<p>Do you think that I should contact them to inquire about them repackaging since I know about this now? Would that package look different if I nag prior to May 1, rather than waiting til after May 1 for an incoming freshman?</p>
<p>It doesn’t hurt to call & ask … you need to know for planning purposes, after all.</p>
<p>XMastmeh, you might need to talk to your school’s financial aid office once you get your credits all squared away. Situations like yours can fall through the cracks.</p>
<p>Thank you for the new information and the help with this.</p>
<p>That’s a scary thought. Perhaps I’ll ask when I call tomorrow for something else. </p>
<p>Thanks for all the information/clarification. :)</p>
<p>Update, but it isn’t a happy one. So, this new schedule of Pell Grants is supposed to help a family like mine, I suppose. Well, I have not gotten the final word, but does not appear that way. I spoke with our child’s FA officer. The FA officer had to do some research because he did not know about the new change to the Pell Grant schedule. He said that what I am saying is correct, so thank you Kelsmom! He said that we will receive a new package in 10 days because they do not have the software to do it now. I asked if this means that the gap will close some and help our family, or if the federal grant will help the school (we already were packaged, but there is still a significant gap in aid). The FA officer told me that he “did not know”. I asked to speak with the head of the FA dept. and he said I could do that, but that the “I do not know” will probably not change. Reading between the lines it means that the school benefits in this case, but the family does not get any assistance from the federal grant. I also feel that they do not want to give the family time to see that they do not get any help out of the federal money by waiting until 4/24 to send out a new package. The other school who packaged our child did not change a thing to the package, and added a grant of 1,450. I feel soured about the process at this school going in and it is our child’s first choice school.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t read anything into the “doesn’t know.” Truly, they are probably just waiting for guidance from the person who makes those decisions.</p>
<p>Well, just got a voicemail from the director of financial aid. All they will do is keep the same gap, pocket the money for the institution by reducing institutional funding. This new law did not help my family one iota. All it is doing in this instance is raising taxes to put more money into the college’s coffers. So much for this windfall for our family. They are going to reduce my son’s institutional aid dollar for dollar. At least with a little bit of coaxing they spilled the beans. They get to decide to keep the windfall for each student like mine. In this case it is $1450. If they find 350 more students on campus that falls into this new schedule, they just found over half a million in “free” money. They just won the lottery while the families do not get any more assistance. Great deal for them! Geesh!</p>
<p>Rubymom, I understand your frustration … but it’s not really a windfall for the school. It simply allows the school to more needy students than it otherwise would be able to award (institutional funding is generally limited & runs out). I truly do feel your pain. However, I also see the other side, since I do work in a financial aid office. There are so many needy students & institutional funding truly is limited. Your school probably uses equity funding, keeping the grant money at a particular level in order to maximize resources. We do it, too. It allows us to help the greatest number of students.</p>
<p>Kelsmom, how does this work?</p>
<p>
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<p>It seems strange that AFTER financial awards go out, money that the school was not counting on is given to a student with a certain EFC by the federal government and then the school takes away institutional funding. Why would they remove that money from the person with a gap and offer it to another person? Hasn’t everyone been packaged? In our shoes it appears as though the school is getting the benefit of our EFC, our son’s ACG qualifications, and taking 100% of that money away from us. </p>
<p>It sounds terrible because my child is really excited about attending this school, but I have some bad feelings sending my child there because of this. I am trying to get over it quickly for the sake of my kid, and am certainly not sharing these feelings with my family. I know that I have a big problem when things happen that are not completely transparent.</p>
<p>It is complicated by the fact that we got another FA package from the first school to repackage our child and they did NOT touch the initial package, but added the federal funding onto initial award and this helps to close the gap. I have much better feelings about them, even though it would cost me more to send a child there. It says that to me that they are doing what these funds were meant to do, which is to help families pay for college. It seems as though the other school is taking these funds from our family to use it for some other cause.</p>
<p>It is not a huge sum of money, but every little bit helps. I have to just get over the feeling of being “ripped off” for the sake of my child, but I do have a real problem with this. I know these very thoughts will be running through my head when they look for future donations, even though this school has offered some financial aid and without it my child could not attend. I also know that my child is offering a lot to their campus. Hmmm… I feel conflicted and I resent not having a say in what is being done.</p>
<p>Well, kelsmom, thanks for explaining the process, and thanks for listening.</p>
<p>Again, I do understand how you feel. But each school has to establish a policy for awarding aid & stick with that policy. Some schools do equity awarding (sounds like the school your S likes uses this) and others do not. We just moved to equity awarding last year, and it caused some hard feelings … but it also allowed us to help many more students. With minimal resources, this was a move our management felt was necessary. We can’t make everyone happy. Trust me, though, when I tell you that it is not intended to hurt anyone. Please try to keep it in perspective & not let it spoil your feelings about this school.</p>
<p>kelsmom, thanks. I still do not know what “equity awarding” is, and the policies do not seem transparent to me, but the situation is out of my hands.</p>
<p>I do have an update. We have just received a revised FA offer from another private school, a third one. It is being handled the same way as the school my son is selecting. They also have not attempted to close the gap with the ACG funds or the Pell grant for us. This school also reduced the institutional grants by the full $1450. I don’t feel better about not having the gap close more to help US, now that we qualify for federal assistance, but at least I know that other schools are equally too happy to take this money away from our family for their own use. I still feel ripped off, and I don’t think that “two wrongs make a right” (I still see this as wrong), but at least I see that the school my son is picking is not the ONLY school to behave this way. The federal assistance did not help us one thin dime, it only seems to help the private schools. Wonderful.</p>
<p>Rubymom, this has been an interesting thread. I would feel the same way as you about this.</p>
<p>'rentof2, I am glad that someone actually read this thread, other than kelsmom, who is most generous with her time in explaining financial aid.</p>
<p>I really thought that everyone was just apathetic because it did not happen to them. I think it is a bigger issue really. I think that anyone who pays federal taxes should be interested in how this works. I mean, where is this money going? Why wouldn’t a kid who got a package, and then later gets ACG money because they have need AND earned it with certain grades and classes get that $750? Why is it going to help someone else, and who knows if it does, or where it really goes? Why doesn’t our family benefit from that partial Pell grant? Was it meant for the financial aid office to get a hold of more money to award to others and/or spend who knows where, or was it meant to help a the family who just qualified for it? Truthfully, my feelings haven’t changed. I am really pretty angry about this, but my anger about it isn’t productive. It is so frustrating. When I think that that 1440 multiplied by the number of students they clip this way, well that is a very tidy sum for the institution. JMO.</p>
<p>The Pell & ACG money is YOURS, not given to someone else. The difference is, once that money was awarded to you, the INSTITUTIONAL grants were reduced. That’s a whole different - and usually quite limited - pot of money. THAT money often comes from tuition others pay (unless it’s a school that has a ton of endowment money).</p>
<p>Yes, but all that was done, was switching out what the name of the grant is called and where it comes from (Pell versus John Smith College Grant). Now the college feels no need to provide the same level of insitutional grant because the federal government is offering it instead. I thought that all students are provided a discount because a college education costs more than sticker prices. I thought that wealth did not transfer from the wealthy to low income by charging too much to one student to give to another (ie: wealth redistribution). I thought that financial aid institutional grants come from donations.</p>
<p>Rubymom,
you know that feeling you have that has you torn between the two schools due to the way they award that money (the increase in the pell and ACG) with it just lowering their institutional money? It is telling you something.</p>
<p>After 5 kiddos going through this at the undergrad and grad level, in-state and OOS publics and privates, ivies, service academies, community colleges we learned a great deal from how their lives would be when it came to the money. My son went with his gut from a plethora of choices and packages, who was the most flexible, who was willing to bend and meet him halfway, something he learned from his older siblings.</p>
<p>Again it turned out better than expected. He took the offer that looked to be less on paper but had very frank and rewarding conversations with FA. And yes they called him back immediately.</p>
<p>He swears by the “rule” if they are good about the money they will good about everything else. Good being not just generous but understanding and willing to co-operate on a friendly basis. Other schools were also generous but the candor and openess had his chosen school was refreshing.</p>
<p>As son would say, there is a reason you are having second thoughts, trust them.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>My son goes to a school that meets full need w/o loans. The fact that his Pell grant reduces the amount the college awards him from their own resources is 100% fine by me, and I am happy to have them redirect that money to another student with need – but it’s so different because his need is going to be met one way or another and the school’s generosity is humbling. But it is a very wealthy school.</p>
<p>My daughter goes to a state u with extremely limited financial aid. Her Pell doesn’t replace other institutional aid because there is almost no other institutional aid, at least for her. The Pell helps pay the bills, but the aid award is always heavy with loans and includes a big gap.</p>
<p>I understand what Kelsmom is saying – that your son’s college adjusts the institutional aid according to what other resources the student has including the Pell and ACG, but you just got to see the transaction in the naked light of day because of the adjustment happening after you’d seen the first version of your aid package. It’s interesting to realize that this probably goes on all the time, but most students and parents don’t see it. </p>
<p>Even understanding that it’s an institutional policy that has its own defense, I still think treating it that way is something I would also see as a negative mark against the school.</p>
<p>My best friend’s son was awarded a nice sum of merit money at a private college. Then he got another scholarship from the school for being a Nat’l Merit Hispanic scholar, and the college used the second scholarship to displace a good chunk of the first one… so no net gain for the student. (I think the benefit to the college is that they would have rather bragged about his NMHis status, so used that tag for the same dollars, essentially.) Anyway, it left them with a bad feeling about the way the school presented its financial aid policies, and they were facing a struggle to pay for college at all. He ended up going to a different college, partly because of that whole process.</p>
<p>I understand your friend’s feelings rentof2. </p>
<p>You are correct about seeing this transaction in the light of day. It really does not look good for a school, IMO. This demonstrates to me, just a tiny glimpse what really goes on.</p>
<p>I suspect something similar happened to my daughter this year. She has received a SEOG grant of $2,000 the last 2 years. I did wonder last year whether they would take away the SEOG as she was eligible for the SMART ($4,000). Was pleasantly surprised that they did not and she got both, so her remaining need after scholarships and grants was very low and she got no WS but just a small loan. This year everything else was the same as far as EFC and scholarships but no SEOG or WS. So her loans are quite a bit higher than she has had on the past. </p>
<p>I can see the point of trying to distribute the grants to more people but it was a little disappointing based on last years excellent package. I am just hoping next year (she will be taking a 5th year because of a certificate or minor in an area she is interested in) when the SMART is gone that they will give her WS (she really enjoyed having WS and jobs at her school seem almost all to be WS) or SEOG and not a whole bunch more in loans.</p>
<p>kat, I just noticed your post. My child is picking this school based upon gut instincts. I had the same gut instincts and I do trust gut instincts. This is why I don’t want to let this 1400 set us back tell my child to reconsider. Everything else feels right to us. I do have bad vibes about the financial aid office now, and it is eating at me. That is just honestly how I feel. It might be that 9 out of 10 private schools would handle this in the identical manner, but I saw one school that did not touch the financial aid package and added the government assistance to the package. They are not a school with a huge endowment either, but are still not as affordable as the school my child wants to attend, and there is still a 5,000 difference in cost. </p>
<p>I really do appreciate the funds that were offered by the school our child wants to go to, but I agree kat, the feeling is unsettling. If this school came in costing us more in the midrange of offers (we have 15 offers to compare), I would really explain to my child that perhaps our family should reconsider this decision. This school came in practically tied with another for most affordable even though we still have a hefty gap.</p>