<p>My son was accepted to a high match school. He did not get any merit aid and his financial aid package consisted of 7500 in student loans for freshman year and 2,700 in work/study. There was not one dime in grant money offered and the sticker price is over 54,000 for one year. Our EFC is rather low. This was my son's worst financial aid package (if you can call it that).</p>
<p>My son notified the school that he is not going to attend. I will note that this is the ONLY school that required him to supply the stamp. It isn't a big deal, but still....</p>
<p>My son has received an emailed survey about why he chose not to attend. He replied. One week later he got the same survey again. He replied to it again. The reason he replied was only because I wanted the school to know what I thought about their financial package (it was an admit/deny situation).</p>
<p>Today, ANOTHER EMAIL was received. They are stating that his financial aid application is not complete, and that he should complete it so that they can package him!!! I have their package, the one we rejected. So, are they now wanting to increase their yield and decided to offer a doable package? Do they not know what they are doing? They told us all along that the FA forms (they use their own forms in addition to fafsa and/or profile. Truthfully, I don't recall if they are a profile school and am to lazy to recheck. They have the Fafsa, they have the profile if they use it (I sent it off to all schools that use it, where son was applying). They have "their forms". During they app process it showed online that all FA info was complete. </p>
<p>So, can my son just ignore their emails/mailings at this point?</p>
<p>Is this some sort of game this school is playing to get students that said, "no", to say, "yes"? Is this school just unorganized? I don't get it.</p>
<p>It’s not a financial aid package; it’s a slap in the face and I’m glad you and your child took a stand against it.</p>
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<p>I don’t know which school this is, but I can tell you that I received orientation information to colleges I never deposited at, and mass-mailings from colleges soliciting me to finish applications I never started well into my junior year of college. I think either a machine or a private company run by feral chimpanzees handles this stuff.</p>
<p>Your best bet is to call the school directly. It’s unlikely that, even if they did try to increase yield, they’d increase their institutional aid by enough to fix a $54,000 gaping wound, but you never can tell!</p>
<p>I’m guessing the college isn’t sending your son emails just to annoy him but because their system hasn’t acknowledged his responses somehow. If you truly don’t want to reconsider this college, ignore their emails. However, I have heard more FA packages are being introduced and maybe that college felt your son would make a great addition to their freshman class and hoping he’ll reconsider.</p>
<p>Of course your son “can” ignore their emails. His computer does have a “delete” key, right?</p>
<p>The question is what your son wants. If he WANTS to attend this college, he could contact the financial aid department, find out what the story is, submit papers and see what they offer. You know what the FAFSA EFC is and you know what the offers are from other colleges. If your son WANTS to attend he could offer to fax the college a copy of the financial aid offer from the college he plans to attend and see whether they could match it. </p>
<p>But if your son is rightfully disgusted with the way the particular college has handled things… then as noted, all he has to do is click “delete”.</p>
<p>No one is making your son attend this college. If their FA package is so low, it’s because they determined your numbers looked as if you can support the difference. If not, you should have appealed. But don’t go on about this “gaping wound”. </p>
<p>Hey, don’t yell at the OP. I was the one who used the phrase “gaping wound”, and it’s only because I get tired of colleges claiming bragging about how affordable they make it by offering loans that the college has nothing to do with.</p>
<p>Gardna, you are correct that it was not a financial aid package!</p>
<p>limabeans, you just jogged memory!!! Thank you. Now I understand this a bit more. We sent all schools a letter explaining some expenses not reflected fully in the FAFSA and Profile. In response they asked that we send our tax return to them. I would have complied, but WE received their so called package before I mailed our tax return to them. After I saw their package, I decided not to follow through with sending our tax return to them. So, it is true that we did not complete their requests, but our EFC shows very clearly that we cannot pay 54,000 per year (or 45,000 after student loans). I don’t think that because I send a tax return to them, the flood gates of grants are going to open up.</p>
<p>Frankly, if I would have sleepless nights thinking about their packages for the next 3 years!!!</p>
<p>Gardna, thanks for coming to my defense, but I happen to agree with your comments. We voted with our feet. I doubt my son is going to change his mind about schools now. I guess I will tell him to just hit the delete button. We let them know why he is not attending. I guess we are done with them. I am not going to jump through their hoops. I don’t care anymore because my son is not having second thoughts.</p>
<p>What you are asking for is thousands of dollars of their money. I’m not sure it’s all that unreasonable to have you fill out a bunch of forms and provide them with all the information they are requesting.</p>
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<p>I seems very clear to me what they are doing. They are trying to bend over backwards to make their school affordable to an admitted student.</p>
<p>How about another very simple email reply that says “Thank you for your consideration of my application. I have decided to matriculate elsewhere. Please remove me from your email list.”</p>
<p>D was hounded by email, US mail and even phone calls from a school that gave us a “bad” package last year despite the fact that she notified both admissions and the FA office several times that she would not attend! She finally “blocked” their emails, stopped opening their requests for verification info (I was not willing to send tax docs to a school she had already refused) and told them quite specifically by phone to remove her name from their call list (they did, but I think she has asked for a supervisor). This only happened at one school, the other 6-7 she decided against just sent nice letters offering congrats and admission at a later date should she change her mind and that was it. I agree that it can get annoying, but now it’s a running joke I can trot out whenever she complains about anything at her school.</p>
<p>If your son still has a longing to attend this school, perhaps you should get on the phone with Financial Aid, discuss your situation and follow through if they indicate that a lot more aid could come your way. (But that sounds unlikely) You son’s wishes should drive the response.</p>
<p>mom2sons, I agree. He has decided his school now, so we’re done. I am just going to recheck with him later today.</p>
<p>soze, I don’t know what are you are talking about! They most certainly did not bend over backwards to a thing! They accepted my kid and offered nothing in grant money. </p>
<p>I am done, because I spent more time and energy filling out forms for this school than for any other. It has now gotten out of hand for me. I figure that even if they are now going to offer some money, it most certainly won’t be what my son would need to attend anyway, judging by their “slap in the face” package on the first time around. If they needed more information, then they should not have “packaged” him in the first place. If they really want my kid, they can just use the fafsa, the profile, their college FA forms, and repackage, or they can find another student. My son’s heart is not “set” on this school, so I don’t want to deal with their “hoops” for the next 3 years either. Thanks all!</p>
<p>We’re having a similar experience with Tulane, although our EFC is not low so it can’t possibly matter. (And we did submit everything.) Son just deletes the e-mails at this point. Maybe it’s a computer glitch. Is the school to which you are referring stating that it is full?</p>
<p>NEmom: your post seems as if you are making two points. 1) the constant emails from a college your son declined and 2) your own frustration with the college.</p>
<p>If you just want to know what to do about the emails, either ignore/delete them or call up their admissions office and tell them personally.</p>
<p>If you actually wanted to vent about their lack of FA, then read soze’s post or mine. We were explaining that maybe their FA could have been much higher if you acted on their request. But since you didn’t, you shouldn’t complain until you have all the information.</p>
<p>R2R, honestly I don’t know if they are full or not. I just feel that they are amazingly disorganized, whether it is the FA office, the computer/tech glitches, admissions, who knows. I feel that I have completed enough forms for them. If they want to make a “real” offer, they are free to do so with the info that they have already received. If they don’t, they don’t.</p>
<p>limabeans, truthfully, I am venting, and truthfully, I am also wanting to know what to do with the emails. Also truthfully, if they NEED more documents, then they should not package a kid til they have what they need! Their package was a big slap in the face to our family. Oh, and they asked for tax returns, but within days mailed that lousy package. So they did not give us the opportunity to first provide more information. After we saw that package, I was no longer willing to deal with them because I could not see how a package from them would approach what we’d need from them in grants.</p>
<p>Some may feel I have an entitlement attitude, but I don’t. They know what we can afford. If they cannot produce a doable package, enough with surveys, and emails. We have voted with our feet, and they know that. So, I am also venting here to say that they should stop contacting us. My son sent them a rejection card, which is probably more than a large percentage of applicants do, especially when the stamp comes from the applicant! They are, interestingly, the only school we dealt with that did not provide the postage. Sigh…</p>
<p>OK… a couple of points. You don’t have to respond to emails you get from anybody. Ignore, delete, leave in spam folder… or, as I do with much of my email, simply don’t even open it in the first place. I mean – I don’t read or reply to every piece of junk paper mail sent to me… why should the letter be any different.</p>
<p>Also – you do not HAVE to send back the “reply” card from a college to to tell them you are NOT coming. It’s a courtesy… but if you don’t affirmatively mail in a deposit by May 1, that is the equivalent of saying that you won’t be there. So you really didn’t have to spring for the cost of a stamp – you could have just tossed the card in the recycling bin. (Or sent an email. Or used the phone. Or not)</p>
<p>You should add them to your spam list. There’s no reason to let this school aggravate you any further. It seems clear that this school is simply not an option or even desirable any more.</p>