<p>I was just wondering if most people have gotten their financial aid packages by now. I got a merit scholarship almost 2 weeks ago and my EN acceptance around a week before that, but I have yet to receive a financial aid letter or email. Have they been sent out yet?</p>
<p>Have not heard anything yet. :)</p>
<p>We have also not heard anything yet.</p>
<p>Nothing here.</p>
<p>If it has been more than 10-12 business days since you’ve received your admit letter and you still haven’t received an email from Financial Aid, simply give them a call.</p>
<p>Toll Free: 800-881-8234</p>
<p>Thank you so much TSocash (and others who have replied)! My parents really want to see financial aid information before figuring out if it even makes sense to visit. I think it’s probably been at least 10 business days, but I’ll wait a day or two and then call.</p>
<p>I just received my financial aid package. Looking really good. 
It definitely makes Rochester one of my contenders. I just need to compare a couple other options.</p>
<p>D got her FA package via email today. she received her admit letter on 2/13, so it pretty much took 12 business days after that.</p>
<p>My son received a smaller than expected merit award about 2 weeks ago and his financial aid “package” today by email, which only consisted of a loan – not really much of a package. It’s very disappointing (at this point in the college application process) to find out that Rochester and other schools that give merit aid subtract the merit amount from the eligible financial aid amount (determined by FAFSA). If one ends up getting the same amount in pure financial aid from one school as one would get with a merit award plus financial aid from another school, what is the point of trying to win merit awards? Doesn’t look like Rochester will be an option any more. Sad.</p>
<p>^^^ The federal government doesn’t allow any sort of federal aid down into your EFC.</p>
<p>Merit aid replacing need-based aid is a good thing. If your finances increase, merit aid doesn’t decrease. Need-based aid will.</p>
<p>I think it would be a good decision for ALL universities (Rochester included) to implement a policy where individuals who have applied for need based aid and also received a merit award see the loans and work-study decrease before the need-based grants are ever touched.
i.e. Student receives $10,000 merit offer. The same student was offered a need-based package consisting of $30,000 in grants, $7,500 in loans, and $2,500 in work study. This students merit award would eliminate the loans and work study first. This way, the merit would still be an incentive, while simultaneously eating away at the students need-based aid.</p>
<p>Lobo & Nihility… we are in the exact same situation. They used the merit first, which knocks us out of any finaid and makes Rochester unaffordable for us. There is no incentive for merit at these schools. Thankfully D has another choice that she loves and we can afford.</p>
<p>People–merit aid IS financial aid. </p>
<p>At almost every college in the country, merit aid reduces need. It does NOT reduce EFC. (And remember since Rochester uses the Profile which digs deeper into a family’s assets than FAFSA does, it’s quite likely your institutional EFC will be higher–sometimes a great deal higher-- than your FAFSA EFC.)</p>
<p>There are only 2 ways to reduce your EFC:</p>
<p>1) attend a school that costs less than the EFC</p>
<p>2) earn a merit award that so large that it cuts into the EFC before any federal aid is awarded. (As Creekland indicated above, federal regulations prohibit the awarding of any federal aid [except for unsubsidized loans] if there is no need.)</p>
<p>It’s Rochester’s policy to award all federal monies (loans and grants) first as a part of your FA award, then supplement loans and work/study with its own institutional funds. All need-based FA packages will include federal loans and self-help (i.e. a student contribution from summer jobs) as well a family EFC.</p>
<p>That’s fine WayOutWestMom.
We understand the policy.
We are simply stating that this gives us no incentive to attend the school. I was simply stating that they should consider amending the policy if they truly wish to give students an incentive to attend and increase yield. I feel that the policy I suggested would be a fair compromise between school and student. I understand they will not accept the suggestion, at least not until they realize how silly merit awards are when they eat into grants. Exchanging a grant for a grant. If anybody is attracted by that, they likely don’t have the intellectual vivacity the school saw in them when the merit award was offered. </p>
<p>The merit aid is little more than a compliment at this point, therefore forcing us to find OTHER reasons to choose Rochester over any other schools we are accepted to. </p>
<p>Enough debating this topic though. Rochester is an amazing school. Financial aid is one of the few areas they do not attract me in.</p>
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<p>I disagree. We are factoring how much merit aid and how much need based aid each school is offering because we remain hopeful that our finances will change as the economy improves. As our EFC increases, need based aid disappears and we pay more. Merit aid should remain the same.</p>
<p>The majority of us will be paying our EFC unless we choose colleges with huge merit aid offers.</p>
<p>If one is not expecting their EFC to change, then it wouldn’t matter which form the aid took. We’re [hopefully] not in that category. We eliminated need-based only schools in the application process due to our hope that the economy will improve. Chances are that this year the aid would be the same, but perhaps there will be a difference next year.</p>
<p>Financial aid packages are inconsistent from person to person, school to school. You hear all sorts of comments - x school is generous, y school is stingy - when the reality is there is just so much variance.</p>