Duke not meeting financial need...

Colleges and Universities A-Z Duke University
1

I am an international. My family’s combined is about 55k USD per year. They own a business but it’s valued at like 30k tops. Duke’s financial aid offer will still leave us having to pay about 50k per year.

What I don’t understand is… Duke’s financial aid page says that it either accepts students with no aid, or it accepts students with full need-met aid. Since I got aid at all I assume I fell into the second category, and yet their offer doesn’t even come close to meeting our need. A similar need-met school as already offered me almost twice in aid, so I assume it’s not because of how we filled out the CSS.

Is there some way to reasonably appeal Duke’s offer? I want to do it, but not if the likelihood of changing anything is very low.

2

Did you fill out Duke’s net price calculator beforehand? If there is a huge difference from that, then I’d say give them a call. If not, then it’s simply a case of what you think your full need is not the same as what Duke thinks that is.

3

Duke doesn’t guarantee full need for internationals. There are only a handful of schools that are need blind for international students.

Sorry but I doubt they will offer more since there are so many other internationals they could take off the wait list.