Hi CC, I’m hoping you can help me get to my dream school. See, I want to attend a private college with a steep $60k price tag. They already gave me their top merit scholarship of $24k/yr which is fantastic, but the need-based aid I got wasn’t quite enough. I really need about $10k more to make it possible. I plan on sending an appeal for more money, but I don’t know whether I should ask for more merit or need-based aid. Additionally, their website has quite a few factors that they will NOT consider:
You or your parents are not willing to borrow.
Your parent(s) is/are unwilling to pay.
You received merit assistance or a higher aid offer from another institution.
You or your parents have excessive debt.
You have sibling(s) enrolled in a private secondary school that is not documented as necessary by an education professional.
Your parent(s) is/are enrolled in college.
So, I had a few ideas of what I could put in my letter of appeals. 1) I have a sibling who will be going to college in 2 years. 2) My academic accomplishments/statistics put me in the top bracket of their student body. 3) A letter of commendation from a guidance counselor and/or teacher. It’s a shame that they won’t consider merit offers from other schools because a different institution has offered me a full ride.
You already said you received their highest merit scholarship so asking for more merit doesn’t seem to make sense. How far from your EFC is what they are asking you to pay on the needs based side?
Run the Net Price Calculator at that institution’s website. How close does your aid package come to the results of the NPC? If your package is significantly less than the NPC results, you may have a need-based argument. If not, you don’t.
What is your income level and budget? Does the school promise to meet full need? (Look up the school on Big Future and click on “paying” then “financial aid by the numbers.” You can also look at collegedata.com under the “money matters” tab.
You haven’t listed anything promising so far
money is not awarded for siblings not yet in college, though you can ask how your award might change when your sibling starts school
they already know your stats and where you rank in their application pool
unless your counselor or teacher is familiar with your family finances, they are not the person to document your financial need
The types of issues that commonly work for financial aid appeals are unexpected and expensive circumstances
parent loss of job since filing FAFSA
medical expenses
you were affected by a disaster like hurricane or wildfire
If you don’t have something like that, you will probably not get more need-based aid.
If you want to try for more merit, wait until April and ask. Sometimes if the yield is lower than expected, they will try to offer a little more money.
You are lucky to have a full ride offer! You may be going there so visit and make connections with advisors and faculty if you can!
If your dad is the custodial parent, then you may be able to get a small Pell grant (you must also make sure that you add in any child support that your dad receives from your mom). and you will get your $5500 loan
However, Emerson uses the CSS profile and the non-custodial profile.
The income in your mom’s household is $170k. The income in your Dad’s household is 45k.
If you used the income of your mom and step dad (you must also include any child support your dad pays), we have no way of knowing how Emerson is going to look at your household. Your EFC from your mom is going to be higher because they do look at the fact that your stepdad is contributing (or should be contributing to the household expenses, freeing up $$ for your mom to help pay for college).
While your stepdad may say that he is not paying for college (and he would not be the first one to say that) as you know Emerson is not going to increase your need based aid.
You have their largest merit scholarship they offer, so they will not give you any additional merit. If they did, then they open themselves to having to give merit to every student who has higher stats or worte a better essay than you (Not going to happen).
How much is your family willing to pay/borrow for Emerson? If they are not going to pay, be grateful that you have a full ride to fall back on. Take advantage of it.
According to Big Future the typical financial aid package meets 62% of need – they just aren’t all that generous. ProPublica ranks them 317 out of 383 for meeting need for low income students. If most students aren’t getting need met, your chances of a successful appeal aren’t great.
Are you nuts? Someone’s offering a full ride scholarship Seriously, there’s no such thing as a dream school. Dreams are something that can be converted into tangible accomplishments later. A college is merely a tool to achieve dreams, it’s not the dream itself. It’s just one of thousands of places offering a bachelors degree. The best school for you is the one that loves you back.
I think you have to proceed as if you’ll get no additional money. The reasons they WON’T accept for reconsideration are pretty strict and they’ll only consider things like death or unemployment of a parents, new medical issues.
Now you have to decide if you want to pay the difference, through work or loans.
Thanks everyone for your advice. @sybbie719 & @AroundHere I’m still going to try to appeal for more merit aid from Emerson–I’ve got nothing to lose at this point. My parents and I definitely can’t pay $33k even with loans.
And the reason I hesitate to take up the full ride is because the school has very little else to offer. Terrible reputation, extremely small, and basically the opposite of what I’m looking for in a college (I applied to it because my parents asked me to). But of course I’ll still consider it.
Seriously, there’s no such thing as a dream school. Dreams are something that can be converted into tangible accomplishments later. A college is merely a tool to achieve dreams, it’s not the dream itself. It’s just one of thousands of places offering a bachelors degree. The best school for you is the one that loves you back.