Financial Aid Appeal Advice

Paying for College
1

I had a question about appealing my financial aid award package and was wondering if someone could help me out.

I transferred to American University in Spring 2016. I’m a relatively decent student, 3.5 GPA, so I was hoping to get a fair amount of financial aid for the 2016-2017 academic year, specifically grants. However my financial aid package came out and I noticed that I was receiving no grants at all and only a small amount of loans.I called the office just to see if there was any additional aid available (because why not, right?) and apparently I was put in the database as signed up for only half the amount of credits necessary to be considered a full time student. So I wasn’t being considered for any financial aid outside of sub/unsub loans. This was a problem because on my end, I am currently enrolled in 16 credit hours for the fall semester and so I told them to fix this and asked them about being reconsidered for additional aid, as I was clearly screwed over by a clerical error.

But now they’re telling me that because I was a transfer student, for the entirety of my time at American, I’m never going to be considered for any grant-based financial aid and that I am only eligible for loans. Moreover, the package that I was given in the Spring 2016 semester (which is very small) is the package that I’m going to receive for every semester until I graduate.

This bugged me for two reasons. One, because it just seems silly considering that I should now be considered a returning/continuing student after my first semester, and two, because the package that I received for Fall 2016 is actually slightly more than the package I received for Spring 2016. So not only does their explanation not make sense to me, but they also appear to be blatantly lying to me.

I’m going to call the office again to ask how I can go about the process of filing an appeal, but I was wondering if anyone else has experienced something like this or has some advice for me.

2

Transfer students at many schools do not receive institutional need based grants…or merit aid.

This isn’t unusual.

ETA…the majority of institutional Grant and merit money is awarded to incoming freshmen students. You need to understand also that there isn’t much new scholarship money awarded to returning students either.

American also doesn’t guarantee to meet full need for anyone.

3

Here are the transfer scholarships:
http://www.american.edu/financialaid/transferscholarships.cfm

4

Why did you transfer there if the FA offer wasn’t good? Did you expect it to get better the next year? As a transfer?

5

“But now they’re telling me that because I was a transfer student, for the entirety of my time at American, I’m never going to be considered for any grant-based financial aid and that I am only eligible for loans. Moreover, the package that I was given in the Spring 2016 semester (which is very small) is the package that I’m going to receive for every semester until I graduate.”

This is very standard for transfer students. They are not “blatantly lying” to you. You should not have transferred if the school was unaffordable.

6

You can file the appeal, but generally you might get a few hundred, if that.
Transfers are expected not to get much funding.

7

I can’t imagine what made you believe that your financial aid for subsequent semesters would be any higher than it was for your first semester (assuming your and your parents’ financial situation remained similar). I’m sure nothing in your original award suggested it would be increased just because you kept attending. And even if it was American’s practice to give existing students new grants, why in the world would the school feel the need to throw more money at a 3.5 GPA student? Your award for fall 2016 may have been adjusted upward slightly to account for a higher COA in the 2016-2017 year vs. the 2015-2016 year–that doesn’t mean anyone was lying about anything. I’m sorry you were operating under a misapprehension and hope you can afford to stay.