How do I officially appeal my finaid package? Also, is it possible to leverage an aid package from one school against one from another school? If anyone has any experience with this, please let me know how you did it and the results! Thanks?
Which schools are you talking about and how far apart in aid are they?
@austinmshauri University of Montana (2k net cost/yr) and Wesleyan (15k net cost/yr). I’m just wondering since UM is cheap because it’s a scholarship and Wesleyan’s cost is because of grants, would that be like comparing apples to oranges? Comparing a mediocre in-state school who gave scholarships vs. a great OOS school who gave grants?
Wesleyan isn’t going to give two hoots that your net cost at Montana is $2000 a year.
Yes…you are comparing apples to oranges…maybe apples to elephants.
Wesleyan is a private university. U of Montana is a public one with a much lower cost to begin with.
If you are hoping to get your net cost down to $2000…that’s unlikely.
Wesleyan gives primarily need based aid, and meets full need for all accepted students…that includes you. Your award there was need based aid. Right?
Montana gave you a merit award…Wesleyan doesn’t have merit awards.
They have calculated that your family can pay $15000 a year net cost…which means you got roughly $57,000 in need based aid from Wesleyan.
The total cost of attendance at Montana even for OOS isn’t $57,000.
In this case, because one is a state school and the other a private school giving need based aid, I don’t think they can be compared and it is like apples and oranges.
Wesleyan may consider a request to look at your financial needs. Do you have any new info they should consider?
@thumper1 alright thank you, that’s kind of what I figured. Just trying to get an affordable education! Btw… what would you recommend; UM or Weesleyan?
@twoinanddone well, my mom quit working so we don’t have her income. She only made 17k/yr so would that even affect my financial aid that much?
How much can your family pay per year? If they don’t have $15k, then Montana is the better option.
@austinmshauri our family can “afford” Wesleyan with the federal subsidized loan they’re offering us, but we’d be able to pay to stay in state without any loans at all. Plus I’m looking at another in state school that would cost $11k/yr and is only a little better than UM, but still not on the same level as Wesleyan.
Ask Wesleyan for a review of their FA offer. You contact the financial aid office to do that. But I wouldn’t bother to tell them about the other one, it isn’t comparable. Do you have any info that might not have shown up in the FA paperwork you did? Like if your mom’s income went down since 2017 (assume that is the base year), can you provlde that info? Additional info like that can help.
@intparent I guess I forgot to mention that my dad got a raise that was equal to the pay lost from my mom not working, so would it be worth it to contact the finaid office? Would I risk getting less finaid?
Yes, that can happen.
What is the basis for your appeal? Wesleyan does not care what public university offered you because they only give need based aid.
They state straight up that the do not “negotiate” financial aid awards nor do the match awards from other schools
@sybbie719 No, I understand now that I won’t really be able to get any more aid than what they’ve offered me. I wish there was a way I could close this discussion because I have my answers now?