<p>Hey, so I appealed my financial aid package, and I did not pay my deposit yet. I know I will be attending whether I get more aid or not. But I was wondering will it matter if I pay the deposit before they make a decision on the appeal, because they may be worried that I won’t attend, or will it not matter to them?</p>
<p>Someone please answer this the deadline is in 2 days</p>
<p>I think you haven’t gotten an answer because nobody really knows.</p>
<p>If I were to guess (and I’ll stress that it’s no more than a guess), I’d say that they would have more incentive to adjust your aid before you deposit than after. Before you deposit, they must think it’s possible you’d go elsewhere. After you deposit, they know you’ll be enrolling whether they give you any more money or not.</p>
<p>But if the deadline is in two days, it’s all kind of moot, isn’t it? The deadline is in two days, and you intend to pay it. How long do you think you can wait them out?</p>
<p>I was actually thinking of calling and asking them to postpone the deadline for me, just because they do not meet 100% of my need. What do you think?</p>
<p>I still don’t know. I’m still just guessing.</p>
<p>I don’t see a reason why they should, and I don’t think they will either.</p>
<p>It’s easier for me to see how the hand should be played when I can see all the players’ cards, but here’s how I see it. American, your first choice, offered you admission and a financial aid package. You obviously find the offer tolerable; you plan to accept it. But you want to go back and see whether you can get more out of them.</p>
<p>American can expect to get you, whether they give you more aid or not. If you know this piece, you can see it’s obviously not in American’s interest to be more generous. But, of course, American won’t know this unless you pay your deposit.</p>
<p>And another thought occurs to me just now, as I am writing. RD decisions haven’t come out yet. You applied to American under Early Decision. The very point of Early Decision is that you won’t go aid-shopping! You’ve promised American that if you find FA sufficient, you’ll enroll. So, what would you be waiting for?</p>
<p>Is the offer from AU going to impoverish your family or require you to mortgage your future? (That’s rhetorical. I am not asking for details of your FA package or your family’s financial situation.) Or are you really on a fishing expedition?</p>
<p>So, I suspect American is going to tell you that’s the offer, and you can take it or leave it. But that’s just a suspicion. I have absolutely no special knowledge of insight. The only way to find out is to call them. Today.</p>
<p>Why did you appeal if you know you can afford it, and you’ve already committed to attend if you can afford it? </p>
<p>If I were them, I’d turn your appeal down, and if you don’t deposit, rescind your offer. (they never made ANY commitment to meet 100% of your need, and you know that when you applied).</p>
<p>Did I ever say I could afford it? I said I would attend which means my parents will take a parent PLUS loan, and the ED agreement says if they don’t meet 100% of the need they wouldn’t make me attend, and they didn’t. So please don’t jump to conclusions if you don’t know the whole situations. Thanks.</p>
<p>Collegescol, I think you need to cut mini some slack. Your original post does lead one to think that you can afford to attend with the package you’ve been offered, and you’re fishing for more aid.</p>
<p>You said, “I know I will be attending whether I get more aid or not.” It’s not a huge leap from that statement to the conclusion that you can afford to attend.</p>
<p>After your last post, I think the relevant question seems to be whether you and your family think you can afford the amount of educational debt you’d have to take on if you accept the aid package AU has offered. Your first post says you’ll be attending, no matter what the FA package does. We must conclude that you think the educational debt involved is manageable.</p>
<p>Nobody can really answer that question for your family and you, but I’d advise you to be careful. I really, really like AU, but under no circumstances would I recommend mortgaging your future for it. Harvard? *Maybe. *American? Not so much.</p>
<p>“Did I ever say I could afford it?”</p>
<p>Yes, you did. Your second sentence. You said you would be attending whether you got more aid or not.</p>
<p>How your parents decide to pay for it is another question entirely. Apparently, you and your family could afford AU with the original package offered.</p>
<p>I would like to see this agreement where they say they would meet 100% of your need. American makes very clear that they do NOT guarantee meeting 100% of need. And all you have to do is go to their Common Data Set to see that they do not.</p>
<p>Actually, I do not have time to find the actual wording of the ED agreement, but my memory of the gist of it is that a student may back out if the FA package is deemed “inadequate”
No where does it say it will meet 100% of need, and no where does AU say it will meet 100% of need. And never forget “need” is defined by the colleges, not the student or the students family. </p>
<p>ED Applications should be made with full consideration of what a school costs and what their FA policies are (Meets need, does not meet full need, loans included in meeting that need etc), AS WELL as how straight forward the family’s financial picture is i.e. no big swings in income, no small business deduction, “typical assests” only, and if there is a divorce/single parent home that the noncustodial parents (and all steps) are fully aware, cooperative with applications and with paying their portion. </p>
<p>Did you run the new Net Price Calculator for AU? If so, how close was AU to that calculation? I ask because it is new this year that all schools are required to post them and there are varying reports for admissions as to how accurate they were for predicting actual FA packages.</p>
<p>“I know I will be attending whether I get more aid or not.”</p>
<p>Well, AU came through for this family, apparently. Made it possible, according to the OP, for him to attend. So while he would “like” more aid, it is also clear that he (and his family) doesn’t “need” it (unless the entire thread is based on a misconception.)</p>
<p>My EFC is 0, so I am pretty sure we need it, but if they don’t give more aid, I am going to take out loans, and pay back. But did AU come through? No they did not.</p>
<p>Virtually everybody with need takes out loans. That’s just the strategy for paying. For parents, no college expects parents to pay out of current income, but either out of past savings, or in future savings (in the form of loans, to paid back in discounted dollars.) As to whether YOU should take out loans, and how much, well, we’ll all have opinions, but you didn’t ask that.</p>
<p>But, as you’ve written, you’re going in any case (hope you’ve paid your deposit), so it sounds like your “need” is a "want’.</p>
<p>Okay it’sridiculous to be attacking the OP with virtually zero information. For all you know, that line quoted could mean that she has no money and will have to take out loans for the enitre tuition. Yes many people take out loans, but that value ranges. If this person’s need has not been adequately meant, meaning she and her parents have to take out excessive amounts of loans, than she has every right to make a fuss.</p>
<p>Some right to make a fuss, I think. Or at least, some cause to go back and ask AU whether they can do better.</p>
<p>But it’s never been a secret that AU doesn’t promise to meet students’ full need. And, honestly, it’s been pretty well documented in this forum that students who are just scraping by to afford the price tag at AU often have to do a lot of scraping. These are things that anybody with an internet connection could reasonably have known before applying ED.</p>
<p>Collegescol, my D was accepted last year to AU, and while they gave her a great FA offer, we still would have had to pay over 3 times our FAFSA EFC, and it’s not a huge number, but also not low enough for Pell. In the end, we just couldn’t swing it without taking huge parent loans. That would have put our retirement in jeopardy, and we already struggle to save for retirement. If you have a 0 EFC, and your parents don’t have much money to begin with, they should not take out parent loans, or at least not big ones. My D was devastated to have to give up her dream of AU. One year later, she is incredibly happy at the school that gave her enough fin. aid that we are only paying one and a half times our EFC. We parents are happy because it is financially much more comfortable for us, and our D actually says she is glad things worked out the way they did. One year ago it looked like a huge catastrophe, and the ruin of her entire life! Choose a school that will not cause your parents to suffer when they are older, please!
Consider this too; for every applicant who appeals to AU because they need more aid, there is some kid who has been waitlisted who can pay full tuition, or needs only very little money from AU. I don’t think AU really cares if someone who needs a lot of aid attends or not…saves them a lot of cash, really.</p>
<p>“For all you know, that line quoted could mean that she has no money and will have to take out loans for the enitre tuition.”</p>
<p>I have no idea whether the OP “should” go, or whether I would advise him/her to do so. I have no idea of the family’s financial situation. But the OP DID say s/he is going in any case, which means that without AU coughing off another penny, the family has a way to pay for it. </p>
<p>If the OP wanted to compare packages, s/he shouldn’t have applied ED. It is dishonest, and deprives another applicant of a chance to take advantage of the opportunity.</p>
<p>But that’s not the case: s/he says s/he’s going in any case.</p>
<p>I don’t understand what’s dishonest about it…</p>
<p>There’s nothing dishonest about trying to lighten a financial burden. There’s nothing dishonest about appealing financial aid. It’s hardly “shopping around” or comparing packages when all the OP wants is less loans. I think everyone would like that, and there’s no harm in asking.</p>
<p>Thank you! I do not understand why mini is accusing me of all this stuff. Long story short, I applied ED, and they say that if the financial aid offer is inadequate the agreement is broken, they offered me and inadequate offer, but I liked the school too much to just say I’m out, so I appealed my decision, and I am hoping for more aid, if not I would take out personal loans, what is dishonest about that mini?</p>