<p>I'm a new member of this forum. My husband lost his job 5 months ago (schools don't know this fact yet) and haven't found one yet. I don't work. So my family doesn't have income.</p>
<p>My son is admitted to Berkeley, Standard, Harvard, Yale, Duke and Princeton. He got some grant from one of the above schools, but not from others.</p>
<p>What is the best approach to appeal the financial award decisions?</p>
<p>Thank you very much for kindly and timely advice and suggestions.</p>
<p>unfortunately, one of the downsides of the state Uni is a large bureaucracy. Cal's finAid apps (fafsa & gpa verification) were due March 2, so you might have to appeal. Call them tomorrow.</p>
<p>Don't just call the financial aid office. Call and ask to speak directly to the director of financial aid. Do this tommorrow for each school. Be honest, explain the circumstances clearly, and ask if they would still accept a copy of the FAFSA and PROFILE from your family at this point. At least a few should be willing to do so, but the longer you wait, the less likely that becomes. </p>
<p>Good luck, and congratulations to your son on an impressive list of acceptances.</p>
<p>(PS, look in the upper right hand corner of the screen where it says "Personal Messages." I just sent you one, with a link that might be helpful.)</p>
<p>I don't have any advice to add, but please update us after your conversations with the schools. Many of these schools really will want to try to make it work for you, but it's difficult at this point in the year. Your son has a fantastic list of school choices, and I'm really hoping that it will all work out for your family. Good luck!</p>
<p>I would also let each college know 1] their school is your son's first choice, and 2] where else he was accepted. All of the colleges he was accepted at want your son, and compete with each other over similar students [unless Carolyn suggest otherwise, I bow down to her knowledge of all the ins and outs of college admissions and am so glad to see her posting on CC again]</p>
<p>By all means contact the schools and try to talk to the financial aid person assigned to your son. They will probably tell you which (additional) form you need to fill out and send in. Last year my family was in precisely this same position. I wrote a cover letter explaining the situation, faxed our w2's and completed tax form from the previous year, a projection sheet as to what our income would be for the 2006-2007 year. My husband had received a generous severance package so our income would not really appear to drop during calendar year 2006, even though he was unemployed. The financial aid people were all very nice and sympathetic, but basically told us they couldn't adjust financial aid until the drop in income would appear on our tax form.</p>