<p>so i got my acceptance letter from wellesley...very surprising. first off, my family is considered low income considering that our annual income is <25,000. 2nd, FAFSA/Profile EFC was approximated around 1000...and yet my financial reward stated that my parents were expected to contribute 10,000. moreover, i was a Questbridge Finalist, meaning that I'm low-income!!! i don't get it....is this normal or should i contact the financial aid office? wellesley is my top school and this is extremely disconcerting!</p>
<p>Does Wellesley say they meet all unmet need? Some schools just don't, and no matter what your EFC is, they may gap you.</p>
<p>Hmm, from their website: </p>
<p>Wellesley College is committed to giving every student the opportunity to afford a first-class education. Our need-blind admission policy means that your financial circumstance will have no impact on our decision to admit you. This policy applies to all U.S. citizens and permanent residents. In addition, we guarantee to meet 100 percent of your need as determined by our financial aid policies, but we award no merit scholarships. We are committed to maintaining a financial aid program that is competitive with peer institutions. </p>
<p>So, I would say that you should check with the financial aid office.</p>
<p>Crazed, do your parents own a home? The CSS Profile adds in home equity, so that might be one reason Wellesley expects more money.</p>
<p>Exactly. Wellesley says they meet 100% of need as calculated by their financial aid policies, not 100% of need as calculated by FAFSA. Call them and find out what the story is.</p>
<p>yea that's what I figured...i'm going to contact the financial aid office today and talked to them about that...</p>
<p>calmom, yes we do own a home...does that mean there is no hope of lowering my parents' contribution b/c of the home equity?</p>
<p>crazedjunior -- the FA award does seem a little out of whack. low-income and an EFC of $1000 to a Wellesley EFC of $10,000 is definitely a huge jump.</p>
<p>Some things to check -- do both your parents work? If not, most schools who do their own FA calculations add in an amount that the second parent could earn if they went back to work. If there are circumstances that would prevent that parent from working (disability, care for infant or elder) then you would need to let them know this.</p>
<p>home equity -- if your parents do own a home and have some pretty good equity, they are expected to tap into that money to pay for college. This generally does not refer to someone who owns a $100,000 house with $10,000 equity in it -- but if your parents bought the house very cheaply and housing prices have really increased, your parents are expected to take advantage of the increased value of the house and borrow on it.</p>
<p>Are you absolutely sure you filled out the colleges financial aid forms correctly? small mistakes can make a big difference.</p>
<p>I would suggest that you contact Wellesley (I prefer email so they can take their time researching it and I get a reply in a form I can print and respond to). Ask them for an explanation of the increased EFC.</p>
<p>I suggest trying to reach someone by phone, review the circumstances, AND then send an e mail or fax to a specific person (not just to the fin aid office). I did this with my D's top choice school two years ago and we quickly saw an increase in aid. For the second year, I again contacted them and reminded them of their "promises" from year one (not to count home equity, for D to remain in lowest loan category) and sent them the letter (which was not in their current year file) and again we saw a revision in the aid.</p>
<p>Was it the EFC which was increased to 10,000 or the Parent PLUS Award which was listed as 10,000?</p>
<p>ok so what happen was that i think i misread my tax forms and wrote that our home equity was 250,000 when in reality it was only 20,000...so i'm assuming this will make a huge difference in my parental contribution...i've already contacted the fin aid office but what are your thoughts?</p>
<p>crazed junior -- that would make a huge difference! The financial aid department would assume that your parents have $250,000 in home equity to borrow against when they don't.</p>
<p>take another look at your figures and make sure you don't have any other mistakes. One place that can be problematic is the difference between earned income and adjusted gross income.</p>
<p>as hsmom has stated, that error can make a huge difference in your EFC and aid package. Be sure to submit any necessary changes and documentation to support your error early so the aid package will reflect the correct information.</p>
<p>I have my own wacky EFC annecdote.</p>
<p>FAFSA's EFC was 714 dollars. MITs EFC was 256 dollars. Columbia's EFC was 0 dollars. Penn's? Almost 8,000 dollars. </p>
<p>Yea, so not going there.</p>
<p>Your EFC on fafsa doesn't mean anything. You would think that schools would take that into consideration but it seems that they don't. Schools try to find whatever way possible for you to pay for your education as to them giving you grants. If your EFC is super high and your family cant afford it them, then I suggest that you go to that schools Financial Aid office and try to get them to reconsider. Also, explain your circumstances to them, IN DETAIL because sometimes that helps them understand the "big picture" of your family situation.</p>
<p>Actually, DSharC, schools do try to provide students with whatever grants they are eligible for but, usually because of local, schools do use the EFC in different ways to calculate the distribution of school-based aid.</p>
<p>And there are many schools which JUST use the FAFSA produced EFC to determine a student's eligibility for aid.</p>
<p>they try but as far as UPENN goes fafsa doesn't consider a lot of things (it is a bunch of numbers entered without really figuring out the financial situation). For instance, people making the same income can have totally different financial circumstances. When compared to the CSS Profile it becomes null and void.</p>
<p>Crazed, make sure you are calculating your home equity properly. You stated that you misread your tax forms when figuring your home equity. I am not sure why you would have looked at your tax forms for that ... your equity would be the amount your home is worth (in my state, this is found on the annual property tax assessment report; maybe that's what you meant by tax forms?) less the amount your parents owe on it (mortgage & home equity loans).</p>
<p>@DSharC</p>
<p>Yes, I understand that private's efc calculation is usually very different from FAFSA's calculation. That's why I mentioned Columbia and MIT; I just thought it was rather strange that Penn's method would produce such drastically different numbers from their peer institutions. </p>
<p>Hamilton and Northwestern also offered about the same numbers as MIT/Columbia, which further supports my belief that Penn's finaid officers were smoking crack. :-)</p>
<p>yea most times it seems that they are not thinking. My suggestion would be to call them, call them and call them again until they adjust it. I mean sometimes it makes a difference to have a person describing their situation to the financial aid officers than a letter.</p>