Financial Aid Estimate

<p>I received my ED aid estimate yesterday in the mail and it said I qualified for no need based aid. A few months back, before I applied to CMU, I filled out the general aid estimate form offered online and they estimated a package of about $15k. My finances did not change much, if at all, since then and the only thing that is different is that with my ED estimate form my scores/class rank are higher! That is a big jump in aid and I'm not sure why it is so different. Anyone else experience this or know why?</p>

<p>Run the NPC again and make sure that nothing was mistyped for when you got the 15k estimate. Review your Profile and make sure that nothing was mistyped or estimated wildly off. It might be also that there are things the Profile sussed out in terms of trust, home equity, or assets that weren’t included on the initial NPC that the school thinks you should be able to use to pay for college with. This is not something to wait on-- call the school after reviewing the documents and have them look at it again, especially if this difference in aid is going to make CMU unaffordable.</p>

<p>Call up the financial aid office and explain the situation. The general aid estimate is usually pretty accurate, but in your case it is certainly very odd.</p>

<p>It doesn’t make any sense. CMU meets 100% of need for ED. It gives little merit money. You need. Run the numbers again and ask for a phone discussion with a financial aid officer to go over what is causing such a difference.</p>