Hi I recently got my financial aid reward and it still isn’t enough for me to go to the school. My families EFC was zero. How should I approach the financial aid office and what should I say?
What school?
What are your stats?
How much can your parent(s) pay each year for 4 years?
Does the school promise to meet need?
And how much more do you need? $100, $1000, $10,000, more?
I agree with others that we need more information.
Generally communications with the school should be handled by the student. I think that financial aid may be the one exception. The assumption is generally that the parents will pay whatever is not covered by financial aid, and that the parents are more familiar with the implications of financial decisions.
The number one rule is to always remain calm and respectful in discussions with the school. Say that the school is your first choice (assuming that it is) and that you would like to attend but you can’t afford to. You should know what you need to be able to attend.
Do you have an affordable alternative?
We need more info.
What are your stats? Some schools give better pkgs to higher stats students.
Sounds like the school is Santa Clara, which does not promise to meet need.
What aid did you get?
SCU is a CSS Profile school so perhaps your CSS indicated a different situation. Are your parents divorced? Do they own a business? Do they take business deductions? Do they have home equity?
Your FAFSA EFC doesn’t make a lot of difference with a CSS Profile school except for federal aid.
Santa Clara University
30 ACT 3.9 weighted GPA, after 7th semester, I am hoping for a 4.35 gpa. Good EC’s and letters of rec. Had support from coach (recruited athlete)
Divorced Parents. do not own a business, no house, nothing. Santa Clara only takes income of custodial parent.
I don’t see how a 3.9 GPA could jump to 4.35 after one semester.
If you’re a recruited athlete, then can the coach do anything to help you get a better aid pkg? @twoinanddone is that ok to do?
Now that I know that SCU doesn’t use NCP info, that more suggests to me that they don’t meet need. For all they know, your dad could be quite affluent.
What aid did you get? What exactly is in your aid pkg?
My current weighted GPA is 3.9, I am taking 3 AP’s and 1 Honors right now. If I get one B in a honors/AP, I will get a 4.25 GPA. Because my semester GPA will be a 4.6. I can talk to the coach and see what he can do. I got Cal Grant, Supplement Grant, Need based, work study, & Federal subsidizes & unsubdizied Loan. Total package was 44.9k.
6 x 3.9 = 23.4
23.4 + 4.6 = 28
28 / 7 = 4.0 weighted GPA
Where else did you apply? It’s very doubtful that SCU will be affordable. Schools like that don’t typically give the full COA.
Did you run the NPC before you applied?
Yes I ran the net price calculator and it originally came out to be around 15k then it recently increased to 25k, without student loans included. NPC gave me 30k of need based aid
I applied USD(support from Coach as well), SDSU, Cal Poly SLO, Sac state, UCI, UCSD, UCLA(support from coach but no guarantee of admission), UCSB.
I’m considering applying George Wash & Syracuse as well
Since you are getting need based aid rather than athletic aid, it is unlikely the coach can help. Any need based aid given to an athlete has to be awarded on the same basis it would be given to any other student. Schools follow that rule pretty closely.
Now what the coach might be able to do is make sure you are receiving everything you are entitled to. If there are different levels of merit awards given to 3.9 gpa students and 4.25 gpa students, yes, you could get more but you didn’t list merit aid as one of your awards.
I’d work with FA. Have all the info about the custodial parent’s income, special circumstances (medical? lost income? emergency situations such as the fires in Cal). It looks like you need about $25k, plus whatever in the package is work study (you won’t have that until you earn it). That’s a big gap.
Sorry, but you can’t afford this school.
SCU is likely not going to be affordable, and I’d be surprised if USD is either.
How would you pay for GW or Syracuse…neither guarantees to meet full need.
ETA…with an EFC of $0, your net cost at SCU was always going to be more than your family could pay.
Are you saying that you ran it a few months ago, and it showed a net cost of $15k but now when you run the NPC it shows a net cost of $25k? did you save the original? Are you sure that you put in the same info? And was that $15k net cost without loans included? How were you going to pay the uncovered amount?
You’re sort of in a pickle. Virtually all the schools that you’re mentioning will have a decent net cost to pay. How would those get paid?
A few months ago…when? September? August? July? October?
Yes, your issue is that none of your schools guarantee to meet need, and they have “gapped” you (given less money than you need to reasonably attend, and expect you to find a way to come up with the rest). I’d say you could try talking to the coach to see if they can help if you are a recruited athlete. Otherwise, I think you need a different list of schools.
I could see how your stats might get you into a school that meets need but is not need blind if you had a tip from athletic recruitment. But it may be too late for that for this year. Schools like Skidmore, Occidental, or Colorado College. Or Dickinson, which meets 99% of need. If nothing ends up affordable this year, you might consider a gap year to work & raise you ACT score, and going back to try to get recruited by those types of schools.