Incoming class 2023 here. Just got accepted ED1 and extremely upset with the lack of financial aid offered. I know Vassar is renowned for its generous packages. Has anyone ever successfully gotten the Financial Aid department to reconsider their offer? (Worried we cannot attend ?)
Have you tried appealing it? If they won’t I know that they can let you out of the ED agreement if you can’t afford to pay.
Hi! Tips on how to appeal and get responses quickly? I called during office hours but they sounded closed over the phone. I emailed them, when can I expect to get a response?
I’m not familiar with Vassar’s process, but my D did make an appeal at another meets-full-need school, and my advice would be this: If possible, make a very clear case as to why they are not meeting full need. In my D’s case it was: This is how much we have and how much we make. This is how much is left over after completely unavoidable expenses. Your financial package would require 40% each year of what we’d have left to live on, and that’s not possible.
It is very common that parents can’t come up with the full amount that the college considers to be possible. But if it is a really large gap, it may be possible to convince the college that their estimate, for various reasons, is too high. There might still be a remaining gap to deal with, but it could be smaller.