Huge disparity in expected family contribution?!

Paying for College
1

I was fortunate enough to be accepted by several excellent schools, including RPI, Wesleyan, Carleton, Whitman, and Princeton. The financial aid offers from all of the schools except for Princeton have been very generous, with an expected family contribution of about $5,000 per year. My family earns $47,000 per year for a family of five, but my parents own their own business and do not have a mortgage. This, along with $50,000 that my father recently received as his inheritance, are their only assets. They have no retirement fund. My siblings and I all have about $2,000 in savings, which my mom has started using to pay off our credit card bills.

My father’s business is very small - there are only four employees, and no net profit. He designs and manufactures specialized equipment, for which there is limited demand. Lately things have been going very poorly for the business and I’m really worried for my parents. This year, they were unable to get the bank loan necessary to fund production, so they used $50,000 of my father’s inheritance (which was originally $100,000) as a personal loan for the business. At the rate things are going, it looks like they will be putting the last $50,000 of their savings into this business any week now.

In any case, my family’s financial situation has certainly deteriorated since the day I submitted my FAFSA. So far, all of the universities I have applied to have been affordable - except for Princeton. Princeton has awarded me approximately $38,000 in grants and $4,000 in work-study. My expected family contribution is then $21,000. There is no way my family can afford this, and I’m really shocked by this offer. When the admissions officer for Princeton visited my school, she repeatedly stressed the fact that Princeton is committed to meeting the full need of its students. The brochures I received stated that families making less than $60,000 could expect to receive full tuition + room and board.

My question is, is there any point in appealing Princeton’s financial aid offer? I’m really happy that I was accepted, but I’m devastated by the financial aid offer - considering my family’s financial situation, it’s virtually the same thing as a rejection.

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Of course there’s a point. What’s the worst that can happen? They say “no” and nothing changes. But if you don’t ask the question, you’ll never know. There is plenty of upside and no downside to making an FA appeal to Princeton.

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@BelknapPoint you make a good point. I guess it’s clear that I should contact Princeton’s FA office. I’m just still a little stunned from the decisions today.

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Sonya - sounds like your dad’s inheritance is inflating his income for that taxable year. The fact that none of the other highly selective colleges you were accepted to saw it that way indicates that it may be a mistake. You need to get across to Princeton the fact that is a one-time event and that it doesn’t accurately reflect what your family can afford. Also, Princeton is kind of new to the economic diversity game, so it may take some educating. :wink:

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You say the inheritance was originally $100,000. What do you mean by this? I understand your plight but if it was $100,000 in 2015 plus $50,000 income, you’re at $150,000/ year which puts $20,000 as affordable EFC. Good luck. Hope Princeton will reconsider.

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@Sportsman88 Yes, the inheritance was originally $100,000. This was my father’s share from the sale of his parents’ Moscow apartment. My paternal grandmother passed away sixteen years ago, but her apartment was not sold until two years ago due to disagreements over the sale between my father and his siblings. This was definitely a one-time deal.

@circuitrider Thank you for your input. I was really surprised by Princeton’s offer since it was so different from what the other colleges offered. Princeton has it own financial aid calculator so it makes sense that the inheritance would have affected my family’s EFC so significantly at Princeton and not at the other schools. I will be sure to emphasize that the inheritance was a one-time event.

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In your appeal letter/ email to Princeton you need to show them the FA offers from other colleges.
It sounds like a mistake was made if other less wealthy colleges are offering you more aid.
Have Patience- dont give up.

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Did you submit the CSS to Princeton, or their own form? I would also check to make sure that there are no errors in the form.

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@menloparkmom I just emailed Princeton’s financial aid office - I mentioned the fact that Princeton’s financial aid estimate was the same as what several other schools actually offered me (EFC of $5,000). Hopefully they will be able to clarify why my FA offer is so low.

@purpleacorn I submitted both forms to Princeton. Both had the same information (I just checked); however, the CSS profile provided information about my parents’ business, while Princeton’s form did not ask about family businesses at all.

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@Sonya97 definitely contact Princeton tomorrow and discuss with them. They are known to be one of, if not the most, generous with financial aid. Best of luck and please update us all.

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they will have to see copies of the other FA awards.

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Call Princeton they are excellent about working with families. My son graduated in 2014 and we had several bouts of unfortunate circumstances from loss of employment to my ex-husband refusing to continue to pay child support. They were extremely accommodating and approachable. they will work with you as long as the documentation is there and correct.

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We encountered similar oddities a few, and the gist of the replies here is spot-on: appeal for review and submit the other offers as well. Congratulations on being accepted to fantastic schools.

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Thank you very much for your replies everyone! I have contacted Princeton’s FA office - hopefully they will be able to clarify the situation, as I’m sure that all the documentation is correct.

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FWIW, just one opinion, Princeton may be figuring you will be so thrilled to go there that you will pay what they ask. You may not be a high priority admit for them so they may not mind losing you over FA. One unfortunate result of P’s deciding to reduce work study and loan amounts is that there is more pressure/competition for scholarship grants. Definitely appeal, you will likely get more, but don’t expect them to match a “lesser” school’s offer. Were you accepted at any other Ivy? I think the Ivies have an agreement to all match each other’s FA. Also, P may be looking at your family business’ gross revenue (since so much can be written off to yield net income) Again, FWIW, I made the decision decades ago to attend P with MUCH less financial assistance than any other school offered, including Stanford. P was an amazing experience, but the burden of loans and of working 10+ hours a week really cut into my ability to enjoy school and be involved in extracurricular activities. In retrospect I think it would have been wiser to go to Stanford with its generous offer. I may have had an even better college experience.

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^no, that’s not it, sorry. :slight_smile:
Princeton counts assets and non-equity housing differently than other schools. However in your situation you did the right thing when asking for a reassessment. I hope that you also mentioned your father’s business circumstances, as you explained them here. Do keep us updated.
However, even if Princeton doesn’t change their offer, Carleton and Wesleyan would be incredible colleges to attend, so you are in an enviable spot!

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We had higher income last year and our net price from Princeton’s NPC was less than our FAFSA EFC, so I would ask them about the number they calculated.

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@CAorBust The only Ivies I applied to were Princeton, Yale, and Columbia. I was rejected by Yale and waitlisted by Columbia. If Princeton remains unaffordable I will have no problem attending a school like Carleton or Whitman (or Reed, fingers crossed), but it’d be nice to at least find out why my financial aid offer was so different from what I expected. My priority is to graduate with as few loans as possible.

@MYOS1634 For sure - I’m definitely lucky to have several great options available. Hopefully I’ll get more good news from Princeton as well!

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Update: After contacting Princeton’s Financial Aid office, I was able to appeal my financial aid decision and receive a new offer which is on par with the offers I have received from other schools - better, in fact, because student loans aren’t part of the package. I now have some difficult choices to make about which school to attend!

Thank you very much to everyone for your advice!

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OP good for you that you followed thru the process. Good luck with your final decision. Please come back and let us know where you will be going next fall!