<p>luckyMe–suggest you and your son talk to the admin at American and explain the facts and simpy ask if they can offer some merit as he would prefer to accept at American. If they say no you have not lost anything.</p>
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Actually, a school can and will adjust FAFSA numbers using “professional judgment” in appropriate cases. If the student is in range to be Pell-eligible, then the college also has an incentive to maximize the eligibility.</p>
<p>That doesn’t mean that you can just call up and beg and get your way. I think you need to start be educating yourself – these articles have some good information & suggestions:</p>
<p>[FinAid</a> | FinAid for Educators and FAAs | Professional Judgment](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Professional Judgement - Finaid)
[FinAid</a> | Professional Judgment | Negotiation](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>http://www.finaid.org/fafsa/negotiation.phtml)
[FinAid</a> | Professional Judgment | Principles of Professional Judgment](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid)</p>
<p>Get organized, have your documentation together, and try to set up a phone call with the financial aid people to go over all aspects of your award and how it was calculated. Don’t be argumentative, but ask questions for clarification: Is the school’s policy to meet full need? Do they feel that the award they have given meets full need? If there is a gap between the FAFSA EFC and the school’s determination of need…what figures went into that? What adjustments did they make from the Profile (ie., how did they weigh home equity, medical expenses, etc.)</p>
<p>Keep in mind that this is a 4 year process – if you are relying on need-based aid in year #1, you need to know what the school’s policies about loans and expected student contribution each year. If you have issues that will effect aid in future years – such as a younger sibling who will be starting college later – you may want to ask how that will impact the calculation down the line.</p>
<p>ST2, I sent you a PM.</p>
<p>coloDad, Our experience with WashU and trying to negotiate aid for DS in 06 was “no go”. We wrote a letter explaining our reasons and attached copies of financial aid packages from other schools that were more generous. Got a response, but no increased aid.</p>
<p>We had success in getting better FA packages a couple of years ago, but only with better need based offers (not merit) from the same level or higher schools.</p>
<p>I got more need based grant $$ for DD last year from both schools I talked to. As many have said, you must have solid evidences for needs. </p>
<p>I have not heard that merit based aid could be negotiated.</p>
<p>We negotiated merit money. It can be done.</p>
<p>The amount and conditions of the merit award can sometimes be negotiated - - increase the award and the gpa required to keep the award or decrease the award and the gpa required to keep it. Getting a school that did not initially offer merit $$ to cough up the bucks - - not likely.</p>
<p>Possible. Especially this year. A $5K “merit” sweetner might be a good deal for some of these $50K+ schools that find too many families are unwilling to pay the sticker price. If you can get a bunch of kids to come with that “discount”, you are still doing pretty well. I agree that it would be nigh impossible to go from zero or low amounts to a substantial award.</p>
<p>Exactly, cptofthehouse – just a smallish award would make a difference! Most of the private schools DS has been accepted to have offered around $15k of merit aid. The one that didn’t has very generous scholarships, but only 1% of the applicants in DS’ major were finalists, and he was in the other 99%. We didn’t need the full ride that the scholarship offered, but knocking that $50+k down to under $40k would have made it a lot easier to compare the schools.</p>
<p>i really hope matching works. if you want to ask a college to match a package or scholarship does it have to be from a similarly ranked school. ex can i show my full ride to umaryland to duke and ask for a match, or at least in increase in FA, or does it have to be similar type schools, like duke and another top private school</p>
<p>Is your full ride finaid or merit?</p>