<p>DS has handled all correspondence with his schools regarding applications, visits, etc. (of course!). But now that he has multiple acceptances, questions about FA packages are arising and can be complex. Is it entirely inappropriate for me or husband (tax accountant) to talk to/negotiate with the FA people at his top choice schools? </p>
<p>We've stayed informed but son has handled all communications to date. My role has been to do research (noodling online and learning so much here on CC!) and offer support. That is as it should be for the admissions search and application arc. </p>
<p>We don't want to come off as intrusive, but at this stage, the financial issues have great bearing on us as parents. Is it considered fine for parents to be directly/actively involved with some aspects of FA, or should we coach DS from behind the scenes as he negotiates and clarifies with FA offices?</p>
<p>what do you mean * negotiate*?</p>
<p>If your family has unusual but unavoidable expenses that aren’t accounted for on PROFILE then you can submit documentation to the school, but they may or may not take that into consideration in the offer.
If son received a financial aid offer from one school that is more generous than the one from a school where he would prefer to attend, he can submit the competing offer & his preferred school may adjust theirs, * as long as the schools are equal ranking*.</p>
<p>I wouldnt call it negotiation though, the schools hate that.</p>
<p>We did things both ways. For D1, a few years back I tried, unsuccessfully to get her school (she was a sophomore) to replace work study with an institutional grant. she was in a program that told the kids NOT to work their Junior year, due to the nature of the program. If she had asked herself, would it have mad a difference? No.
With D2, when she was applying to schools for music, we really needed a few thou more in scholarships. She wrote a letter to the instrument professor she had auditioned with (who really wanted her there) and was able to get 3K more in REPEATING scholarships! I of course told her exactly what to say in the letter…but the correspondence was between her and the prof.</p>
<p>Thank you, Emerald. Yes, ‘negotiation’ is probably a poor choice of words. I do mean the latter: a situation where similar schools have offered FA packages and one may choose to match the other. It sounds like it’s best for our son to handle it, with some oversight and guidance from us. </p>
<p>We definitely don’t want to alienate or appear unappreciative. The whole family is delighted with developments so far. We just want to help our son manage these interactions, if needed, so that it goes as smoothly as possible for all. </p>
<p>And thank you, dlbar, also.</p>
<p>Sounds like our instincts have guided us well thus far. DS will handle this himself, with us advising and discussing options in the
background.</p>
<p>I did all FA contact for both Ds. This included asking for reviews of FA packages when there were more generous offers from peer schools.</p>
<p>I didn’t feel that the schools had any problem with this as parents are generally more knowledgeable about financial matters than the typical 17 yo. Not to mention that they are often vested in the funding of the education.</p>
<p>Try to make sure that you are comparing apples to apples.</p>
<p>Do not compare what a private school gives with what a public school gives.</p>
<p>Do not compare what what one school gave in merit money with what another school gave in need based financial aid.</p>
<p>Don’t compare what a honors college gave with what you received from gen admissions.</p>
<p>You want to compare schools that are classified in the same category; a top national university may not care what a regional university gave you.</p>
<p>Since parents are paying, parents should contact FA. Students are often ill-equipped to deal with this. And, frankly, adults in a FA office are less likely to take them as seriously as parents. All communications should be very polite and show appreciation with what’s been offered so far.</p>
<p>I think kids should be the ones who contact FA offices if they (not the parents) will be paying. </p>
<p>Sybbie is right…don’t compare schools of different ranking ranges, don’t compare privates with publics, don’t compare merit with need-based, and don’t compare instate publics with OOS publics.</p>
<p>Yes, it’s ok. You know your financials. Do ask if you can go over what they have come up as your contribution. It’s really not a negotiation. Hopefully you have something that can be used to reduce the cost such that has not been taken into account.</p>
<p>Thank you, everyone! This helps a lot. And I understand the importance of sticking apples with apples. With regard to FA, we are dealing only with privates and talking about merit (not need-based) aid.
We didn’t expect or qualify for any aid from son’s UCs, so that makes them very simple, LOL. We do have some questions and possible follow-up issues to address with the privates.
Thank you. :)</p>
<p>Financial aid officer here. I agree with everyone else who’s said that “negotiate” and “bargain” are not words that financial aid officers respond to. A better term to try is “review”, as in “I’d like to request a review of my financial aid file, for reasons X, Y and Z.”</p>
<p>This works best when you’ve had a sudden change in your financials, or when the original documentation you submitted (FAFSA, CSS, etc.) doesn’t tell the whole story. When you’re talking about need-based aid, you’re likely to have the most success when you have <strong>concrete reasons for requesting a review</strong> and when you can <strong>document those reasons</strong>.</p>
<p>As far as requesting a review on the basis of other schools’ offers: My college only started to do this last year, and what we mostly saw was that students didn’t understand the concept of ‘peer schools’ or apples-to-apples offers. Sybbie’s post #6 offers a really good explanation of this.</p>
<p>Ideally, a student should be the one making the first contact to ask for a review. After that, though, we don’t mind if a parent gets involved in the conversation to talk about financial specifics. A well-spoken parent who’s done their research about what our school does and doesn’t offer in terms of financial assistance, is preferable to an inarticulate teenager who very obviously is calling us while their parent stands over them and tells them word-for-word what questions to ask. :)</p>
<p>A financial aid office will discuss drastic definition of need even if the school is not a peer school if the discussion is focused only on the numbers so that the basis of the difference can be explained. If it 's a difference in definition between schools, oh well, but sometimes mistakes are made and they are discovered by another school difference in final need figures. However, there is sometimes a Merit within need nudge given in financial aid, and you are not going to get that unless you are talking about peer schools or school higher in the selectivity ratings. Even then, it may not get you anywhere as the endowments and funds of some of the top schools are such that they can be more liberal in definitions.</p>
<p>Sometimes a parent has to be the one doing this if a small family owned business or other income producing asset is involved for which the student does not know the details required to get the situation reviewed.</p>
<p>Thank you for these great explanations. I so much appreciate that you all take the time to share your knowledge. I love CC!</p>