The title speaks for itself but basically, I was accepted to Emory yesterday. My financial aid package was pretty generous. However, it missed my EFC by about 6,000 according to the net price calculators but I heard stories on how people appealed to Emory and they were given a few extra thousand dollars. While I do know appealing doesn’t guarantee an increase in financial aid, has anyone ever appealed to a university’s financial aid and then gotten their financial aid reduced?? My mom’s scared that if I appeal, Emory might reevaluate my package and somehow see some things they missed and then decrease our financial aid. Has this ever happened to anyone?
I heard of one student who appealed and got a reduction. In the appeal he mentioned an $8000 outside scholarship he received that he did not disclose prior. You are required to report all outside scholarships.
I’ve had it happen partway through the year when I was communicating with the FA office about something that wasn’t related to an appeal, but they learned about a change in my finances.
OP, does your mom know that they missed anything in particular? I think you have a moral obligation to be sure that your application was correct.
One thing that I don’t often see discussed here is that the FA offers are each one year, but we are talking about 4 year colleges. Each year you have to re-apply for FA. If they didn’t catch something this year, it is possible they will catch it next year - and then where would you be? Would you have to transfer if you could not afford the future years?
If the award is completely need-based, then there is no really an “appeal” - rather the college will take a second look at your finances. So you can get more aid if you can show them something that that they didn’t consider — for example, I got slightly more one year when it turned out that the college hadn’t accounted for student loan interest I had been paying on a PLUS loan for my older child. That is just something that had come up in a conversation when I called about something else.
But as others have noted, if it turns out that your family has assets or income that they didn’t consider – then the award definitely could be reduced. So you might want to talk with your mom to find out what her concerns are.
@3puppies @calmom It’s just that we heard that Emory hits home equity hard like Boston College does when it comes to determining financial aid. The financial package that BC gave us is about $15,000 more than the package Emory gave us and BC specifically stated it was because of our home equity. So my mom thinks that either 1) Emory doesn’t use home equity as harshly as BC does when calculating FA packages or 2) they missed something.
How far apart are both NPC estimates from the actual offers?
Have you tried plugging in a different home equity number in the Net Price Calculators for each school.
All schools have different formulae, how much they assess home equity, do they only assess a portion it, above a certain threshhold (commonly only anything above $100K or $250K in equity is assessed) how much depends on when you last refinanced , what your current mortgage payment is, etc.
I seem to remember someone had a spreadsheet listing the amount of equity assessed, if any, and above what point, for a wide list of colleges. I am not sure if it was kept up to date and it is common for schools to “tweak” their formula every year or so.
Colleges weight home equity differently. I found this web site that has a link to a spreadsheet that lists 110 private private colleges and has information about how each weighs home equity - both BC & Emory are on the list - http://www.thecollegesolution.com/will-your-home-equity-hurt-financial-aid-chances/ – the spreadsheet was prepared by a person who contacted all the colleges and asked, and goes back to 2014-- so may not be entirely up-to-date and accurate. But it can give you an idea as to how financial aid practices differ.
In addition to differences in the way colleges weigh equity, there could also be differences in the way they determine home value. I live in an area where real estate values have soared, so my home was worth 3x it’s purchase price by the time my D as applying to college. Equity is the difference between market value of the home and the mortgage debt - but what is the value? The amount of a tax appraisal? The amount of a bank’s appraisal for refinancing? What Zillow says the market value is?
It turned out that my D’s college used Federal Housing Index figures, which attached a set multiplier based on the year purchased and purchase price. Since the federal index assumed a much more modest rate of increased value, the college was calculating my home’s market value to be far less than actual market sales figures in my area. So that benefited us – and also was more efficient for the college, since there was nothing to debate.
Here’s some links to online calculators that give you a rough approximation as to how that system might calculate market value:
http://www.finaid.org/calculators/scripts/housing.cgi
https://www.fhfa.gov/DataTools/Tools/Pages/HPI-Calculator.aspx
That system would work against some people and in favor of others-- but in my case it was the reason for a financial aid award far more generous than I had been led to expect with other online calculator when I had used the most recent appraisal report for my house.
You could call Emory and simply ask-- but I think it’s better if your mom makes the call. The way to do this is not to “appeal” but to say that you have some questions about your financial aid award and ask if someone can go over the award with you. The let the person from financial aid explain where the numbers come from.
If your Emory award is based on an EFC that is +$6000 over the FAFSA EFC, and if that all comes from home equity, then I think that would equate to a home equity figure of around $110K. (Based on 5.6% of parental asset value being added to EFC). So your mom could figure out whether that is something that fits your financial profile).