I was admitted a few days ago to BU under the ED program. And while I’m obviously really happy I got in, my financial aid has become a problem. I was super confident in me being able to afford BU because the 100% need met claim and the net price calculator giving me a price tag my family can afford. However, BU gave me less than half the amount of grants they calculated on their NPC, and there’s a 27k gap between what I got and what I was predicted. I don’t know if I can afford BU anymore, but I really don’t want to break out of my ED contract because of how much I like the school. I’ve sent an email to begin an appeals process, but I’m worried they wouldn’t get back to me in time before RD apps needed to go out. Do you guys think there’s any hope for them to cover the gap in my appeal? Any responses would be insanely appreciated!!
All you can do is talk with the financial aid people.
A few thoughts/places to start:
Did you keep a copy of the NPC results?
Have there been significant changes since you filled out the NPC, or something included on the CSS Profile that you forgot to include when running the NPC?
In the meantime, as you work thru this process and until you are certain you can afford BU, do NOT withdraw the rest of your applications, and continue on with the remaining applications that you may still need to complete/submit.
You need to assume that you are not going to get better financial aid unless and until you hear otherwise. As such you need to send in any applications to other schools that are not already in.
Did you keep a copy of the NPC results that you ran in the past? If not, then you should run it again. If you get the same result as before, keep a copy.
Is there a $27,000 gap per year? If so, then you cannot afford to go there. You should not even think of trying to borrow that much.
@Mwfan1921@DadTwoGirls Thank you for both of your responses. I have emailed them to begin the appeal process and i’ve kept a copy of my NPC. There haven’t really been any changes to our financial situation and there’s nothing that we’ve left out of the NPC which I’ve done like 5-6 times.
I’ve read a lot about the BU appeal process but I wonder what difference there will be this time around now that they have the affordableBU program. Will they be willing to make up that much of a gap?
Good luck to you. My friend appealed her financial package and was given an additional $18K. She transferred in her sophomore year. I wish we would have appealed. Our financial package looked NOTHING like what the NPC originally said. My daughter was sad, but she had to enroll elsewhere. She did not apply ED, though, so I know that makes the situation more difficult.
Ostensibly because of their new program, they are meeting your full need…but how they calculated it. Ultimately that’s what you need to understand…how they calculated your need based on your CSS Profile data.
Are you sure everything you submitted on the Profile was accurate, no mistakes, typos, extra 0’s, etc.?
@Mwfan1921 Thanks for your response. It turns out that as my father had switched jobs in the middle of the year, it made it look like our family had this source of additional income that we did not actually. I’ve been in contact with the BU Financial Aid department and it seems that they might be willing to increase my grant but you never know.
@TomSrOfBoston The numbers I was going off of was the NPC of BU itself and obviously due to my family’s complex financial situation, it didn’t do too wonderful of a job.
Many families own businesses, have divorce in the picture or have some unusual situation not covered in the college NPCs. I do not believe colleges want to eliminate that group of students so affected to NOT apply ED. In such cases, when the fin aid package arrives and is inadequate to make it happen, the student appeals, and if adequate aid does not come through, that student is permitted to withdraw from ED. The rules of ED do not have stipulations of complicated family financials.
@TomSrOfBoston I understand and agree, but I was unaware that my father’s job move that took place in the beginning of the year would impact my financial aid to this extent. I wasn’t even informed he had been paid by them! As someone who’s not even 18 yet, I am not the most cognizant of what a complex financial situation looks like (the FA dept’s words not mine) and I went on the basic information my parents told me and finance related stuff is already an uncomfortable conversation to have. I think colleges should be more willing and more open to talk to students who are already overwhelmed by this huge amount of cost they will be taking. Applicants are already insanely stressed by the application itself so it shouldn’t be that difficult to get more information about how much they would have to spend if you don’t have the “traditional” American household.
NPCs are a joke in many cases. Sounds like you and your family did not have an in depth financial discussion if talking about finances is uncomfortable. Your parents should have handled that part of the process as they have all the relevant info. Hope it works out for you. Don’t borrow so much, it’s not worth it.
Did your dad get some sort of bonus that threw off the financial aid calculations? The output of the NPCs are only as good as the information you put in.
Has the college staff been unwilling to talk to you? If you didn’t know you had a complicated situation and didn’t ask any questions, why would the college have contacted you? They completed a financial aid package based on information your family provided. If there’s new information, they’ll review that too. Maybe they’ll be able to adjust the award if the amount your dad got paid was a one time thing, but make sure you apply to RD schools in case this college doesn’t work out. Don’t try to borrow the $27k/year difference. That’s far too much debt.
Regardless of what happened here, if the BU aid package is not acceptable to OP’s family, OP needs to communicate this to the GC and BU, and continue with other college applications. If BU can come up with an acceptable aid package, then OP is set and drops all other applications and accepts BU’s offer. Otherwise, OP declines BU’s offer and is released from the ED contract because of inadequate financial aid. That is why the failsafe clause is there for ED. These things happen.
This does raise some questions, however, on how realistic of a college list, OP has compiled. Are other schools on the list that are likely to come up with a financial aid package similar to BU’s And unaffordable to OP even if the NPCs for those schools generated acceptable costs ? Is BU’s NPC calculator flawed, or are other PROFILE schools going to have a similar discrepancy? Is the issue that is causing the discrepancy between the NPC result and the actual cost after actual financial aid offer going to be a recurring theme among other schools ?
It’s been a while since I’ve completed a CSS PROFILE form. I know that this year’s FAFSA uses 2018 AGI with Deductible qualified plan contributions added back. Does PROFILE use the same? I don’t understand how mid year job change income was not reflected in the income figure used in the NPC, when it should have been the very same number used in FAFSA. Is the FAFSA EFC also incorrect , not including that additional income? For that matter, is the 2018 1040 including that income? I don’t understand what OP is saying , thaT change in jobs is what caused this problem. Am I missing something here?
@cptofthehouse Thanks for your reply! Firstly, I have already been accepted to my state’s flagship school with some merit aid so I’m pretty much set if BU doesn’t work out for the best (I will probably try my luck with some RDs however). And essentially I have used the same financial information for all of the schools using the pre-filled information that gets attached to your CB account.
Now talking about the finance stuff. My parents were still quite open and essentially gave me their tax return forms. My father was working on a contract for another company and based on what he told me, it seemed that he was paid two months of salary from them. BUT, what’s confusing is that when I filled out the NPC with my parents we included this money in our income section yet BU claims that this wouldn’t be the same as this is untaxed income. However, that isn’t true as my father’s tax forms show that he was taxed for this income! This income was in his AGI on our 1040s so that’s why this whole situation is confusing. I hope that clarifies it.
@austinmshauri I think there was some agreement that his final payment would include some bonus so you may be right. And BU hasn’t been unwilling per se, but when I called while I was applying for some other question regarding FA, I’ve always been told that the financial aid officers are busy and I would need to email them and that it would take two to three weeks to respond to questions. This isn’t exactly the most accessible way to communicate with a college. I am all for initiating conversation and doing your own work and I never expected for BU to reach out to me, but reaching out to them hasn’t been easy either. Definitely not borrowing 27k a year! I don’t want to be in my 30s and paying off loans.
Interesting that untaxed income is treated differently in a financial aid formula. Not something I would have expected.
OP, file your appeal with BU and proceed as though they did not accept you. If you cannot afford the school with the aid package offered, it’s pretty much the same as a rejection. Though it’s an early shock, at least you are getting this all taken care of early. As busy as fin aid might be at this time of the year and early next year, it’s going to be much much worse in the spring when the bulk of the acceptances hit and With them financial aid packages.
You are in the enviable posturing of having an affordable acceptance in hand. Well done!
@ajfromma - you should definitely appeal and ask for a walk through of the financial data they have for you. We were also “gapped” $25k from the NPC estimation. For the appeal I sent them as PDF’s my FAFSA (EFC-19676), the BU NPC (EFC-$35k) and the CSS Profile. They responded that my CSS Profile stated we had untaxed income of $38k, different than the $1965 listed in FAFSA and NPC. Needless to say their data is not correct as our CSS Profile states quite clearly untaxed income of $1965! How I wish we had $38k in untaxed income!
We are waiting for them to schedule a “walk through” with the FA director. So far, the AD we have worked with has been helpful. Good Luck!
Not sure the discrepancy, but some ideas to help before your meeting with the FA director…Did you possibly do an IRA rollover in 2018? That could explain a high untaxed income amount.
Other possible untaxed income items: 401K contributions, HSA contributions, child support received from a non-custodial parent, and workers’ comp benefits. There are more, but those are the most common.