<p>Has anyone received any financial aid notifications yet?</p>
<p>Ours came about a week after the acceptance letter last year. I would guess you would hear by the end of the week.</p>
<p>I spoke with the financial aid office today. They told me the letters were mailed yesterday.</p>
<p>Just got financial aid letter....not a dime. I doubt I can go for 40K a year...we just don't have it. We're just typical middle-class family. Oh well.</p>
<p>Did you fill out the CSS Profile, lab? What did the FAFSA predict your EFC to be? (don't post it, I just think you should compare what you thought it would be and what it came out to be)</p>
<p>Bucknell meets 100% need, so if you are typical middle class you should receive aid accordingly. We are also middle class, probably upper or at least solidly, and my son got 1/2 tuition.</p>
<p>Thanks, T.T. mom....Every other school I applied to gave me merit-based aid ranging from 6K to 15K. I am so disappointed. I was confident that Bucknell would help me out. :=(</p>
<p>Ah...yes, if you are receiving merit based aid from other schools then your EFC is probably too high for fin aid. The merit aid program at Bucknell was new in the last year or so and was being revamped according to the article I saw. They do very little merit based and only to the wee top few. </p>
<p>My son did not make the cut for any merit aid programs last year and we were very worried, and wondered what was wrong with his application that he was not merit-worthy. We then discovered that the merit aid is given to those strongest applicants who would otherwise not qualify for fin aid. Sometimes he would get a small merit award and then the grants. Although it sounds more prestigious to be a such and such scholar, the grants were worth more in his packages.</p>
<p>And such is the nature of financial aid/merit aid. I'm sorry it didn't work out.</p>
<p>Ds financial aid letter came today as well. It is $10,000 less than other schools and the amount out of our pocket does not meet the EFC (short by $9,000) so this eliminates Bucknell unfortunately.</p>
<p>My financial aid package was a few thousand short of some others as well. Is it possible to negotiate?</p>
<p>You could try. My second son just got one from Wake Forest. They must be on crack. It's WAY under what everyone else has offered. I think we'll scratch them off the list. We've been rather disappointed in them all along, and fortunately it was not his top choice.</p>
<p>Bucknell was quite kind to us however. I would give their aid office a call.</p>
<p>Thank you for the advice. I did call today though, and the person on the phone suggested that we sat down in a meeting with a financial aid officer. I think I'll head up a day early to the open house and meet with them on Friday. It's the one school that I want to go to very badly, and I really hope they are able to give some more money so that I won't be forced to attend a school that I don't want to (as much).</p>
<p>Good luck! I hope you can negotiate something. I think my son is involved in a Young Dems activity this weekend on campus, so he would be around.</p>
<p>dmband37...good luck on your negotiations with financial aid office. i called them this afternoon and they were polite, but definite for me that in my case there was nothing they can do. i wish you better luck. bucknell was my dream choice and i was so happy that things were working out...until today. i'll be in debt for years if i go there...</p>
<p>Thanks, I hope it works out for me too. I'm sorry to hear that they can't do anything for you. I plan on having a meeting with a financial aid officer though, because it's where I want to go. Otherwise I'll be stuck at Lafayette. I mean it's a good school, but I'm apathetic about it as a second choice. I just really hope things work out.</p>