<p>Does anyone know what Connecticut College typically does with FA for following years?</p>
<p>Is it known to do “bait and switch” or is this likely a mistake? Or, is it likely the OP forgot about an income/asset change?</p>
<p>*My daughter received a great financial aid package for her freshman year. She was a National Merit finalist, top 10% of her class etc. She received Dean’s Honors for both semesters this year. Yesterday we received an email that our aid has been decreased by 21,000. We are pretty much freaking out. We did not expect it to stay exactly the same, but never dreamed thaey would not award her a comperable sum as last year. Has this happened to anyone else? Now we have 2 monthes to come up with over $9000. Thoughts? *</p>
<p>3xamom…how much were you expected to pay last year? I know that CC is quite expensive - about $55k COA.</p>
<p>You need to talk personally with the financial aid director and find out why there is so much of a cut. I think it is unethical to cut that much unless your financial situation has changed accordingly, or if your D did not file paperwork that was needed on time. </p>
<p>One of my boys lost his merit award after his freshman year, but that was because his gpa did not meet the standards to keep the award. No mystery there. NM awards are often for just one year, but those one time payments are only about $2500. My other son also had an outside scholarship that we knew was just for the one year, so again it was no surprise that it was not continued. Also many colleges expect their students to assume a greater part of the cost each year. However your amount is too much, in my opinion, to load onto a kid in one year. </p>
<p>Maybe your need went up some, lowering that amount, maybe some of the money such as NM awards was one year merit money, and maybe there is an increase built into the need foru=mula each year. I am just guessing here; you need to talk to FA at the school to get specifics. IThe increase seems to high even loading all of these things in there, Did you have another kid in college that is no longer a student? That can make a change that drastic, I know. I hope you get the situation resolved, and that this is not a final amount.</p>
<p>I have not heard of merit awards increasing each year unless they are defined as covering the tuition or other situation that is going to go up. However, sometimes there are departmental awards for kids who do well and are committed to a certain discipline My S got one this year which was a nice surprise.</p>
<p>Unless there was a big swing in EFC, that is an eye opener for anyone considering this school! I know that I would be asking lots of questions! If this happened to our son, he would have to transfer out! We definitely could not swing a 21,000 difference in year, not to mention that there are 2 more years to follow!</p>
<p>That’s why OP needs to talk to the FA office. Maybe this is a mistake. Maybe there is a good reason. Please let us know how this is explained. I am definitely interested.</p>
<p>Here ya go. [Connecticut</a> College : Financial Aid - Review Process](<a href=“http://www.conncoll.edu/admission/financialaid/8311.htm]Connecticut”>http://www.conncoll.edu/admission/financialaid/8311.htm) Do it now.</p>
<p>*If this happened to our son, he would have to transfer out! We definitely could not swing a 21,000 difference in year, not to mention that there are 2 more years to follow! *</p>
<p>I was thinking the same thing. I don’t know how much the family contribution was this past year, so this may be a $10k or so difference (which is still a lot!).</p>
<p>I would also go over the two years of FA (FAFSA & CSS)submittals and see if there were any mistakes or increases.</p>
<p>I know my son’s financial aid isn’t totally done yet. He received a scholarship that hasn’t been added to his financial aid yet. I know from experience that it will show up before the bill is due this summer. Maybe everything hasn’t shown up on OP’s daughter’s financial aid yet?</p>
<p>It depends on the reason. I remember one of my friends who was shocked when her older daughter dropped out of her local state school which was not really that expensive. What it did was affect her younger D’s financial aid drastically. That D was going to Duke which gives excellent aid packages. But apparently having 2 in college made a huge difference in the aid. Also, kids who get merit within aid may get one year scholarships in that package and folks often don’t read that stuff carefully, or the school may not have been clear on the subject. It could be any number of reasons. That’ s why OP needs to discuss the particulars with FA. We can speculate all day.</p>
<p>Is she the one attending Connecticut College?
College Board reports they meet 100% of need- this should not change.</p>
<p>An aid package can be met with any combination of grants- loans and work study.
I don’t think parental loans should be considered to fulfill the aid package- but some schools do use that.
What exactly is the package?</p>
<p>I realize this is a CSS school, but I wonder what their FAFSA EFC was. If it was high, then perhaps it was one time scholarships that minimized family contribution for freshman year. </p>
<p>Is she the one attending Connecticut College?
College Board reports they meet 100% of need- this should not change.</p>
<p>The report on Collegeboard only reports what they do for freshmen. It doesn’t say if they meet 100% of need for all years. </p>
<p>Financial Aid Statistics</p>
<pre><code>* Full-time **freshman **enrollment: 502
-
Number who applied for need-based aid: 297
-
Number who were judged to have need: 237
-
Number who were offered aid: 237
-
Number who had full need met: 237
-
Average percent of need met: 100%
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Average financial aid package: $31,023
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Average need-based loan: $2,961
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Average need-based scholarship or grant award: $31,051
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Average non-need based aid: Not reported
-
Average indebtedness at graduation: $22,038
</code></pre>
<p>I think it’s interesting that only about half of the freshmen get any aid. There must be some affluent kids at this school if over half are paying full-freight. </p>
<p>From the school’s website…</p>
<p>*The average grant is $29,000 ($27,000 from Connecticut College, $2,000 from state and federal grants) *</p>
<p>Part of your financial aid award may be in the form of loans or a work-study job.</p>
<p>So, maybe some of the $21k could be paid with student loans and/or work-study. Or are there also student loans and work-study on top of the $21k?</p>
<p>If the avg grant is $27k from the institution. The COA is $55k and the family owes $21k, then that suggests that the student got a grant of about $33k.</p>
<p>we seem to be missing a lot of the story … Connecticut College is a 100% meet need school and I believe does not give merit scholarships … if the OP’s child’s aid package changed $21k it looks like either their income or assets changed a ton for the better since last year.</p>
<p>Eek! I agree that coming up with $$ for years 3 and 4 seem unlikely if $$ for year 2 is a problem. But at least you buy more time by returning to the school for your sophomore year–can take the summer to figure out what schools to transfer to.</p>
<p>A $20K swing is pretty dramatic…wonder what changed?</p>
<p>About half the kids on fin aid seems to be about average for selective schools. That doesn’t mean that a bunch of kids and parents are not taking out loans or there are kids who got merit money or outside money that could have reduced or eliminated fin aid.</p>
<p>Is this Connecticut College? If so, they offer need based aid only I believe. They don’t have merit aid there. So…for this aid package to increase this much something must have changed. Was there perhaps another sibling enrolled in college during the last academic year? Did someone receive a large bonus or take money out of a tax sheltered retirement plan? Was there a significant increase in income?</p>
<p>As a previous poster mentioned, thie EFC could have changed if an older sibling is no longer a student.</p>
<p>I kind of think colleges bribe freshmen with great FA packages freshmen year to get them enrolled, then each year they chip away at the package. I’ve lost money every year even though my income didn’t increase, and I am no longer a dependent. If you get fiesty with FA they tend to cave in.</p>
<p>The OP posted something back in January anticipating that their aid would be going down. So this was not a surprise. We need the rest of the story. Agree that it could be due to another sib graduating, but we don’t have the facts. OP- can you please tell us why your aid changed?</p>
<p>This sounds like it may be a mistake. Is it possible that the OP still needs to submit verification for aid? If your income or assets have not changed then this should not have happened. Call the financial aid office or go there in person.</p>
<p>^Family has to file FASFA every year. We do although D. has only Merit scholarships. And hers are going up because of Returning Student Merit scholarships and Departmentals. The last ones are allocated primarily for upper classmen. These 2 are the reason why I said before that if they maintain high GPA, then Merit scholarships are going up, not down. None of hers are automatically adjusted for tuition increase, she has about 9 awards, all merit, all named after some people. Tuition has been covered, next year R & B will be also. I would not send her to college that offers only need based, we sould be paying full price. Our rule to follow is to always file FASFA and use every single opportunity to apply to Merit Scholarships, whatever is out there.</p>