I hope that I’m allowed to post this. If I’m not plz message me mod and I will take it down.
Here’s what I’m looking at:
37k in grant money.
4.5k Fed Sub. loan
6k Fed Unsub loan
3k Work-study
Puts me at 47.5k in aid. The thing is, my husband and I need a little more to make this work.
I called my finaid officer today to see if I can get more aid but he hasn’t called me back yet. Has anyone had experience in asking for more aid and how did it go?
Second question, how likely is it that I can get aid like this for the next school year?
@mysticmama A few things to keep in mind: loans are loans – they are not aid. You are going to need to pay those back, which can be a genuine hardship for many post-graduates. Also keep in mind cost of living in Wash. D.C. is high. My son’s friends at GW this year went way over the University-assumed food budget. So, you may want to recalculate living expenses based on actual costs. Of course, if you will have housing with a kitchen and can cook your own food, that will help. Even so, grocery bills will be higher than many other areas of the country.
I believe you can appeal your FA offer at GW. However, very few individuals prevail on their appeal.
As far as getting the same aid next year, there’s no guarantee but it usually works out that way. Remember, though, that the cost of attendance (with respect to housing) will go up each year as upperclassmen housing is more expensive.
To answer the question of whether or not it’s “good,” is up to you what you’re willing to pay. Assuming the same amount of loans are taken out each year ($10.5K Stafford), you will owe $42K upon graduation. While it’s over the national average of $33K, it’s still less than what most owe upon graduating from a private school. To alleviate it, though, you can work summers and apply earned money towards the loans.
Well from my perspective that would be a good deal with no housing costs. But the question is what you can afford not what I can afford. You said you couldn’t quite make it work. What is the part that won’t work? Between loans and FA you appear to be covered – unless you can’t afford the 21k in loans after graduation.
@psycholing oh yeah its because the tuition is 55k. The loans don’t cover the whole cost with aid offered. We would need to pay the remaining out of pocket (or get another private student loan, which I really don’t want to do) That’s what I want to ask for more.
Honestly, they rarely give more people aid when they ask for it. I still have yet to hear from anyone who has gotten extra aid.
If you and your husband’s income stayed the same between 2016 and 2017 (since FAFSA this year is based off of 2016 taxes), it will very likely be the exact same or at least relatively the same.
Our income changed drastically, by 80k after we moved here from California @liveyourlife26 . I left my 10 year career so my husband could pursue his job on the hill. Thus why I am going back to school, to get my degree because I never did actually get it. As we’re living off his salary alone while I go to school full time, this is why we’re in this situation I did appeal our tax information from ‘16 so that I could use 17’ as they definitely look very different side by side.
I’m just going to call and ask for more, worst they could say is “no”.
@mysticmama – My understanding is that many colleges will review your last year’s income (in this case, 2017) if it went down significantly from the prior prior year. I was able to get two different colleges to increase our FA offer by asking for such a review last year when my son was entering college, as our income is extremely variable. So I think you have a decent chance. See https://financialaid.gwu.edu/changes-circumstances. You seem to qualify under the “reduction in salary” provision.
@mysticmama That is 100% a very reasonable explanation for more aid, so they hopefully will take that into consideration because it wouldn’t make sense if they didn’t. They usually don’t budge just for general appeals, but you have a very valid reason for doing so. Let us know what they end up saying.
Also, go you for going back to school to finish your degree!
@mysticmama oh wow- didn’t realize that award package didn’t include the full cost. Yeah, go with your plan of talking to them about your decreased income level.
@liveyourlife26 I was able to get more aid, but it was a terrible situation that I don’t recommend. Basically I left for school expecting my parents’ private loan to go through but found-out late September that they were denied based on their debt-to-income ratio.I appealed to the school telling them I could no longer afford the school and needed more help. They said there was nothing they could do, so I stopped going to classes and looked for a job to stay in D.C. The financial aid office called me about a week later asking to see me, and the “found” me two more loans that covered the extra $15K. Granted, these were rare loans that aren’t applicable to everyone (first was for veterans, and the second was for students that have been out of academia for a few years). So yeah, that was my close call. I was given more money, but skipping classes (and one exam) for a week made that first semester even more difficult.
@mysticmama Yay, that is so good to hear! It would be insane if they did not let you use the newer taxes.
@NHuffer I love GW, but there are two departments I will complain day in and day out about. One of them is the financial aid office. That is absolutely horrible you had to go through that as skipping one week of classes can easily get someone so behind. I am definitely glad they “found” you alternative loan options. Throwback to last summer where I got my financial aid package the first week of classes, which was crazy stressful for me as I pay for my own tuition. I followed up via email and phone multiple times all summer long to make sure I was not missing any documents. I finally sent a very frustrating email at the end of summer and got a snarky response that I did not turn in XYZ until I sent multiple screenshots of how many times I had confirmed the very opposite all summer long.
I did appeal our tax information from ‘16 so that I could use 17’ as they definitely look very different side by side.