I am excited to have been accepted to Wellesley but felt like a deflated balloon when they said I didn’t qualify for any financial aid. Not only is that laughable (I’m from a middle class suburban family, we aren’t rich by any means and cannot afford $60k a year) but it was so disappointing as I really wanted to consider Wellesley. I know they don’t do “merit aid”, but I’ve been offered $25k and $20k scholarships at Denison University and Mount Holyoke respectively and I was wondering if this could sway them at all to give me some sort of financial aid package. Since I’ll be in MA for Mount Holyoke’s visit weekend, it’d be nice if I could know whether to contact them before the weekend so I could possibly visit in person.
Thank you.
I put in financial aid appeals for my D’s two favorite schools. It can’t hurt and could be time very well spent. I quickly Googled, and Wellesley has an appeals process. http://www.wellesley.edu/sfs/info/policies#appeals
I don’t see how merit aid offers from other schools would influence your need based aid (or lack thereof) at Wellesley. But I may be wrong.
@sschickens this is the answer I was looking for. So offers from other schools will not influence them to offer something?
@phoria My assumption is that schools may consider a review based on another merit offer if that school has offered merit. Same for a financial need vs. financial need situation. But in this case, you’re asking a school that offered you no merit to review your total cost based on a merit offer from another school. I’m no expert, but I don’t recall ever seeing that happen. Again, I may be wrong. FWIW, my D is at Denison (on the Founders Scholarship) and loves it…best of luck!
Those schools are not considered comparable to Wellesley – so would have no impact whatsoever on your need based aid at Wellesley. You can ask for a financial aid review, especially if you have some info that might not have shown up on the FAFSA or Profile (medical bills, recent job loss, etc). But I would not expect much. Did you run the net price calculator on the Wellesley website before applying? Did it show something different (that you would likely get aid)? If it did, you should show them that as well.
@intparent Nevermind. No point in contacting them. I’m a little peeved that they wouldn’t consider Mount Holyoke comparable but it’s ok, I get that they don’t want to give out money like crazy. It’s nice to have gotten in, I’ll save my acceptance letter for/if I have daughters in the future, but there’s basically no way I can go 
@sschickens Denison looks more likely every day. Thanks for the help!
MHC is a pretty nice school, you should go to accepted student visits there and Denison if the money works for both. 24 hours on campus is very helpful in making up your mind for sure.
Regarding them being comparable, US News rankings have Wellesley tied for #4, while MHC is 35 and Denison is 55.
@intparent I still have Kenyon which is my first choice. They’re getting back to me on financial aid soon, fingers crossed. Also, I have read a whole book (Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be) in which many admissions officers from prestigious schools basically admit the US News rankings are crap and they don’t take them seriously. This isn’t from officers at low ranked schools, some officers from #10-20 even say they throw them in the trash when they ask for input because they know it’s a broken system that gives good advertising but isn’t quite scientific.
Well… Wellesley ishonestly a cut above academically from your other choices. But I certainly agree that it is not destiny to go to a higher ranked college vs. a lower ranked one. So did you run the net price calculator at Kenyon? Each college has one on their website, it gives you an idea of what your FA might look like. Honestly, Wellesley is more generous than Kenyon usually (they have a much bigger endowment and can afford to be) – your odds of Kenyon being affordable if you didn’t get merit there probably aren’t great.
@intparent Thank you for the response. Wellesley calculated nothing, gave me nothing. Kenyon said I was a strong candidate for merit aid and would be getting back to me soon. Disappointing to know I was a weak candidate–I’d rather not attend a school like Kenyon/MHC/Denison with inferior academics.
@phoria Take your own advice in post #8. Rankings mean little when all is said and done. Trust me, the academics at Kenyon/MHC/Denison are not ‘inferior’. My D was accepted to Oberlin with merit, but chose Denison on it’s own merits. She finds it very challenging, and is thriving there. IMO, Wellesley at full sticker is not a wise choice unless money is not an issue, and like most families, it is in your case. The school you select will be lucky to have you.
I am confused. Who said you are a weak candidate? You got into Wellesley, and are being given merit at 2nd tier LACs, that is not a weak candidate. You just said you thought the rankings were crap. Weak academics is a relative term… you can get a great education at any of those three schools that you can actually afford (assuming Kenyon comes through with some merit). Both my kids applied to MHC and one to Kenyon a and would have been happy to attend (but I didn’t let my kids apply anyplace they wouldn’t be happy to attend). They are fine schools.
@sschickens @intparent I was being mildly sarcastic. I used to be insecure about rankings but honestly I know Kenyon and the rest aren’t academically inferior to Wellesley and I get a little annoyed when my friends/other adults ask where I got in and automatically assume I’m going to Wellesley because “it’s the best one”.
I’d ask where they would like the bills sent so they can help with the payments. 
I would contact financial aid. Sometimes mistakes are made on Fafsa or Profile , and sometimes the finàncial aid office makes mistakes. No harm in asking them to look in to it.
@emah24 Issue is, net price said I would get $0 (FinAid claims my parents should just take a second mortgage on their house which is hardly financially smart). I love Wellesley, but at this point I’ll wait and see how I like the rest of my schools.
What is your EFC?
@ClarinetDad16 My family has saved in a college fund since I was an infant, and over the years it has accumulated to the amount of one years tuition. FAFSA (they reformatted a few years ago to make this possible) has decided the smartest thing for my family to do is to spend all of it in one year, making my EFC come out to full freight.
@phoria I’m sorry you’re feeling frustrated, but I think it’s possible that you don’t fully understand Wellesley’s approach to their need-based aid. Basically, if you have access to cash, the College expects you to use that money to pay for school. You said you have a college fund. Wellesley wants you to deplete that fund before it will start to give you some of their own money. Since it’s a need-based system, you have to re-apply for aid every year. As that savings account is depleted, your need will grow, and you will like very likely get more money from Wellesley. As a test, try running the Net Price calculator with the savings account as it is now, and the savings account two years from now when it will likely be depleted. If you need further clarity around that, you should call and talk to them about it - and rather than approach it as an appeal, try to get a better understanding of what will happen when that college savings account is all used up next year (or two years from now).
Furthermore, you should ask some important questions of those other schools about their stipulations to receive that merit-based money. Is it guaranteed for four years? What if you GPA falls below a certain level? These are important factors to consider when calculating total cost of four years.
Best of luck to you.