<p>My son has been accepted to and received a scholarship from his top choice school. Unfortunately, the scholarship amount is a little less than we had hoped. He received higher scholarship amounts from 2 other schools so we were hoping to ask if they would match those (it is only a few thousand dollars but it would help).</p>
<p>Do I call the financial aid office or email them?
How do I start the conversation?
Should I send them the letters from the other schools or wait and see if they ask for it?</p>
<p>Any suggestions or insight would be appreciated this is just outside of my comfort zone.</p>
<p>For financial aid purposes, it is okay for the parents to contact the school. This is an exception to the general rule of letting the student make all the contacts, because of the financial matters involved. You can contact the financial aid office and simply ask for a re-examination of the financial aid package in light of the fact that this is his first choice of school and that the offer is lower than you expected.</p>
<p>First, however, look at the cost estimator at the college and see if the financial aid package is within the range of the indicator. Also,how much of the aid is need-based and how much is merit award? Often there isn’t a whole lot of wiggle room with merit scholarships - either the kid made the requirements or he did not. There are often thousands of dollars at stake for as little as a tenth of a point in a GPA.</p>
<p>It doesn’t hurt to ask, but do not be surprised if the answer is “no”. We requested an increase in my daughter’s FA package, and it was increased by one of the three schools. My other daughter’s state school offered her a department scholarship the day after I spoke with him about our financial concerns (just happened that the meeting to decide on the recipients was the day after our meeting).</p>
<p>My husband called the financial aid office and asked who we should send an appeal to and the preferred method, email or written. They were very clear that we should include all and any info as it was a one shot deal, they would only do one review. You can ask right out if you should include offers from other schools. We were not asking for much, a couple of thousand and we were successful. This was for merit aid. </p>
<p>I understand the outside the comfort zone feeling. I found some guidelines on what to say online, but we decided they did not sound sincere. My husband and I talked about it, then he wrote the letter. I never even looked at it, I was feeling pretty stressed at that point! </p>
<p>I disagree. I phoned the financial aid office after we received the letter, they transferred me to the admissions office, and I explained the problem, asked questions, and sent in some information they requested. The financial information is mine - my salary, my assets.</p>
<p>It is also difficult for her to make phone calls from her school. They have a lot of scrambling and it is hard to get a clear line, plus I could access the computer and scan anything they needed from my office and she could not from her phone at school.</p>
<p>This is good information. Everything I have read said that if the school is the student’s first choice, they should make the contact. Of course, if more financial information is needed I would expect the parents to do that. Is this question one that is debated? Or did I just happen to read the incorrect information? Maybe what I read was that when it was down to the wire and the student still really wanted to go there but they weren’t offering what was needed, then the student should call. I personally know of a few students that have done this, and it has worked for them.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone, good information. One more question: what about timing? Should we call soon or wait a bit until the school may get students declining their offer and hence, might have more scholarship money available?</p>
<p>I think maybe the OP is talking about a merit scholarship. Some schools do match competing school offers. I did this for my kid (merit scholarships only). I knew the school does offer matching. I called and explained that they were our first choice school but I needed to see if they would match her other offers. They gave me the name and email of the person who handles offer matching. I sent in the written offers. They had to be guaranteed offers in writing. I then heard back from them a few days later.</p>
<p>Are you talking about merit scholarships? If so, you may find that the your son’s scholarship matches the criteria for the school. Different colleges have different criteria for awarding merit scholarships. Are these peer institutions? That is another important consideration. A school might look at the offer from a peer institution, but they likely won’t consider an offer from a less competitive,school.</p>
<p>OR are you talking about NEED based aid? if you are talking about need based grant money, again, comparisons between peer schools would be relevant. </p>
<p>We asked for a financial aid review at two schools. One school absolutely did NOT review offers. PERIOD. And they told us this (we went in person). The second school looked at the other offers (from peer schools) which we brought with us. They did NOT add any additional grant or scholarship money, but oddly gave our kid work study and a Perkins Loan…which was enough to make a difference for us. </p>
<p>So…yes, you can ask (our kid did the talking, but I was right next to her). But don’t be surprised if they say no. Then again, they may say yes.</p>
<p>I am only talking about merit scholarship $. I know that this school has a max amount for this particular scholarship and we were offered below that max. Matching these other schools would be closer to their max. </p>
<p>Do NOT wait to ask. Schools run out of money. Do not wait til others “decline” because those declinations have already been computed by models, so they don’t lead to “extra money”.</p>