How to maximize your aid- top five suggestions:
1- Be exceptional academically, artistically and/or athletically
2- Be raised by wonderful parents who create a rich and robust environment with books and interesting activities but who are low income and have no assets despite being wonderful.
3- Live in a very low cost of living area on that low income so that you aren’t actually as disadvantaged economically as the formulas might appear
4- If you can move to Wyoming or Montana- do it before you start HS
5- Have an amazing, national-level accomplishment or be recognized for a wonderful contribution to the arts, sciences, society or humanity by the age of 17.
Then- apply to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc. and watch your amazing aid come in. But it will be 100% need based, not a dime of merit aid, and all based on you being talented enough to get into one of these schools AND being low income/no assets.
Try this at home.
Of course there is a difference between merit and need aid (as pointed out earlier in the thread) but I writing with the assumption that your/your child’s school does not guarantee to meet 100% of a student’s need. It is especially when your/your child’s school does not guarantee to meet 100% need that you should arm yourself with the knowledge of the endowment to student ratio. When you’re going up against a school’s financial aid office, it’s important to have that number in your arsenal. Compare similar schools. Understand what kind of wiggle room you have.
There are 4 main things that I would say helped me with increasing my financial aid package. While there is no “silver bullet,” no guarantee of a foolproof system, these tactics helped me and my friends/classmates secure from $5k - $25k more per year in their financial aid package. Looking over how this can affect total four years in school, we could walk away paying $20k - $100k less than before.
Each one of the four is pretty long, so I’m going to do one per day till I get through the four (wrapping up 7/19/15). I want to make sure I’m as thorough and accurate as possible. I also want give space for clarifications and anything else.
- Communicate with the financial aid office
- It sounds like a given, but there are so many people that miss out on the chance to get more aid from the school simply because they don’t communicate directly with the office.
- Aim high with who you talk to. Do not spend too much energy in talking to a low-level financial aid officer. While they will likely be the nicest/most understanding of your situation, it is unlikely that they will be able to help you in your mission to secure more aid. Go to the school’s financial aid website and reach out to people with title’s like “Assistant Director,” “Associate Director,” etc. Don’t immediately reach out to the person at the top of the totem pole though, as they will likely refer you to their subordinate. You’ll have more credit going to the top of the totem pole if you can say you’ve already spoken with the “Assistant Director.”
- Talk to more than one person. Especially in larger universities, the financial aid department is huge. It is huge, and sometimes, to manage the workload, schools will hire part-time people to serve as temporary “financial aid officers.” These “officers” might not be fully versed in the school’s policy and will not likely give the best advice. The more people you talk to, the more likely it is you will be getting correct information.
- Do not spill the details of your entire situation via email. Give enough information to justify asking for an appointment with whomever you are trying to communicate with. Brevity is essential. You are more likely to get a response, and it makes you appear composed compared to others that are writing mile-long emails.
- Email a human being. Whatever you do, avoid the black hole that is info@university.edu, or whatever the generic financial aid email address is.
- While phone or email communication is effective, nothing beats a face-to-face conversation. People will have a harder time negotiating in person.
None of the things in post 21 will make a person MORE eligible for need based aid.
Yes, it’s good to talk to a person. But there is NO one person who can qualify you for additional need based aid if you are not eligible for it.
I’m still waiting for actual helpful information from this poster.
My BS meter pegged. I need a new one.
It ‘pegged’ or your BS-O-Meter ‘pinged’?
To “peg” a meter is to push it to the maximum possible level. Old fashioned meters had an actual peg to stop the needle at the limit.
*No Terms of Service violations at this point. Let her have her say over the next few days and then let’s see. Although it would be good if you could do your remaining three points all at once, @FinAidNinja.
I think the OP changed his or her mind…