However, their financial aid awards were NOT received with the EA acceptances…came in February…one in March.
This is LONG after the ED offer needs to be accepted.
Sure…there are some colleges now that might…MIGHT get their financial aid offers out with EA acceptances now that the fafsa and Profile can be filed in October. BUT no student should be counting on this. It just might not happen.
Plus…when a student applies ED, it’s because they have indicated that they WILL attend the school if accepted, and financial aid is sufficient. It’s not because they plan to compare offers between schools.
@thumper1 -You’re right that EA schools usually send finaid packages later and not with the initial acceptances, but some will give families who ask an “early read,” especially when the family is concerned about a too-low offer from an ED school. And it’s not unusual for EA colleges to send merit awards in December. So, although it’s a bit of an apples vs. oranges situation when a family tries to use an EA merit-aid figure to coerce more need-based aid out of an ED college, it does happen.
But, again, the main objective of this thread is to find out how families made successful ED aid appeals, so I don’t want to get too sidetracked.
thanks for this post @Sally_Rubenstone this is my first time applying for College with my children. We had a sheet from school with a timeline on when to do things. We decided to apply to most of his schools in OCT to get them out of the way and work on his auditions. We were perplexed that we received acceptances in November AND early December and recently with financial aid packages that were very low. We were certain to apply for regular admission and felt like we were either being pushed to make a decision to free up their funding for another child or for us to commit sooner than later (with little aid) I was so much so turned off, I didn’t think appealing the aid either way
17K off of 60 isn’t a lot for a single parent
@actingdreams-Have you tried playing with the Net Price Calculators for your son’s top choice colleges? If the amount of aid you were offered doesn’t mesh with what the Net Price Calculator suggests that you should be paying, you should inform the college and it will strengthen your appeal.
Since your son was not an Early Decision candidate you have some time to tackle these appeals, but still it makes sense to pursue them as soon as you can, before the colleges commit funds to other candidates.
Unfortunately, although colleges are obligated to give families until May 1 to accept admission and financial aid offers, many schools do try to wangle earlier commitments. But if your son is still deciding and if there are appeals in progress, you shouldn’t succumb to this pressure. Good luck (and Happy New Year)!
I believe @actingdreams has a student who is applying to programs with auditions. That being the case…it’s very possible that his total award won’t be available at all until his auditions are completed.
In addition, fine arts schools typically don’t have a lot of money for generous scholarship awards. Some of these schools also “leverage” or manage their need based aid to attract top audition candidates.
ETA…he absolutely should feel no pressure to accept any offer at this point…because he hasn’t completed his auditions at all of his prospective colleges.
@thumper1 yes! you’re correct. We’re really hoping to get into our top schools and neither of these 3 are on it. We will just wait for auditions and we’re not committing. They really get you with “pay your residence deposit now to ensure there is space for your student” @Sally_Rubenstone thank you! Happy New Year! the net-calculator has us with more aid than what was given. I will work on this after auditions in early Feb when we have some idea of where we may very well be. Thanks again for responding <3
@actingdreams -I don’t want to get off topic here, since this thread is about ED finaid appeals, but beware of housing deposits. Although many colleges will refund them up until May 1, some will not. There has been debate about this among National Association for College Admission Counseling members for years. Many folks in the college-counseling world (me included) insist that keeping a housing deposit before May 1 is a NACAC rules violation. But some college officials maintain (apparently successfully) that the admission office and housing office are separate at their institutions, and the housing office does not have to abide by admission rules.
So don’t toss down housing deposits with the assumption that you will get them back when a student enrolls elsewhere, because it isn’t always true.
