<p>I was accepted early to Penn, but the financial aid offered just isn't enough. So I'm about to fill out an application for reevaluation. Does anyone have any tips as to what I should say or highlight on the reevaluation form? Nothing has changed in my family situation to highlight, it's just that they didn't offer enough the first time.</p>
<p>Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.</p>
<p>do they not offer to meet 100% need?</p>
<p>what is the EFC and what does the package consist of?</p>
<p>If you have no extenuating circumstances, or your financial situation has not changed from the time that you applied, the decsion of the tribal counsel (Penn) will be final. THere is an expectation that your family would pay their EFC through current earnings, savings and loans.</p>
<p>It is not that “Penn did not give you enough money”. Penn met 100% of your demonstrated need based on your family’s income and assets. Remember that it is the school that determines what your family can pay based on their income and assets. There is often a disconnect between what the school believes that the family can pay and what the family feels that it can afford to or wants to pay.</p>
<p>This is the down side of Early decision; that in exchange for an early decision, if admitted, you will attend. You lose the opportunity to compare packages. Penn will nto make you attend if you cannot afford it. THey will not put a gun to your head to make you pay. You can request to be released from your ED agreement because your family cannot afford it. But be advised that you cannot afford Penn, it will be a struggle for you to attend similarly priced schools that use the Profile.</p>
<p>You may end up getting accepted at other non-ivy schools and find out that Penn gave you the best overall package. By then it will be too late because the Penn offer will be off of the table.</p>
<p>Penn meets need and I believe is still no-loan so you would need to able to explain what is extraordinary. Extraordinary in the sense that it impacted your families finances in a way that for lack of a better word…was out of your control. Extraordinay medical expenses are an oft cited example. If Penn is no-loan you could still take out Stafford loans each year on top of the need based aid Penn gives you. </p>
<p>How far off you federal EFC are you? Penn uses the Profile – how different is what Penn calculated from your federal EFC. Does you family own a business?</p>
<p>“Nothing has changed in my family situation to highlight, it’s just that they didn’t offer enough the first time.” </p>
<p>I don’t think that Penn is playing “Let’s Make A Deal” here! If you don’t have any special circumstances to document to them, then their FA Office is not obligated to revise your package. </p>
<p>Do you have one time income in 2010 that your family won’t receive in 2011?
Do you have Non-Custodial Parent situation? Divorces? Step Parents?
Does your family have high out of pocket medical expenses that weren’t documented?
Is one parent Self-Employed? If so some of their deductible expenses may be added back in as income, like vehicle expense or depreciation expense on assets they own. </p>
<p>ED should never be entered into if financial aid is a concern, but I am sure you already know that! </p>
<p>Are there other schools you have applied to that you can afford & can be accepted to?</p>
<p>The EFC said I we should qualify for around 24,000 dollars a year in aid(which would still put a major strain on our expenses and probably lead to me taking out student loans) but they only offered 10,000 a year. Clearly there was some sort of disconnect.</p>
<p>And while nothing has changed between now and my first application for aid, much has changed between now and only a couple years ago. A couple years ago my parents engaged in expensive commitments, such as a new house (we just moved), new cars (out of necessity), and a private school for me due to religious needs that costs over 20k a year. Then my parents experienced major salary cuts due to the economy. So while it seems on paper they still have a large salary each year, it is significantly less than the longterm lifestyle they committed to prior to the financial downturn requires.</p>
<p>Anyone want to offer advice?</p>
<p>Penn has a very specific form to fill in to ask for a review…it walks right through all the information but generally the reasons for a review are situational (death of a parent, extraordinary medical, loss of job etc.) not simply bad economy (we’re ALL feeling that believe me) or too much debt.</p>
<p>Frankly, you are in a tough spot. Clealy you have a decent home, you went to private school and those dollars were spent and sounds like not enough was saved for college and on top of that you have an EFC that is probably double many middle class families which tends to reflect 6 figure income. I wish you the best, but I fear that Penn is not going to give you any more money. Do involve your parents in this as they should be involved in this appeal, also.</p>
<p>-Sigh-</p>
<p>Thank you. We’ll try our best. Anything more would be of help at this point, though we were hoping to only have to pay ~20k a year.</p>
<p>and a private school for me due to religious needs that costs over 20k a year</p>
<p>So your family didn’t plan for or expect that college was going to cost perhaps more than high school?</p>
<p>
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<p>Was this a FAFSA EFC estimator? Penn used the information on the CSS Profile to determine the awarding of it’s institutional need based aid. Actually, the Profile was ALL that Penn had when it was determining your financial aid award for ED acceptance. </p>
<p>The info on the Profile is used any way the colleges choose to use it. It seems clear to me that there is some asset on your Profile that made your family contribution MORE and your aid less than a FAFSA EFC estimate. This could be home equity in your primary home, a second home, business income/assets (if your family owns a business) or some other asset.</p>
<p>The thing you need to do is make sure that every item on that Profile is ACCURATE.</p>
<p>Hopefully you’ll all figure it out Staller. Many state flagships costs more than $20,000 a year so that was pretty darn optimistic thinking on the part of your parents.</p>
<p>Well, I’m willing to cover the difference in student loans. And it wasn’t as if the money was spent. Due to the high cost of my private school my parents were unable to have extra money around to put towards college. Due to religious reasons I’ve been in private school my whole life, as have my siblings.</p>
<p>The EFC said I we should qualify for around 24,000 dollars a year in aid</p>
<p>What EFC said that? Are you talking about an estimator for FAFSA? You can’t use that to estimate aid for schools that use CSS Profile.</p>
<p>if your parents are paying that kind of tuition for your and your siblings, then their income sounds too high to get much aid.</p>
<p>I find it hard to believe that for “religious reasons” a family has to spend $20k per year for a child’s education…afterall, what would poorer people in your religion do.</p>
<p>Poorer people get scholarships from private schools. We have too much money to qualify for that.</p>
<p>Well, at least your package is probably a lot better than mine. I got freaking 7700 a year from Babson. And it’s ALL LOANS AND WORK STUDY.</p>
<p>Thank god it was EA.</p>
<p>You are in a difficult situation. But as previous posters have said, there probably isn’t a lot that Penn will do to change your award. While you consider your points valid for your situation, they are still choices that your family made. Most people don’t earn $200,000/year and aren’t committed to an expensive life style. $10,000/year in financial aid is actually generous given that income bracket, especially if it used to be even higher.</p>
<p>You also chose to apply ED to an Ivy league and should have known that financial aid would not be very applicable in your situation and that merit awards would not be an option. Your SAT scores are very good and would have netted you substantial merit awards from many schools. You mentioned in an earlier post that you had a full ride from Yeshiva University. Is that offer still an option?</p>
<p>No matter what I’m taking the offer at Penn. It’s just a matter of how indebted I will be by the time I graduate.</p>
<p>“…expensive commitments, such as a new house (we just moved), new cars (out of necessity), and a private school for me.”</p>
<p>Out of necessity, many families stay in the same home and drive old cars. </p>
<p>Fafsa doesn’t count home equity or value of cars and etc. Profile does. Finaid folks don’t care what private prep school costs your family. Very sorry. You sound motivated to attend Penn and I wish you the best.</p>
<p>Your parents have made one of those life style choices by sending you and your siblings to private schools. If they were not able to save for your college education by doing this, then you cannot expect Penn to subsidize their life style choice. </p>
<p>If you take out private loans (not federal) you will need your parents to co-sign or someone else who is credit worthy to co-sign. Whoever co-signs with you is on the hook if you cannot find a job when you graduate, their credit rating will suffer, not just yours.
Best of luck to you!</p>