<p>I find many people saying "if you don't like the financial aid package, go speak to the Financial Aid office and they will be willing to do something". My question is how much of a change can the FA office make to your aid package? Specifically I am talking about colleges like MIT, Stanford, WashU, UChicago and the Ivy League. Has anyone experienced dramatic changes as a result of contacting the FA office?</p>
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<p>I’ve never heard anybody say that, that I can recall. If they did, I think they have there “will’s” and “may’s” mixed up. BTW, you need to express a reason for the change, not just “I don’t like it”. Good luck. I’ll be trying to help my sister and niece through the process of re-doing FA starting in earnest …now.</p>
<p>If the school only uses FAFSA it is my impression there isn’t any changing the FAFSA EFC.
However, the school may possibly alter the % of need covered.
If the PROFILE is used, the school could consider additional expenses/assets- but from what I have seen, the emphasis is usually on the later.</p>
<p>When it comes to FAFSA, unless there has been an outright mistake, there is not anything that can be done changing PELL or Staffor and other government awards. When it comes to what the school is giving from its own funds, there can be a lot of leeway.</p>
<p>First of all, many schools gap. If that’s the case, they can come up with money to fill in that gap. Then, you have their interpretation of line items in the PROFILE or their own app that can be changed. THere is also the composition of aid. Loans can be replaced with grants. </p>
<p>Unless you are a very high need, low EFC student, you aren’t likely to be getting government money. When it comes to the college’s money, they can give what ever they want with whatever rationale, pretty much. A lot of leeway.</p>
<p>The only data points I have personally are from 06 at Yale and Amherst. We provided what (to me) were persuasive line item reasons to ooch FA our way and got completely shot down. No give. At all. I hope you do better, but at least in 06 it didn’t always work.</p>
<p>If a better offer is made by a peer school, then you have a better chance of getting a change in FA. Last year it seemed pretty matter of course for HYP to match one another.</p>
<p>These schools, even the most generous, are under so much pressure this year I think you would need a bullet proof reason like medical expenses. Their packages are already very generous compared to most.</p>
<p>I’m on the board of a private school with similar, generous aid. We are being hit from every corner, existing students and newly admitted wanting more aid. Lines are being drawn places where they were not before.</p>
<p>Your best bet would be if a peer school offered you more, matching is typical.</p>
<p>hmom5 (or others) - how would you define a peer school?</p>
<p>We had good fortune in a prestigious LAC and an Ivy matching the packages of peer schools. This was, however, a few years ago.</p>
<p>There are many ways to define a peer school. A match in selectivity, test scores is one way. Similar ratings on a standard chart like USNWR is another. Rival schools are another way to determine this. For instance Gettysburg competes with Dickinson and Muhlenburg for the same pool of students. Providence College competes with Villanova, Fairfield and other Catholic schools. It would not be as motivated to compete with Sacred Heart’s awards but if you let PC know that you are getting money from BC or V or F, it just might up the ante, if you say you’ll go there with a a match.</p>
<p>Our experience was little to no change.</p>
<p>"Your best bet would be if a peer school offered you more, matching is typical. "</p>
<p>I think that “matching is typical” is an overstatement - - I know of several occasions where either there was no budge or the school being petitioned didn’t consider the school w/ the better award to be a peer school. OTOH, absent evidence of unusual expenses that were not considered in the initial package, waving an offer from a peer schools is probably your best bet (not great odds - - but nothing ventured, nothing gained).</p>
<p>Most people I know do not get a whole lot of change unless there is a mistake in the FA forms. However, we did get a little bit more in merit money upon negotiating, and I know folks who got some loans replaced by grants.</p>
<p>How would one go about negotiating for merit money? My S did not apply for FA at either Tulane or American and received $24,000 merit scholarship at Tulane and nothing from American. Unfortunately, I think he might prefer American. He hasn’t visited either yet, but if he does choose American, does anyone have any suggestions about negotiating for merit $$?</p>
<p>Our experience was that it was impossible to negotiate for merit aid.</p>
<p>LuckyMe, I tend to agree with twinmom. Merit money (without need-based aid) is used for attracting the students that a school considers “high value” candidates – i.e., the students they really, really want and are willing to pay for. If AU didn’t offer your son anything at all, you really have no leverage with them. Sorry.</p>
<p>Would HYPS or Wash U match full rides from State Universities ( which are offered on the basis of merit )? Families making less than $80K/year and families making more than $250k/year will have no problems sending their kids to elite colleges. It is only the middle class families, especially those in the $80K-$160K range, who will have the most problems footing the $50K/year bill because of high EFC.</p>
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No.
Yes.</p>
<p>From another thread <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/660178-results-choosing-full-ride-state-school-scholarship-9.html[/url]:”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/660178-results-choosing-full-ride-state-school-scholarship-9.html:</a>
The financial comparison between top privates and state publics will be different for each student depending on their family’s financial situation. But for the middle class, it is only in the last couple years – and still, only at a handful of the very top schools – that the costs may be comparable.
While low-income students may have been given adequate financial aid at the wealthiest elite schools, this group only comprised a small percentage of the student body and has stayed low for decades. The larger number of middle-income applicants were not receiving enough aid and as a result, their percentages gradually dropped while the percentage of upper-income students grew. Up until the last year or two, when Congress started putting pressure on top schools to use their huge endowments for scholarship money, financial aid at the very wealthiest schools included a large loan component that was not really “aid.” </p>
<p>“Between the mid-1970s and mid-1990s, in a sample of eleven prestigious colleges, the percentage of students from families in the bottom quartile of national family income remained roughly steadyaround 10 percent. During the same period the percentage of students from the top quartile rose sharply, from a little more than one third to fully half.” [Scandals</a> of Higher Education - The New York Review of Books](<a href=“http://www.nybooks.com/articles/20011]Scandals”>Scandals of Higher Education | Andrew Delbanco | The New York Review of Books)</p>
<p>Top privates schools have made it clear they were losing the middle class.
MIT Chancellor: We lost ground with students from families making greater than $100,000, but less than $200,000, said Clay. [Tuition</a> Increase is Lowest in 8 Yrs, High Relative to Inflation - The Tech](<a href=“http://tech.mit.edu/V129/N6/tuition.html]Tuition”>http://tech.mit.edu/V129/N6/tuition.html)</p>
<p>"As higher-income students maintain, and continue to expand, their admissions advantage and higher-ed institutions react by reaching out to low-income studentsoften with an emphasis on first-generation college studentsits those in the middle that feel the heat… The institutions are doing better, but now it is the middle two quarters that are getting pancaked in the process, said Georgetown Senior Associate Dean Hugh Cloke, who has been involved in admissions for 35 years…there are very few poor students at Americas top colleges, and a large and growing number of rich ones. [Squeezed</a> Out](<a href=“http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070521/squeezed]Squeezed”>http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070521/squeezed)</p>
<p>I agree with everything anneroku wrote …except I’s say that is not easy to afford any college when you make $70K. (Ex. My sister, a single mom with no help from anybody, will struggle mightily coming up with the EFC for my niece.) </p>
<p>Remember, they calculate what your income is using their rules - not your tax return (at least not to your advantage). That’s what kills a lot of folks. </p>
<p>Also remember, too, even $7K is a whole bunch when you are barely paying your bills.</p>
<p>coloDad - merit aid is usually not negotiable - you either get it or you don’t. WashU merit awards had to be applied for with separate application quite a while ago. As for WashU matching a state U - I seriously doubt it. On the other hand, a call to the financial aid office - with a logical explanation as to why you are not happy with their original offer, has been known to produce results. The key is a positive approach with good reasons why the original package should be reconsidered. Don’t try to “wing” the call, but have your reasons logical and well thought out. Good luck.</p>