<p>I have received my preliminary financial aid award. Does anyone know how much will the final official award differ from the preliminary award in terms of EFC? (Given that income and assets information remain the same)</p>
<p>how much award did you get?</p>
<p>does the decision depend on fin need?</p>
<p>Absent significant new information, that's what you're going to get. </p>
<p>There is more wiggle room if at least one parental income is from self-employment. FinAid does a nasty job of adding some things
from Schedule C back into "income" but this can be possibly
negotiable...I won one, lost one. But the one I won was augmented
by the fact that I had some competing offers from other schools
that were better, leverage that I suspect them to reinterpret some
things in my favor. I'd have appealed on the third year, too, except
that I saw what some students whose situations I thought were much
tougher than my D's were getting.</p>
<p>FinAid is my least favorite part of the whole process and is among the
few parts of Smith that are most "average."</p>
<p>Otoh, I look at the experience my daughter is getting and see a great value there; wouldn't dream of, say, having her go to a UC to save $10K a year. YMMV.</p>
<p>blur, would you mind sharing the amount of loan in your preliminary fin aid package?</p>
<p>Grant~31150 Loan~3000 work study~1900</p>
<p>wow, that's great....</p>
<p>Blur, my preliminary finaid package and my actual finaid package weren't different at all, if I recollect properly. Looking at bannerweb, mine was comprised of</p>
<p>$34,472 in grants from the college
$5,200 in federal grants
$2,625 in federal loans
$1,900 in work study</p>
<p>I'm guessing since you're an international student, your loans aren't coming from the US, and rather from Smith itself, right? When Smith gives you an amount in grants from them, they're sort of pledging that (a) they have that money and (b) that they are willing to award you that money if you come (since you're ED, you are). Effectively, that money amount won't change. Usually financial aid will change if you make an appeal, or if you notify Smith that your financial situation has changed considerably (i.e. death of a parent, divorce or you've become an emancipated minor). </p>
<p>I do want to let you know that in the state of Massachusetts (I believe) it's a state law that colleges ensure their students have valid health insurance during their time at school. That means that you're going to either need insurance in Malaysia that covers you overseas, or you need to purchase an insurance plan in the States, probably through Smith. Smith offers its own plan through Koster Insurance, and also a supplemental plan to cover any holes your insurance might have. You'll probably get a letter about this sometime during the summer (I don't know that approximate timeline since I applied regular decision), and I don't know if the process is different for internationals. </p>
<p>The cost of the Koster insurance comes to $2,054 per year, which comes out to about 7,300 RM, I think. The cost of that is NOT included under the estimated cost to attend Smith (the 43,000 dollar amount). the college DOES provide a Health Grant for the full amount, which I have, and that's the only way my Aid Award has changed. But, you need to request that Fin Aid look at your financial situation so they can determine if you're elligible.</p>
<p>Again, all this might not apply if you already have insurance to cover you, or if the policy is different for international students.</p>
<p>Thanks Bea..yup Smith is covering the health insurance too. That's good if the package will not change, I don't want my EFC to increase any further..lol</p>
<p>blur, are you supposed to contribute from summer earnings?
Sorry for asking that many questions about your fin aid package, but I'm applying ED 2 and I am really worried about fin aid...</p>
<p>and btw, are decisions posted on bannerweb?</p>
<p>hmm..i guess the EFC includes my summer earnings too. and, Yes, decisions are posted on Bannerweb</p>
<p>Thank you so much, blur.</p>
<p>no prob! All e best for your application:)</p>
<p>See you at the International Student Pre-Orientation ;)</p>