<p>I just got my packet back and they basically told me I qualify for absolutely nothing. That seems totally rediculous to me; my dad makes about 100,000 a year, but he's 58 and wants to retire, and my brother is in college fulltime at a state school and I have a sister coming up in 5 years...no matter what I do, I can't get him to pay more than 15,000. Oh and i'm not a NY state resident. Basically, did anyone appeal the financial aid decision and get a better offer? is it really worth it? Anything you know would help me right now...</p>
<p>How did you get your financial aid offer in October??</p>
<p>15k per year, semester, or all four years?</p>
<p>and isn't 100k considered upper middle class? o_O</p>
<p>per year. I would have to take out 30,000 a year to go currently.</p>
<p>how do those appeals work?</p>
<p>Hey, everyone wants to retire, but the colleges consider that paying for college is an obligation & investment that is primarily the family's. They use a formula that is applied to everyone who completes the form.</p>
<p>Appeals are due to unusual circumstances (like huge unreimbursed medical bills being a common one). Nothing you've mentioned sounds like something that would affect the aid calculation you've been given.</p>
<p>oh oops i forgot that part
when my dad retires, he doesn't know if he can keep his health insurence and my mom has a lot of serious health problems. I think our medical bills would w/o insurence for the past 12 years total about 1 million, and they will be paying about 100,000/yr if they don't keep their insurence</p>
<p>So are you talking about circumstances like that?</p>
<p>No, unless the person is FORCED to retire, retirement is something one can & should plan for. Colleges MAY consider huge medical bills & loans related to them that have already been incurred due to cancer, disability, surgery, etc. </p>
<p>Are you saying your folks have $1 million in medical bills that they had to pay over the past 12 years? It's really tough to understand you. Everyone will pay more if they have bills without insurance or that are not covered by insurance. Some colleges MAY consider these expenses that have already been incurred by your family.</p>
<p>Sorry-i'm replying while doing homework.</p>
<p>nono..ok basically, my parents have medical insurence right now. In the past 12 years IF they did NOT have medical insurence their bills would have amassed to about 1 million dollars, and things are probably only going to get worse seeing as they are growing older. They are unsure if they can get health insurence when my dad retires, and just with exsisting conditions and medications, WITHOUT insurence will be about 100,000 a year. So my dad has saved a lot so he can pay for that. </p>
<p>We have a very accident prone family/unhealthy parents and I still have a younger sister who has to go through this same process and a brother in college at the moment. Do you think adding the medical bills/getting a letter from their doctor would help? Sorry if I confused you, I was very angry/upset when I wrote those last 2 posts from all of this.</p>
<p>Although $100,000 is Definitely a great income, you should mention your situation with the health problems. I appealed to my Freshman college (Stonehill) (I'm going to Cornell next year [GT]) and got a TON of money. I just showed them how colleges ranked better than them gave me A LOT more money than them, and told them I would go if they gave me a lot of money...and they did. It's always worth a shot!</p>
<p>If you have award packages from other schools, you could make an appointment & meet with the FAid folks & see whether they could use their professional judgment & make an adjustment. </p>
<p>From what I've read, you have not specified any particular health issues that your folks are currently facing that would consume any of your parent's current income or savings. The formulas do take into account the age of the parents.</p>
<p>The only thing you have to lose by trying is time & effort, but you could gain if the FAid office decides to use professional judgment to make an adjustment. </p>
<p>The important thing is to have a backup plan, with a school you would be admitted to & could attend if you get no addiitional financial aid from this school. </p>
<p>For many of us, this means choosing a school that will award substantial merit-based financial aid because the student brings something to the campus that the school wants--higher test scores than most applicants, NMF standing, higher grades than most applicants, etc. Ivy league schools have a policy of not awarding merit aid, but there are many good schools that do. If out-of-pocket costs matter to you & your family, you need to have alternatives.</p>
<p>When the time comes that your dad retires and if, at that time, your parents' medical bills grow, then perhaps at that time you will receive additional aid. If one of your siblings will be in college at the same time as you, your aid package may improve. Right now, all the financial aid office sees is your parents' income from last year (and $15,000 of loans with a family income of $100k is not too shabby). For obvious reasons, no financial aid office can make determinations based upon potential future events, such as retirement, potential medical bills (which can actually happen to anyone at any time) or siblings who will enter college at some point in the future. For example, as you said, your dad doesn't know if he can keep his health insurance once he retires. There's a big maybe in there. Additionally, you can't predict what the medical costs will be in any given year. Maybe by the time your dad chooses to retire, he will be eligible for Medicare (an imperfect system at best), so that he will have insurance coverage. You may also not be aware of it, but to the extent that your dad retires (income goes down) and loses health insurance (health care costs go up), those health insurance costs may become tax deductible to your family (to the extent that health care expenses exceed 7.5% of your family's Adjusted Gross Income).</p>
<p>I give you a lot of credit for being so forward-looking and anticipating so many of these issues, but unfortunately, until and unless your concerns actually come to pass, I doubt that any financial aid office is going to increase your aid.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the feedback guys. I think i'm still going to try and appeal with some other offers i've gotten.
Oh, and I would have to take out 30,000 dollars a year to pay for Cornell with the current package. My parents are giving me 15,000</p>
<p>If you were to take out $30,000/year & graduated in 4 years (tho some take longer), that would be a MINIMUM of $120,000 (likely more if interest accrues immediately and/or costs/expenses rise. Below is the site for a calculator program that shows your loan amounts for a 10 year 7% loan on $120,000 would be nearly $1400/month for 119 payments! This is CRUSHING debt, especially for an undergraduate degree. You need to re-think your options, including a school that would give you a better aid package, going somewhere less expensive for a few years & transferring, or other things.</p>
<p>I know that's an unreasonable amount to take out...i mean I could go for free to some other schools on a rowing scholarship, but I really do want to go to Cornell. But there is no way I would go with their packet as of now.</p>
<p>Why not go to a free school & consider transferring so your degree reads "Cornell?" It's an option worth exploring.</p>
<p>You pretty much have to be on welfare to get FinAid at Cornell.</p>
<p>appeal appeal appeal. I don't get why this is still a question. If this is ur dream than FREAKING DO IT!!!! What is there to lose!?</p>
<p>i know that after ED you can appeal, but does anyone ever have any luck without any other fin aid schools to compare with.</p>
<p>(and please don't say if your going ed you shouldn't be worrying about the money)</p>
<p>HImom, I don't want to have to change schools. I like Cornell, but its not worth that.
Thanks for all the feedback again, but does anybody actually KNOW somebody who got their finaid packet reduced by cornell?</p>