Financial Aid appeals at music schools (Frost)

College Majors Music Major
1

I have an appeal question regarding Frost…not sure if I should ask on the Financial Aid board because I’m not sure if Frost kids are handled differently. My S got some healthy academic awards from other schools, but I don’t know if they would be apples to apples when appealing financial aid for a school like Frost.

Would FA be comparing merit awards at other music programs, or would they be comparing merit awards of peer universities regardless of major?

For example, my S is going for Music Business, so would a school like UM consider matching a school like Drexel that has a similar major and same COA? Drexel came in $10K lower out of pocket.

Or would they say because its a BS program and not BM, and Drexel is not ranked the same as UM, they wouldn’t consider it apples to apples even though the COA is the same?

Or would UM consider a private school in Florida, like Rollins that also has almost the same COA? Would UM consider that appeal or would they look down on this school?

University of Richmond also the same situation. Same COA, different major. Much less OOP.

Basically, I want to know if because he’s going for a BM at Frost, would they only consider matching other BM programs? And when they consider peer institutions, is it peer to the overall university, or peer to the BM program?

2

Are you asking about financial aid or merit aid? Merit aid is subjective, financial aid at need-blind schools tends to be consistently based on formulas based on financial status. Some schools include loans, Some schools include home equity. So there are variations. But matching another school isn’t done for financial aid. For merit, yes, sometimes.

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@compmom A few schools I was accepted into specifically said that they would consider matching financial aid if I was offered more aid from another school. Most recent was Columbia.

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@compmom Then merit aid, but that’s appealed through the FA dept, correct? Or through the school/department directly? The schools I mentioned all met my EFC, with a combo of merit/grants. If Frost would just meet my EFC then I would be happy! Do I have a chance with these others school in my pocket? There were more schools, but I feel like they wouldn’t compare…like FSU gave S in-state tuiton based on SAT scores, so it’ll cost very little to go there…but I’m guessing UM doesn’t care about FSU since it’s not ranked as high as UM?

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I was just trying to differentiate financial and merit aid.

albertsax, was that Columbia University? Did you file a letter of special circumstances? Our experience has been that financial aid is relatively inflexible but that appeals based on special circumstances can increase it. If they are willing to match another school is that based on need or is it a merit aid award intended to convince you to attend? I wasn’t aware of Ivies doing any merit so it must be a direct match to another school, which is interesting.

So FSU awarded merit aid based on scores. If the others met EFC, was it due to financial need or merit?

Since albert sax had an experience with matching financial need, perhaps you an appeal to the financial aid office for need-based aid AND to the department for merit aid. Tell someone in the department that your kid would love to attend Frost but other schools have given him enough aid ( financial? merit? mixed?) and cost is a factor in choosing.

There are threads and posts galore on this topic.

In one case, the chair of a dept, told our kid that they could find more money to convince the kid to come. We did not ask. But based on that, you could ask the chair or whomever your son has had contact with, maybe teacher.

But others know way more about this than I do. I was only trying to help you make the distinction clearer about the different types of aid and it looks like I was wrong about financial aid matches!

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@compmom I always appreciate your wisdom, so thank you. I really have no idea what I’m talking about except that I’ve read on this board that appeals can be done!

I think I’m super confused because:

with his Music Business major in some schools he’s in the music school and in some schools he’s not (ie-Belmont, Drexel) so when it says to try to have peer colleges match awards am I dealing with all apples if the ranking is not the same and the degree (BM vs BS or BA) is not the same, but the level of the program is the same (Frost vs Belmont)? And what if the ranking is not the same, but the COA is the same (Frost vs Drexel)? Is that a peer institution? I’m thinking it isn’t, but that’s where I have the most leverage.

All of these schools met EFC with a combo of merit awards and grants (and FSU came way below that because of the OOS tuition waiver). To be transparent, UM hasn’t given us a FA package yet, so I don’t know what to expect. However, I am trying to be proactive since by the time we know what the FA will be it will be cutting it very close to May 1st so I want to be ready to go with my appeal. :frowning:

Any insight will be helpful. I have read so many threads on this, but most of these students are performance majors and I can see being able to battle it out based on how good they are. I feel like our situation is different because although he was accepted via audition, it’s not the type of major where anyone is battling for your talent! His merit awards were based on his academics and ECs.

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I think he also merits merit awards :slight_smile: He has talent in music, talent in academics, and interesting EC’s. Clearly he is appreciated by his schools. Sounds like he has some great choices.

I don’t think it has to be so complicated. I think you can communicate with the schools whose aid you would love to see increase (financial aid and/or department contact, or both, depending). IF it is his first choice, you can say it is his first choice but finances are an issue and is there any way to increase the funding by x amount.

In the course of the conversation the offers from other schools may come up but personally I would not start with that. I would just be straightforward and say it is a matter of affordability and you don’t want him to say no based on money if there is any chance it can improve.

I have seen all the posts about this and it IS confusing and some people on the journey thread were trying to clarify financial versus merit appeals.

I will be honest. My daughter- and I- were more uncomfortable with asking for more based on merit. It just felt uncomfortable to her (and me) asking for something based on talent. We were shy. However, in discussing choices with one school we did say that affordability was a factor and they offered more.

Financial aid appeals were easier because my husband had had a stroke and cost is based on the previous year and we were looking at a tough year ahead. Even with that, some schools stayed with the formula based on previous, prestroke income and some didn’t so that is where we got the idea of inflexibility!

So what I am saying is perhaps you can simplify this by figuring out a number that would work for your family, rather than trying to match certain schools, apples, oranges and peaches :slight_smile: It feels less like Vegas, right? Just straightforward. “This is his first choice, he got some offers at other schools that make them affordable, cost is a factor, he would like to choose your school, is there anything we can do?” You can also ask about work study and other ways your son could take on some responsibility.

There are others who know a lot about this. We were shy about it but also increases of even $20k weren’t going to help us out so we didn’t do it. My music kid has done great regardless :slight_smile:

Good luck to your talented son and his supportive parent!!

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@compmom I didn’t do anything special. They just sent me a letter summarizing my financial aid, and in the letter they clearly stated that if I received more aid from another school, I should let them know and they may (not a guarantee) increase the award. I haven’t pursued this with them because I’m going to commit to Blair.

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@albertsax Congrats on Blair! Nice!

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@compmom gotcha! Frost would be his first choice, dream school, yada yada, so I’ll start with that and hopefully not be intimidated. Sending positive vibes for continued good health for your hubby!

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@albertsax I sent you a PM about which Columbia! That still might qualify as merit, since it was sort of added onto the grant. I am really not sure! Congratulations on Blair.

@Propinquity4444 thanks but that was a long time ago :slight_smile: I admire your courage and hope it works out for Frost! Good luck.

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@compmom
I don’t think it would be merit, because then it would subtract from the aid I already had so there would no point in appealing?

For anybody else wondering, it’s Columbia University, not Columbia College Chicago.

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What I am saying is that their aid is usually based on need. The definition of need can change with “special circumstances” such as health issues, loss of job and so on. If your need didn’t change, then I would say they offered more due to merit, but not in the formal sense, and it was stacked not subtracted.

This is pretty unusual. Maybe you have special talent. Ivies don’t usually try to convince people to come.

Sorry for the tangent.

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@compmom your information may be out of date. My S was just offered more based on need at two schools, one of which made the offer when we told them how much we’d been offered elsewhere. Schools do indeed adjust both buckets as needed.

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Well we all know I am ancient :slight_smile: I already said that I was wrong, above. The further comment didn’t change that. I always defer to others, as I did in my first post, since we did not chase merit at all.

We had to do a lot of paperwork for a financial aid appeal. Willingness to look at that appeared to be related to merit at some schools, though it did not go in that bucket. It is illogical to think that need changes. What changes is what a school is willing to pay for a kid they want, and that is based on merit. But it could apparently be discussed with financial aid.

akapiratequeen maybe you could respond to the OP with more knowledge.

It’s just good to be clear on which way to appeal, or maybe both ways . That was my only point.

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According the FAQ here: https://finaid.miami.edu/resources/FAQs/merit-scholarships/index.html Frost doesn’t match merit scholarships from other institutions. It also says if you need need-based aid, that should be directed to the Financial Aid department. I think @compmom is right in that they may increase your aid only if there’s a special circumstance change like job loss, health issues etc. At least that’s how I read it from Frost”s own website. Good luck!

17

I think there is a lot of variation from school to school.

My youngest is still in college on financial aid and her school won’t budge no matter what. She worked at a dry cleaners for two years to help out :smile:

The resources of the school, how much they want you, the impact of your personal financial story, and whether the school considers it fair to address merit via financial aid would all be factors I would think.

After years of very detailed paperwork on finances for financial aid offices, with precision to the cent, I am surprised that schools will move the financial aid award figures around (like Columbia). We had to justify what we needed to the nth degree (my husband had had a stroke).

But then again, Columbia does not give merit aid, I believe, so it would have to come through financial aid I suppose, if they wanted to convince a person to come. Or do they have hidden merit? I have never heard this about Ivies but I didn’t have occasion to. The conventional wisdom is that Ivies have a waiting list of folks who can pay, so they tend not to increase aid without a good reason. But clearly albertsax got an offer so………

Frost, on the other hand, does apparently have merit so they can stick to financial aid based on figures given, formulas and special circumstances- math- since they can use merit aid to sway (help) admittees.

This is potentially complicated when dealing with different school and even different degrees. And we don’t know the financial status involved for the OP (no need to divulge!). Again, I think the simplest way is to deal straightforwardly with either financial aid or merit or both through the appropriate contacts. At Frost that would be through the contact for merit unless you have special circumstances.

As always there seem to be a lot of parents dealing with appeals on various threads and they seem pretty expert on it, including many dealing with Frost. akapiratequeen among them.

ps I will continue to view moving the financial aid offer up a hidden merit, In any case. It is an incentive to attend. Formulas are made to be bent I suppose.

18

I don’t know anything about Frost, but I do know that sometimes there is a difference between what’s published on a website and actual practice.

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@dblreedmama Thank you! Sometimes when one is in information overload, the obvious goes unnoticed! I should have looked there in the first place;)

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PM"ed you Propinquity!