<p>Ironic, as we didn’t get braces for ds1 because we couldn’t afford them!</p>
<p>Wherever financial aid is involved, there are bound to be ironies of all sorts. The first time my son ever saw a big-screen TV was at the home of a friend who receives free lunch at school (and this kid’s family had TWO of 'em!)</p>
<p>Advice we got from a coach at one high priced school: “Don’t stop at one, appeal twice.” </p>
<p>We also talked w/ D when she was applying and made it clear that schools X & Y were out of our range and she’d have to get lots of $ to go there. Massive debt was not an option.</p>
<p>He pays for his school loan, car loan, car maintenance and repairs, gas, half of the car insurance (it’s in our name for cost reasons), part of his private health insurance, clothes, shoes and boots, doctor co-pays, dental visits, haircuts, and some clothing and supplies related to his employment. I’m saying we have extra expense due to him still living at home, such as the groceries, utilities, internet, etc. Plus we pay for a good portion of his health insurance because it’s pretty expensive and we’re forcing him to have it since his job has no benefits.</p>
<p>It sounds like he’s providing more than 50% of his support, unless the part you’re paying for health insurance is very high. </p>
<p>*We also have a Parent Plus loan that we’re paying on, but it’s not too much. Do you think it’s worth to mention this? *</p>
<p>You can mention it, but I don’t think it would count towards supporting your 22 year old son. You’d have that loan whether or not your son lived with you.</p>
<p>We politely appealed (never use the word negotiate) at both of our kids’ schools doing exactly what Sally suggested in Post #3. In both instances, we provided copies of the financial aid packages from peer institutions. We told both schools how much our kids wanted to attend. While they would not look at merit offers from other schools, they looked carefully at the financial aid offers that we provided. Both schools matched our highest offers and our kids were happily able to attend. The disclaimer is that both of these schools had large endowments at the time.</p>
<p>Also … it is important that the schools commit to a similar financial package for subsequent years. You don’t want a great package for the first year and a small one the following years.</p>
<p>I read this thread and I feel like I’m buying a car.</p>
<p>We have facing the same dilemma at Emerson. Basically, we received nothing - very minimum aid, no scholarships, no Honor’s program. This is the only school that my son wants and I have called, written to the Dean, begged… and gotten no where. I also requested to have a meeting in April and was told that they would be setting up meetings but no more information has followed. We have substantial debt, arising from breast cancer and hospital balances 10 years ago. They don’t want to hear anything. Basically, we were told that if we want to go through the appeal process, it is still unlikely that he will get anything and we would have to make the $500 tuition down payment which is non-refundable. We really can’t afford to lose $500 of his college money on a slim hope. I even asked if they could make it refundable. VERY FRUSTRATING!</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Does your son have any financial safeties? If you can’t afford this school, then it sounds like your son needs to go elsewhere.</p>
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<p>This makes me wonder how your S knew that the kid was getting free lunch. That should be confidential information. </p>
<p>In addition, you have no idea how or when the family acquired those TVs. Perhaps they were purchased before a job loss or other financial disaster. Perhaps they were given as gifts by family members. I’ve known several people who drove Mercedes that were actually used cars given to them by much wealthier family members. When someone gives you a car, you can hardly turn around and sell it. Same thing with a TV or appliance or a piece of family furniture.</p>
<p>It is very dangerous to make assumptions about other people’s financial situation based on appearances. As a person who lives in a fairly impressive house and has nice furniture and so forth, all of which were inherited or acquired before financial disaster–no cable, one tiny portable TV though–and whose kid has qualified for reduced price lunch, I would hate to think that people were talking about us that way.</p>
<p>it is much simpler than most of people think. It is NEED based so you MUST have demonstrated NEED. An long as your need is not met by a school who claims to meet, you could sincerely and politely let college know. Some of them will laught on your face and some will listen. Remember, these FA counselors are very sharp people who have seen all sorts of tricks. </p>
<p>Get 6 ~ 8K more a year of grant is not uncommon.</p>
<p>Some would like you to believe, on the other hand, that
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<p>Please stop posting this quote out of context, dadII. As you and many readers know, this was a portion of a quote in response to your poo-pooing Rocket6louises FA from one school (a generous FA package she was very happy with, and was sharing in her “cheer” thread) and you coming in to rain on her parade by telling her that it if it had any loan $ it was not good (or at the very least not good enough). People with TRUE NEED can and should ask for reconsideration if the FA package is truly not doable. People with better offers from comparable schools also can and should ask for a review from the school with the lesser offer. But people who do NOT have TRUE NEED but just prefer to try to get the school to pay more so they don’t have to can be seen as … well… in bad taste and offensive to people with true need. </p>
<p>I’ll be happy to cut/paste the full quote from rocket6louise’s “cheer” thread (post #24, IIRC) so readers can see the accurate post, not your clip job version. Here ya go:</p>
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<p>to the OP- You have gotten very good advice here. Good luck with your request for reconsideration. I agree-- if you can have a face to face meeting, thats ideal. The worst they can say is no. You have nothing to lose. Have your documentation ready to show-- including all the info about your older s and other need based offers from other schools. Its kinda like asking your county tax assessor to reconsider the taxes on the value of your home.</p>
<p>I have an appt with FA next week. EFC plus the govt loans ($5500/yr) just about equal tuition and room and board. However, EFC will be extremely challenging over a four-year period. D did not get any merit aid at all. We are looking at private loans.</p>
<p>Any suggestions for the FA appt?</p>
<p>My DD received far less merit aid from her comparable first-choice school. We don’t qualify for need-based aid. Has anyone ever successfully increased their merit aid packages? Does my DD’s status as a NMF help her (that is, do small liberal arts schools like to brag about how many NMF’s are in each class for marketing purposes)? Thanks for your help!!!</p>
<p>Last year we appealed the finaid award from S’s top choice school. (He’d been admitted EA but didn’t get his finaid award until the first week of April.) We had to supply info and do an estimate of what our income would be for 2009. Dh’s business had had a rough 1st quarter of 2009. The university increased his finaid grant amount somewhere around 12% (? – don’t remember exactly). If he’d attended there, we would have surely been hammered this coming year! Even with the increased aid they gave us for his first year, we wouldn’t have felt comfortable with what we’d have to pay even in a good financial year. </p>
<p>(Our older S attended a state university, so we were only familiar with FAFSA. We didn’t know how the privates would look at dh’s business, which is why we let S apply to privates.) </p>
<p>He didn’t end up attending his original top-choice school.</p>
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<p>This is why sticker price minus merit aid, matters to us.</p>