How to appeal for more finaid??

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>After about a month of waiting, I finally got my financial aid package from Penn. My family's expected contribution totaled $20,000. The good thing about Penn's financial aid is that there are no loans included. However, Georgetown's finaid expected contribution was only $5,000 after Federal loans.</p>

<p>Here is the breakdown:</p>

<p>Penn gave me $27,150 and its Pell Grant is $2,800. How can I go about asking them for more money since Georgetown gave me $36,750 and a $3,100 Pell Grant? Should I call the finaid office or visit them personally? (I live only an hour away)</p>

<p>How likely will they give me more aid or match Gtown's aid?</p>

2

<p>isn’t it a little late for that?</p>

3

<p>it does seem late, but the only point i can think worth raising is the difference in the pell grant. i’m pretty sure that the federal pell grants should be equal. you could call and ask.</p>

4

<p>How can it be late if Penn gave me this aid only a day ago? It seems like I’m getting screwed over since it is passed the deadline to reserve my spot at Georgetown.</p>

<p>I’ve read through the forums of Penn matching financial aid from other schools where the student only had to fax Penn the other school’s financial aid report. </p>

<p>My only concern is how do I ask Penn’s SFS for more aid or to match G’town’s without sounding too annoyed by the aid their offered.</p>

<p>Again, my EFC is $2,000 according to FAFSA. I used College Board’s calculator and received about $6,000 for the institutional methodology. So I cannot see how Penn came up with $20,000 EFC.</p>

5

<p>ummm georgetown was giving you loans. how is that better? </p>

<p>efc is not what colleges use to make the package so that doesn’t matter.</p>

<p>the pell grant difference is weird cuz the gov’t will pay that. not penn.</p>

<p>bottom line: can u pay for penn with their fa? if yes, don’t worry about it. if no, and u would have to take out crazy loans, call them.</p>

6

<p>Well, Georgetown’s need-based aid totaled $36,750 (without loans) while Penn’s need-based aid totaled $23,150. That is a $13,600 difference. If Penn could match that, that will leave my EFC to less than $10,000 and I wouldn’t mind taking out a Federal Loan to make the difference. </p>

<p>I do plan to call them, especially since there is a difference in the Pell Grant. My only concern is that I don’t want to sound annoyed by the insufficient aid they gave me. Is it ok to simply say “Georgetown gave me more money, is there anything you can do to match that?” Or is there a much better way to ask for more aid?</p>

7

<p>you don’t have to worry about how you sound-it’s not like they’ll take your acceptance away. just be polite/don’t whine</p>

8

<p>just say: “i just received my FA and I’m confused as to why my penn FA and pell grant are significantly lower than those georgetown offered”</p>

9

<p>I just called the office, and they gave me a hasty complicated explaination to why my Pell grant was lower. However, she did say that I could fax my Georgetown acceptance letter and its financial aid report for them to take a look at it. I also read from Penn’s SFS website that their financial packages “are competitive with those offered by other institutions.” So hopefully I will get better aid.</p>

10

<p>ya u probably will. they’re pretty good w/ FA</p>

11

<p>If they do increase my aid, how long will it take before they update it online? Also, should I call the office to see if they received my fax?</p>