<p>^^^Nevermind. I took another look and my financial aid award was just stuck to another piece of paper.</p>
<p>All I have to say, is: WOW. Wesleyan was so generous. I can't even believe it.</p>
<p>Fin.aid was quite a dissapointment...I doubt my family could have covered the contribution even if we weren't confronted with the closing of my fathers company...Wes expected my parents to give 1/3 of their income for my tuition, and I have other siblings only a few years younger than myself</p>
<p>Praying for reconsideration--I want so badly to "say yes"!</p>
<p>how exactly do they calculate these numbers? cuz they are only giving me about 10k and thats definitely not enough</p>
<p>Wesleyan is too generous! I love this place!</p>
<p>Yeah I don't know how they calculate. My family does not have savings or assets other than our home...how can some be amazed by the generosity, and others incapable of ever considering Wesleyan? I dont know... =(</p>
<p>I was wondering if anything has changed since 2008. Does anyone know? Is negotiating possible? We were awarded some money but not what we expected having two kids in private schools come fall. Would Wesleyan re-negotiate?</p>
<p>It’s not renegotiating to ask that they take another look, just to make sure they didn’t overlook a salient fact. Not sure what the reference to 2008 means?</p>
<p>The last post on this thread was in 2008.
Thanks for the reply johnwesley. We will do that :)</p>
<p>Just so you do not waste your time, but Wesleyan and almost every other highly selective college that uses the College Profile to base its financial aid decisions on does NOT consider private school tuition for other siblings as an offsetting factor in determining your financial aid package. In other words, these colleges take the position that they will not subsidize your choice as a parent to send your younger children to private school while your older child is applying for financial aid to Wesleyan or other colleges. It was a surprise to me when I learned this, but it is something that one has to accept as part of the calculuations in making a college choice.</p>
<p>hi morganhil: where did you hear this?<br>
it is counter to what I have understood that colleges DO take multi-sibling college students from one family into consideration… do you have a source for this information?</p>
<p>I hear from a friend that Wesleyan provides a full tuition package if the applicant’s family makes less than 40k a year. Can anyone confirm to debunk this for me please? Thanks =D</p>
<p>I would use Wesleyan’s website as a first line of information:</p>
<p>[Affording</a> Wesleyan, Admission - Wesleyan University](<a href=“http://www.wesleyan.edu/admission/affording_wes/index.html]Affording”>http://www.wesleyan.edu/admission/affording_wes/index.html)</p>
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<p>It’s true (assuming your family has assets typical of a <$40,000 income).</p>
<p>Younger children (ie in private high schools and elementary schools) are not factored into financial aid. Other siblings in college are./</p>
<p>No, it is not counter to that. All of the colleges my son applied to (14 in all)–DID take into account multiple COLLEGE students for financial aid purposes–but NOT sibs who are private high school students where you are paying big $$$ for tuition.</p>
<p>It sounds as if you and Radannie are saying the same thing. If Wesleyan is having the same trouble construing the OP’s reference to “private schools”, it could be worth contacting them… FWIW, I thought the OP meant private colleges.</p>
<p>What all these folks is saying about colleges not taking in account siblings attending private schools – not colleges – is true. There is, however, at least once exception that I am aware of and there may be others. Amherst College takes into account up to $9,000 of private school tuition for sibs in working out FA packages for incoming students.</p>
<p>Has anyone attempted to negotiate their financial aid award yet? I received a pretty good FA award but its not something my parents can afford. In comparison to attending my state school, wesleyan is going to cost us almost 20K more? Any advice or comments?</p>
<p>the only consolation I can offer is that if you can pay for most of it out of pocket and keep your debt load within bounds (say, <20k after four years) it will look like a drop in the bucket compared to grad school. Sure, you could save money now on the assumption that you will be among the anointed ones who will climb over the bodies of the rest of your University of Illinois classmates applying for medical school, but, do you really want to set yourself up for that scenario in four years?</p>
<p>My son is a very happy junior at Wes and we have found the aid to be very generous. Initially, he was admitted without any aid, but my husband contacted the school first by phone and then followed up with a letter explaining what he thought the school might have overlooked in our financial situation and, in the end, we received an aid package that was very comparable to his other acceptances. The package has remained the same year-to year. It’s the usual combination of grant, loans and work study. Work study jobs seem plentiful and not particularly onerous. Last year, when my husband lost his job, the school adjusted the aid to suit our new circumstances. Overall, our experience with Wesleyan has been overwhelmingly positive!</p>
<p>We did already appeal, and the officer declined to adjust our package, despite the fact that my husband has lost his job. He said that the job loss is too recent to be able to take it into account, and that we should appeal again in July. The problem with that, of course, is that at that point our daughter will not have other options if the package is not altered or is not workable.
I can understand the officer’s point of view, but it does make it hard for us to say yes to Wes. In addition, while Wesleyan’s initial assessment of our need is similar to other schools’, they are relying on loans to meet need to a greater extent than the other schools we are looking at. I think this is a consequence of the size of their endowment, but I am wondering if others are finding the same thing.</p>