<p>Just wondering if anybody did financial aids appeal and what was the results?</p>
<p>We appealed and got 10K more.</p>
<p>Would you share a bit more information? Was it because of family circumstances change or you got a better aid from other school? How long did the appeal take? Thanks.</p>
<p>When we received our original FA package, we were rather upset because - based on our SAR, CSS, etc. - my family's EFC was almost 10K more than expected. Even CollegeBoard's calculations, which Columbia University encourages people to use to get an estimate (found here</a>), said that our EFC was lower than what Columbia said.</p>
<p>So, lower EFC was part of the argument.</p>
<p>Secondly, my family used other schools' FA packages as comparison. I think the clincher was a package from another Ivy, which showed the EFC as being close to the one that my family calculated.</p>
<p>Finally, we included any other additional information that might help: siblings in college, father in college (don't know if that actually helped or was just ignored, since normally only siblings in undergrad are considered), etc.</p>
<p>We faxed everything in (FA packages from schools (make sure to use schools that are at least near to the same caliber as Columbia), a letter requesting a review + family circumstances), sent a follow-up e-mail a few days later, and, within a week and a half, received a decision.</p>
<p>Edit: Just talked to my dad, and it turns out we didn't even say anything about our EFC. Just sent in other college's FA packages, family circumstances, and letter requesting FA appeal, and asked if they would call my family so we could have a talk. Which Columbia's FA didnt do -- they just went straight to review XD</p>