Hello,
I was accepted to Fordham EA, however when I received my award package, the price was around $15,000 more than I am willing to pay for college. I was wondering if Fordham would ever consider increasing my aid this much by appealing. Also, to anyone that has appealed their FA package at Fordham, your experience would be greatly be appreciated.
What is “willing” to pay? Can you not afford a single cent more and that includes loans, WS options, etc.? Or would you just rather not spend so much on college?
Not sure if Fordham guarantees to meet need; if so, find a way to demonstrate that your need is SIGNIFICANTLY greater, though it’d likely have to be from something they haven’t seen (i.e, heavy medical expenses not on FAFSA, parental job loss…) If not, you’d probably have to barter with merit (i.e, “well, i’d love to come, but XYZ U gave me $20k…”)
@novafan1225 What I meant when I said I was not willing to pay is that I am currently planning on attending law school following my undergrad.
With that being said, it would be unwise of me to spend a huge amount of money on my undergrad. Also, do you think Fordham would be willing to barter with offers from Syracuse or George Washington University?
@novafan1225 Also, I know Fordham does not gurantee to meet need. In fact, they showed me in my financial aid what my need was, and they provided less than half of that.
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Wanting to keep family savings for law school will not get you more aid at Fordham.
@TomSrOfBoston My family is not contributing to my college education, so the entire cost of my education will fall on me. I was simply wondering if Fordham would consider increasing my aid.
Do you mean that you have an EFC of zero or that you family is able to pay but refuses to pay. If the latter Fordham will not increase aid.
I am by no means an expert, but my son was accepted to Fordham this year. We have a high EFC and he got a very small merit award. This was not surprising to us because one, he is in the average range of stats for admits and two, Fordham is not known for generous merit aid. That said, most of the time on CC people say it doesn’t hurt to try asking for more money. From my limited experience researching Fordham, I’d say don’t count on it at all and if you have better offers from the other schools, you should probably seriously consider those, especially if the other ones have merit that is guaranteed for all four years. Good luck.
I’m in a similar situation wanting to save for law school, although I only have 2-5K more I’d like. I’m only going to argue if my final offers from other schools are for more merit aid, because I really want to go to Fordham. Good luck!
Also- I’ve been doing a bunch of scholarship applications the last couple of weeks. I’d recommend trying to get some money out of smallish scholarships too. Every little bit helps.
@julia1611 @CAMidwestMom Thank you so much for your support!
@TomSrOfBoston My EFC is not 0. But I think it is unfair of you to assume that my family is able to pay the $50000 Fordham is asking and are just refusing to pay. There is more to every financial situation than just an EFC. Just because a college has calculated that a students family is able to pay a certain amount of money, this might not be fully accurate.
Often families have to make sacrifices to meet the EFC: selling the beach house, foregoing a cruise etc. If you cannot document why your situation is special, other than wanting to save for law school, you will not get more free money.
@TomSrOfBoston All I was wondering is if Fordham would ever consider increasing my aid package. There was no need to dive into my family’s economic choices, they are out of my personal control anyways. I can 100% guarantee you I am not the only one in this situation.
The universities will dive and dig and come up with an appropriate response. You are a dependent of your parents and are affected by those choices.
Woah I don’t think her family is choosing a beach house or cruise over college… My family doesn’t have those luxuries and I couldn’t afford Fordham if they weren’t generous with my merit aid. My best suggestion for OP is choose the cheapest school. That’s just reality, it doesn’t have to mean people have bad intentions. You can certainly get a little more for merit aid by comparing what other schools gave you. I don’t think you’ll get a whole $15K but 2 or 3 might be reasonable. Either way, Syracuse and GW are good schools and you won’t be sacrificing much but location. Lots of good law schools in DC too.
@Prospextive20
You can ask. Fordham can very generous to high stats applicants in terms of merit scholarships. Did you expect a merit scholarships? Room and board is pricey at Fordham for obvious reasons so even a full tuition scholarship means COA of over $20,000.
Schools delve into students’ financial resources and the resources of parents, non-custodial parents, step-parents, and family owned businessss. If your EFC is unaffordable to your family, you are best off pursuing merit scholarships. There a lot of students in your situation.
Hopefully Syracuse or GW will offer you more attractive packages. As @julia1611 said, you might be best off picking your most affordable option.
I did the appeal process when I first enrolled. I’m on my phone, so I won’t give the whole situation. However, I will tell you that Fordham will not compete with other university financial packages. They do not consider it when looking at your appeal.
@Reader13 Thank you so much for your help!
Here’s the process - after contacting FA office, they will reply with a link to a check list - FAFSA & Profile completion dates, multi-year cost calculation has to be done,Federal W2 & 1099 forms needs to be submitted, amount of competing schools merit/grant (if the requested review is for that), brief explanation of reason for appeal, how much additional money is requested. The review does not occur unless the check list is complete and only after April 1 but judgement will be prior to May1. Good Luck.
I spoke to someone in Fordham’s Financial Aid office about an hour ago. She said that around April 1, updated financial award letters will go out. Many people will receive increases over the original award. And in some cases it can be substantial.