<p>Acceptance via ED.
Is the offer sheet negotiable at all? This is a D3 school.
If the schools offer is less than what we expected, will the school be open to talking about the amount?
I just wonder if anyone has been down this path before.
Thanks </p>
<p>You can ask the school. Some schools will discuss their offers, and others simply will not.</p>
<p>You can do some reading in the forum to see. How did you come up with the ‘expected’ amount? Was it from the NPC calculator or just top of your head?</p>
<p>Edit: I see your refer previously to EFC? Are you expecting only to have to pay EFC? Is that wha the NPC indicated? Isn’t your college a profile college, in which case EFC doesn’t apply except to federal aid guidelines.</p>
<p>It looks like your daughter was accepted at Denison. Congratulations to her. Am I correct that she is a recruited athlete? Division 3 schools don’t give athletic scholarships, but maybe your coach can help out. </p>
<p>You seemed earlier in the fall to have a good idea of what your costs would be…EFC about $28,000. Is that still the case? </p>
<p>She has been accepted 
She also was recruited for athletics.
My daughter received a $23,000 per year merit award and the total package misses the EFC by nearly $10,000.
I know that Denison is not a 100% need met school but thought it would be closer.
These numbers come from the fafsa4caster and I expect the numbers to be a little worse as far as expecting more help from fafsa when we file 2015.</p>
<p>Absolutely request a review. That your expectations were more than what you received. Do run a NPC for Densions, something that should have been done before, but can’t do anything about that. It’ll give you an idea as to whether this is indeed 100% of need as Denison computes it, or if they did not meet need. Denison uses PROFILE, does it not? PROFILE results are usually higher in terms of expected contributions than the FAFSA EFC, but ti does not hurt to ask for a redo. If Denison’s package matches the NPC, the chances are not as good that they will come up with more, which is why the NPC should have been run BEFORE applying ED. There is a case to be made if a school’s own NPC is not giving accurate results. No school guarantees to meet need as defined by the FAFSA EFC. Also talk to the coach. It is possible a little bit more can be squeezed out of there.</p>
<p>What did the Denison Net Price Calculator say? That would be more accurate than the fafsa4caster. The fafsa4caster would give you a FAFSA EFC, but NOT the projected net cost at Denison.</p>
<p>Yes, Denison uses the CSS Profile.</p>
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<p>What is the cost of attendance at Denison? That Founders Scholarship would have been subtracted from the cost of attendance. You would till have been responsible for at least $22,000. If your estimated net cost was $28,600, are you saying that now you are exoected to pay $38,000.</p>
<p>ETA…the tuition at Denison is about $45,000 and add $10,000 onto that for room/board. So $55,000 or so and that doesn’t include fees of any kind.</p>
<p>The Founders Scholarship of $22,000 would make you have a $33,000 balance plus all the fees. Is that what you got?</p>
<p>You can ask for a review of her FA package, and she can let the coach know it may not be affordable. But unless you have some additional information to offer that affect the financial calculation, most schools won’t adjust the aid. Occasionally you can get some leverage if you got a better package from a comparable school (I have done it), but since she applied ED, you have no opportunity to do that. Don’t allow your D to accept the ED offer now until you have asked for the review and see what happens; she can ask for an extension on her decision date if necessary.</p>
<p>That said… the net price calculator is where you should have been looking for probable cost of attendance. The FAFSA is just for determining eligibility for federal aid, but colleges use their own calculations to figure out what they expect you to pay. So if she ends up needing to continue to look at other schools because this one is not affordable, run the NPCs as soon as possible, and make sure she applies to a couple you KNOW you can afford.</p>
<p>I went back to run the NPC again but it is down for updates. I did notice that the calculator previously had a price of $56,850, and the offer sheet had a price tag 0f $60,720.
I guess that explains it. My guess is that when I run the updated NPC, the totals will be more accurate.</p>
<p>The school may have a better projection of their actual costs for the upcoming school year now.</p>
<p>Did you run the NPC before applying? You refer to the Fafsaforecaster which would give you an estimate of the FAFSA EFC. The estimated EFC is a minimum of what you have to pay before getting any federal subsidies. No schools guarantees to meet need based on that number. Even the most generous schools tend to require a student contribution, and PROFILE schools include things like home equity in their calculations and tend to expect more. If you ran that NPC before applying and the results are way off, that is something to discuss with financial aid. But what the FAFSAforecaster gives you has no relevance in the matter because Denison has its own aid formulas that are not equivalent to that of FAFSA. You did not even complete FAFSA for this aid, but an estimated PROFILE. </p>
<p>Denison uses FAFSA, I did not file CSS PROFILE</p>
<p>Determining Need</p>
<p>How Denison determines eligibility</p>
<p>The information filed on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is used in a formula established by the U.S. Congress that calculates an Expected Family Contribution (EFC). The EFC is an amount that the family is expected to contribute toward the educational costs for that academic year. Denison uses federal methodology to determine federal need. Federal need is computed by subtracting the EFC from the total cost of attendance. The difference is the federal need. In cases of high federal need, Denison is unable to meet 100% of federal need.</p>
<p>Total Cost of Attendance (including personal expenses)</p>
<p>– EFC (Expected Family Contribution)</p>
<p>= Federal Financial Need</p>
<p>When Denison receives the EFC calculation from the FAFSA for need-based applicants, it is loaded into the mainframe system to determine a tentative need-based aid package for all students accepted for admission.</p>
<p>And guys, my daughter is going to attending Denison, we can afford the tuition. Just wondered why the difference.</p>
<p>You did not complete a FAFSA for this ED financial aid award. What DID you complete?</p>
<p>ETA…I see that Denison has an Early Decision Financial Aid Application form.</p>
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<p>???</p>
<p>Are you saying that when you file FAFSA after Jan 1, you expect your income to have decreased a bit? If so, that does NOT mean “more help from FAFSA”. FAFSA doesn’t give you anything. And your EFC is too high for free aid from the fed gov’t. </p>
<p>But. since you say that your D is going to the school and you can afford it, then I guess this is all moot.</p>
<p>No, I mean my income will likely be higher.
I realize FAFSA doesn’t “give you anything”. Denison uses FAFSA to plug into their aid projections. It might cost a bit more to attend when I fill out my actual FAFSA after January 1st. </p>
<p>My original intent for this thread was just to find if anyone had ever tried to negotiate a better deal.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the info.</p>
<p>Yes, others have negotiated better deals from schools, and have asked for reconsideration of the financial aid packages both during ED and RD. So don’t feel awkward doing so. Hopefully, they will reconsider.</p>
<p>However, the actual award will be based on the actual FAFSA numbers. You generally HAVE to pay FAFSA EFC as you cannot get federal aid until you do. But if the methodology, Denison is using does not match up to what they are claiming and what their NPC is giving you, that is something valid for you to bring up. It’s understandable to expect the NPC to be accurate when taking the chance of applying ED which limits and often eliminates the ability to compare aid/ merit offers from other schools. This is a discussion to have with the fin aid officers there. </p>