How to have financial aid re-calculated?

Paying for College
1

During this admissions cycle, I was admitted to several amazing universities with great financial aid. Given that my family is relatively low-income, fin aid is super important for me to be able to attend college.

I was admitted to 3 T10 schools, one of which is a HYPSM. The two T10 schools offer about the same amount of aid: a near full ride (one would cost $0/yr while the other about $3-4K/yr). However, the HYPSM would cost about $12-15k more than the other two schools, which struck me as odd. Given the other offers I have, would it be possible to negotiate the price for the HYPSM school?

2

I have already set up a meeting with the financial aid office, but that is a few weeks out. Was curious about steps I could take to know if I can change my fin aid offer as soon as possible.

3

Was your FAFSA EFC $0? Does your family have equity in your primary residence? Are either of your parents self employed? Are your parents divorced?

Some of those schools have deeper pockets than others. And some of the peer schools will actually match the offers, if you present those offers to the lower offer school…but some won’t.

When you meet, take everything financial aid related with you, including the offers from the most generous schools.

You might get an increase…and they might say “enjoy your time at that other college”.

Totally worth asking.

4

Sounds good. I’ll have to get my parents on board because they are just secretive about finances in general for some reason (even though I’m the one going to college lol).

5

Do your parents own a home? When my son was applying and I ran the Financial aid calculator some schools clearly use a portion of your home equity in the FA calculation.

6

I would run the net price calculators for each of the schools you are deciding upon. That may help you reverse-engineer the process. Each college makes these calculators available on their web pages. I would do this prior to your meeting, if you have time.

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7

Each of them can determine your need differently. Have your parents run the net price calculators and see if you get similar numbers.

Create a spreadsheet so you can compare apples to apples with a column for each college and these rows.

  • Total tuition
  • Total fees
  • Total room and board
  • Other costs of attendance (travel, books, etc… that they have estimated - this can be a variable)
  • total the costs

Then for each college list:

  • College Need based aid and grants (do not need to be paid back)
  • Pell grant amount
  • any merit or other non-need based aid (unusual in T10)
  • work study amount
  • student contribution
  • parent contribution
  • parent plus loans (sometimes these are in the aid and sometimes separate)
  • direct student loans
  • total this and subtract from the total costs

Compare where the differences are?

Are all three completely loan free? Or do some have loans in to get to $0.

Do all three packages include a Pell grant?

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