<p>Anyone ever had luck with appealing a financial aid award?</p>
<p>Yes, but with peer or higher colleges that offered better packages.</p>
<p>When I had two in at once, I was able to beg a couple of thousand more from my younger daughter’s school for her freshman year. They also paid for her to attend a couple of campus events, like the weekend spiritual growth retreat.</p>
<p>There are two different types of appeals- one, where you’ve had a material change in circumstance since application time- parental illness, job loss, tornado destroyed your business. You are likely to find the financial aid officer extremely sympathetic, and if you have your facts well organized and well documented, the college will review your information and you may get an increase. The second type of appeal is dicier- that’s where you either got a more generous package from another school, so you’d like the first school to up the ante, or where you just don’t think you can swing your portion of the costs. As entomom points out, if the better offer is from a peer institution you may get lucky. But don’t think that JHU is going to increase your kids financial aid because your kid got a full ride at High Point. Not happening, in the absence of a material change in circumstances. And if you are appealing because you don’t think you can swing your portion of the costs, tread very carefully. Financial Aid officers are people too- so don’t walk in kvetching about the costs of maintaining your beach house or paying off your liposuction.</p>
<p>I’ve read on this forum about some folks getting more, but personally, I don’t know anyone who got any substantial amounts without some mistake in the first package being the reason. We did get more merit money by asking for it and pointing out other colleges where the comparable costs were lowered, but those other schools were truly more selective and higher ranked on any list.</p>
<p>My mom appealed my financial aid package at two schools when I was an incoming freshman. I basically asked them to reconsider their package to me because otherwise, it would be an extreme financial hardship for my family. I also explained that the school was my top choice, but it seemed out of reach financially. It worked at both schools - I was able to get $2,500 more per year from one, and $4,000 more per year at another school! Might not be a significant amount to some families, but my family has a pretty low income so it helped a lot!</p>
<p>^ You told two schools they were your top choice?</p>
<p>We appealed successfully a few years back. This was at a small LAC & D was a very desirable candidate.</p>
<p>I work at a public U. I recently had parents who appealed in writing. I responded, explaining why we were unable to adjust the awards (we do not have the money to do so - our packaging is set up to maximize aid for all of our students based on need). The parents then appealed the appeal & they were quite nasty about it … I put it on my boss’s desk & told her that it was her turn! :)</p>
<p>I work at a public U. I recently had parents who appealed in writing. I responded, explaining why we were unable to adjust the awards (we do not have the money to do so - our packaging is set up to maximize aid for all of our students based on need). The parents then appealed the appeal & they were quite nasty about it … I put it on my boss’s desk & told her that it was her turn!</p>
<p>some people just don’t understand that many schools (not just publics) do not have a lot of aid to give outside of fed or state aid, which don’t allow for much flexibility. I think that families often think that if they can just give a good explanation (which may be quite true and rational) that the schools can just go to some special acct and issue more money.</p>
<p>I think the confusion comes from schools saying, “we give XX millions away each year in FA” - without clarifying that much/most of that aid is state and federal aid (Pell grants, student loans, work-study, etc)…which is very different from having their own “treasure chest” of cash to give away.</p>
<p>We had two unusual situations. With d1, the financial aid was excellent…until, first, my wife came down with an aggressive form of breast cancer (which obviously affected our income), and, no sooner was she fully in remission, I had a massive heart attack. In both cases, the college (Smith) substantially increased our financial aid within 30 days, with almost no documentation whatsoever. We are forever grateful.</p>
<p>In the second case (D2), I wrote an appeal before first year. No luck. We stretched our finances. But in the 3rd year, with our income substantially, we received no aid, or so it seemed. (We thought we’d still get some.) So we contacted them - and within 24 hours, we received the same aid we had the previous year. Frankly, I think they were embarrassed - they’d forgot to compute our aid, and then turned around and simply gave us what they had previously. Worked for us! (Was worth well more than than the appeal I made in the first year).</p>