Hey guys! Today is a good and bad day—got accepted ED into CAS, but I checked the payment plan they came with it and their calculated EFC is 22,000 (19K for my family about 3K for me) but that’s just a smidge under HALF our income and FASFA said our EFC is about $5,000.
Is there something that Penn takes into account that the FASFA missed?
If I appeal my package, does anyone know if it will actually change significantly?
I’m heartbroken because I dont want to have to withdraw from ED for financial circumstances, but I guess I will finish up RD apps in the meantime…
@yoharamona dont waste any time, call the financial aid office as soon as you can and appeal your FA award. yes in many cases they revise the award. what figure did the NPC give you ?
@yoharamona I had some friends at Penn who were able to do so (i graduated within the last 5 years so it is pretty recent). I don’t know further details though. I d say go ahead and appeal, there is nothing to lose by appealing. Worst case they will tell you no and that will be that. I think they are likely to revise it. Seems rather weird that they expect a family with income around 50k to pay this much. In the meantime carry on with your RD apps.
@Penn95 Working on RD apps was something discouraging I didn’t want to hear but I guess it has to be done!
So should I just submit all of them January 1st and withdraw them after January 9th if I manage to get to go to Penn?
Also side note I just plugged in everything from the PFAS to the NPC and it said my EFC is 9K (12K + workstudy which I wanted to do anyways)
Do your parents have significant investments or own property other than their primary residence? Are they self employed? That can make the NPC meaningless.
@yoharamona I d say contact the FA office as soon as possible, even like tomorrow if possible. Also ask them when you should be expecting to hear back. They should be able to give you a final answer rather quickly. Until you hear back, yes it is best if you keep working on your apps, and of course if you haven’t heard back from Penn by end of December (rather unlikely), submit them Jan 1st.
@yoharamona, Congratulations on your achievement. I believe there’s something wrong in your FA. Penn is pretty generous in FA. If your family income from all resources including your parents’ salary and others is around 50k, it is hard to believe you will pay around 22k. Go through your all documents for FA first and then contact Penn FA office. If anything is wrong in Penn’s side, Penn will definitely correct it. If your family all income and assets is much higher, the story is different. Penn FA is need based.
@yoharamona, Penn probably did not make mistakes in your case based upon your update. But you can try with solid foundations. GL
@TomSrOfBoston
Oh gosh actually yes we do…
but we didn’t think they’d take property in that much? They are both self employed and half property outside the primary home… so I guess this is what caused the skew and appealing may not even work,
@yoharamona, Your parents may have substantial assets that lead to the unsatisfied FA. Anyway, carefully review your application documents for FA and contact with Penn FA office. Good luck.
Friend"s dad owns a number of expensive homes but besides that they would be low income. The rent they receive helps to supplement their relatively low income. But bc of the property their parent contribution is “high”
This is with Stanford but I would assume they are are somewhat similar to Penn
Ok so we meticulously went over my PFAS (Penn Financial Aid Supplement) and it said to list realestate (we have two houses; one and then another one for the employees that work for my parents)
but I listed BOTH even though it said not to list the primary home so maybe this is the cause? I hope it is…
Perhaps a case can be made that the second residence is actually a business property, necessary for the running of the business. Was that clear on the form? If not, they may think it is a vacation home, which they would argue could be sold or rented out to pay for college.
“They are both self employed and have property outside the primary home… so I guess this is what caused the skew and appealing may not even work,”
Definitely appeal to the financial aid office.
However, every farmer and small business owner and small landlord that I have talked to in the US has sent their kids to their in-state public universities, because that it what they could afford. The only exception is someone I know who lives on a farm but who works in high-tech (the farm is essentially just their home, with a few extra chickens running around the yard). The problem may be that the financial aid folks count both the income from rental property or business, and also count the value. However, the small business owner can’t get at both at the same time.
I would get in-state applications ready at the same time that you appeal the financial aid.
By rent do you mean the rent we pay on the house or the rent people pay us to live in the house?
The second home doesn’t generate any additional revenue because when my parents hire people to work for us (we own a restaurant and chef’s usually come from california/asia) the added benefit in their employment contract is that room and board is provided
Does this help at all in establishing that perhaps the second property is a business related property?
Does anyone know what percentage of equity/assets contribute to an EFC