Need HELP With Northwestern Financial Aid / Student Affairs Issue!!

Parents Forum
1

<p>Hi-</p>

<p>So this is a bit strange, but if anybody has any advice it would be much appreciated! </p>

<p>My sister is deposited and enrolled at NU, but in the past two weeks, extreme circumstances have made it so that unless she receives a significant scholarship from NU, she will no longer be able to attend. She has been calling the financial aid department to see what they can do, but her FAFSA was randomly selected for a check, so she can't receive any exact answers until she presents my parents official IRS papers. My parents weren't planning on filing until late September, so they will not have things ready until basically the start of school. My question is, does anyone have contact information that I can use to get in touch with someone specific my sister can talk to? Right now she's just calling the financial aid office and speaking to a different person every day, so there's not much point in that. I'm thinking the Admissions Dean would be the best bet, but I may be wrong. I am just trying to get in contact with one person that I can explain the situation to, who would then have all the information once my sister's paperwork comes through to then make a decision. Even if it's a case of my sister entering a semester or a year later, a scholarship is one of the only ways this can happen, so I would like to help her as much as I can. </p>

<p>If this helps in any way, my sister is First-Generation African-American, her GPA was above average for NU, test scores a little below, and very active in sports and extra curricular, including being team captains and presidents of clubs, as well as participating in military leadership programs and TONS of community service. She was REALLY looking forward to starting at Northwestern (of course!) and I would like to do anything and everything in my power to make sure that stays a possibility for her. </p>

<p>Any advice, tips, or contact information is super appreciated, through this board or private messaging!</p>

<p>Thanks so much!</p>

2

<p><a href=“Financial Aid, Undergraduate: Department/Office Directory - Northwestern University”>http://offices.northwestern.edu/detail/195&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>I assume you’ve googled the main page for the finaid office – here are some more specific contact info details. Good luck to you!</p>

3

<p>Northwestern uses the Profile for calculation of institutional need based aid. So, your FAFSA info is only going to be used for federally funded need based aid calculation.</p>

<p>If your sister was selected for verification, your parents should have sent the necessary information IMMEDIATELY. Waiting until September means that she will likely not get any FEDERAL aid disbursed to her in time to start the term. </p>

<p>Having said that…it sounds like your parents are self employed if they are not dealing with 2013 IRS taxes until September. Is that correct? Conventional wisdom is that even the self employed need to get their taxes done WAYYYYY earlier than usual the year they have college freshman kids.</p>

<p>Northwestern University gives mostly need based aid…aid based on parent income and assets. </p>

<p>The admissions dean does not handle financial aid issues. Financial aid is handled by the financial aid office. Your sister should have a financial aid advisor within that office with whom she can speak. But what exactly is she asking? Has your financial situation changed since she filed her FAFSA and Profile? Or are you just now realizing that NU is not affordable without additional aid.</p>

<p>But remember…even any federal aid…including the Direct Loan, will NOT be disbursed until that verification information is sent.</p>

<p>One other piece of information…for the self employed, very very often business deductions allowed by the IRS are NOT allowed in the school financial aid calculations, and are added back as income.</p>

<p>The only thing that the admissions dean might be able to help with…perhaps your sister can defer her admission for a year…and THEN your parents could plan to submit their 2014 taxes VERY early in 2015 so that any verification questions will be fulfilled in a much more timely fashion than a September filing would allow.</p>

4

<p>Thank you all for the help! My parents actually didn’t even tell me what was going on as I’m starting law school and they didn’t want to stress me I guess, but my little sister let it slip. But the extreme circumstances is a change in financial situation. My sister said she filed the FAFSA in March, but it was marked in about April. My parents are self employed, Basically, I’m hoping to reach someone at Northwestern and see what could be done about deferring even a semester, because I do know that we are very quickly running out of time.</p>

<p>I’m still a bit confused, but are you saying that I should call the financial aid office (like Caralyn Lindly, Director of Financial Aid, should I call her?), tell her the problem, and then ask for whatever help she can give me in coming to a solution? I don’t believe my sister has a specific financial aid advisor, that is exactly who I’m trying to reach and talk to. I don’t think this issue will be resolved in time for the first semester (or trimester?), should I ask her what to do about my sister starting maybe a semester later? I think this is the first time FAFSA has asked my parents to file by a certain time, as it didn’t happen with me or my older sister, so they might be a bit confused as well.</p>

<p>If my parents don’t file until the end of the month (which is what my sister says it sounds like is the earliest they can do it, and they do own a business), is there anything I can ask that will tell me what to do regarding a late start? I mean, obviously there won’t be a lot of aid left at this date, but without anything, I don’t think my sister will be able to attend, and it’s too late to even enter one of our state schools, and I feel terrible for her. Thanks everyone for the help (on both boards I asked this) and any further advice is much appreciated!</p>

5

<p>Your SISTER or your parents need to discuss this matter directly with the NU financial aid office. You are not the guardian or the student. I know you are trying to help. But really, what are they doing??</p>

<p>Deferring a semester is not a good idea, in my opinion. The course sequences will be “off”. I would suggest your sister contact the admissions folks and see if she can defer her admission for the year.</p>

<p>BUT this isn’t going to do a speck of good unless NEXT year, your parents can get their financial house in order in time to file their taxes as early as possible after February 1 2015. If they plan to file NEXT fall, your sister will be in exactly the same boat.</p>

<p>Did your sister make a matriculation decision without a finalized financial aid package on May 1? If so, how did the family intend to lay her college bills?</p>

6

<p>They have closed the thread in the NU forum, and I don’t post often enough to know how to “quote” what I said over there, so this may sound a bit out of context. </p>

<p>ETA: As Thumper said, parents and student are the ones who should be calling. Brother is wonderful to help by doing some research.</p>

<p>No, don’t call the Admissions Office, yet. Deal with the Undergraduate Financial Aid Office first. The name you were given is the Director of Financial Aid. She could certainly help, if you can reach her. But, any of the Associate or Assistant Directors (there are about 10 of them) should be able to address this problem and answer questions. As I mentioned in the other post, NU does not assign each student a specific Financial Aid Officer like some schools do. Just make sure your sister gets past the person who answers the phone. In my experience, those may be students or office employees who are not knowledgeable about special problems and can’t change things.</p>

<p>I think the first question that needs to be asked is “Will the student get any financial aid in time for Fall quarter if the tax returns are not submitted until mid-September?” For Federal Aid, it may be held up until the FAFSA is verified. I don’t know if NU will release the institutional scholarship if the federal form is not verified. The institutional scholarship is need-based, and they also want the tax forms to internally verify the CSS Profile info. They would be able to answer these questions. </p>

<p>Does she have a preliminary financial aid award letter? If so, and that aid is not enough after the change in financial circumstances you mentioned, then she also needs to find out about the appeals process, and how long it would take to get an adjustment to the financial aid package. They will probably tell her that it takes a couple of weeks after ALL the requested documentation is submitted, which is what’s on the form. Maybe they can speed that up since it’s so close to start of school.</p>

<p>Then, depending on those answers, she may have to ask “What happens if we can’t pay the bill that’s due Sept. 1?” (And, they may send her to the Office of Student Accounts to get that answered.)</p>

<p>If the answers from Financial Aid tell her that there’s no way to start in September, then she would contact Admissions about the possibility of deferring a year.</p>

<p>By the way, if you go to the northwestern.edu homepage, then Financial Aid is under the “Admissions” tab. Be sure to select “Undergraduate Financial Aid”.</p>

<p>Good luck…this is a difficult time to face this problem when a student is already excited and looking forward to Wildcat Welcome Week.</p>

7

<p>My parents and sister have been trying to deal with this, but as this did not happen when my older sister and I went to school, they are just as lost as i am. And my sister is only 17, and did not realize that continuously calling the fin aid office without speaking to someone in charge wasn’t doing her any good. </p>

<p>My sister did deposit without the financial aid package (i think), but it wasn’t until last week that FAFSA informed us that without one more form (we provided them 3 out of 4), we would not receive a financial aid decision.</p>

<p>" “What happens if we can’t pay the bill that’s due Sept. 1?” (And, they may send her to the Office of Student Accounts to get that answered.)" <-- this is the outcome I’m pretty sure we’re going to be facing, so I will definitely look into the Office of Student Accounts. </p>

<p>I’m not too sure what would happen in regards to next year, as I haven’t had a chance to talk with my mother, but I’m pretty sure they would be able to file very early. And I also realize that deferring a semester might not be the best option, I’m just trying to see what way, if any, that my sister will be able to start at NU this year. It has been her top choice for 2 years, and I am trying to do anything to help!</p>

<p>Thank you guys again for all your help, I really appreciate all your well put advice!</p>

<p>(also I’m a sister too[: )</p>

8

<p>Sorry about that jobrien; I posted without thinking. You’re a helpful sister.</p>

<p>What you said about “FAFSA informed us that without one more form (we provided them 3 out of 4), we would not receive a financial aid decision.” sounds different from what I’ve experienced. Usually, it is the school that requests verification documents. </p>

<p>At NU, those requests might show up in CAESAR (the on-line system) in the “To Do” list or be e-mailed to the students’ NU e-mail address. Your sister should be monitoring CAESAR and her e-mail regularly. She should also set up guest access to CAESAR for her parents. They will be able to see the Financial Aid “To Do” List, also. As a parent, I monitor that To Do list regularly, especially during Financial Aid application season each spring. (I have a very responsible child, but there is a lot of money at stake.) CAESAR is also where they will pay the bill each term.</p>

<p>The tax returns were supposed to be submitted via IDOCS back in March. That requirement is on the Financial Aid website. The other verification forms are in the “Forms” tab on the Financial Aid Website. If there are questions about those, a Financial Aid associate/assistant director should be able to answer those. (Again, not the phone answering person.)</p>

<p>She will probably still need to submit some of the appeal forms to get her new financial circumstances considered in the financial aid award. PROFILE, FAFSA and the tax returns look at last year’s finances, not the new problems. Check the website for requirements and ask the financial aid person what to do if she won’t have all the information available yet.</p>

<p>Just a word off-topic: NU students have a LOT to do during the summer before school starts. There are placement tests, things to read, things to submit…all sorts of stuff. It’s all in the Purple Prep Book they got via mail, and on the New Student Programs website. You might remind her. Many of the deadlines are August 1. (Unless she’s in engineering, in which case many were in early July.)</p>

9

<p>OP- you will need to have a difficult discussion with your parents about “change in circumstances”. NU will need documentation (they will be very nice about it, but they need documentation). So if your parents are paying for an elderly relative’s in-home nursing care- it’s not too early to gather those cancelled checks and invoices. If they are being sued and there’s a lien on a piece of property which they were in the process of selling to finance your sister’s education- gather the documentation NOW so you don’t have a long delay in packaging that information. And then your parents need to write a letter summarizing what the problem is.</p>

<p>In my experience (watching friends and family go through this) the colleges try to be as responsive as they can within reason and within their own guidelines. So what works is a short, direct letter which explains the change in financial status, with accompanying documentation. What doesn’t work (or doesn’t work so well, or so quickly) is a litany of reasons why someone thought they could pay their EFC but now they can’t, which is long on emotion and short on documented facts. I’ve seen letters which basically say, “We’ve reviewed our finances and realize that 15K or 20K or 5K (whatever the number is) is just too much for us to be paying right now.” Document, document. And if your parents have had to delay their tax filings, all the more reason to get a jump on the change of circumstances application.</p>

<p>You’re a good sister to take this on- best of luck in law school!</p>

10

<p>I’m very sorry about the situation. My sister attended NU, albeit a few years ago. Coincidentally, before she applied, my parents had also wanted to discuss financial. Nothing dire, but I think she had gotten absolutely no FA and my parents would have liked to have a bit. As it turned out, my father was able to get in contact with someone in the office and arrange a meeting at there. It was a 5 hour drive each way, but he was willing to do it and had the time. If you could get in contact with someone, would you be able to schedule such a meeting? Are you located near Evanston? In our experience, it was far more effective to talk to someone in person. Things were decided then and there, whereas we had made very little progress via phone and email.</p>

<p>To even get to the stage where you can have a discussion with NU, your parents will of course need full financial documentation of their hardship/change in status. This will probably mean that any forms they were planning on delaying until September will need to be filled out as soon as possible.</p>

11

<p>Regarding the above post…the parents need to get their 2013 TAXES done. </p>

<p>Having said that, they are not the first or last self employed family who applies for an extension until October. Perhaps,the school will work with them. Maybe not.</p>

<p>However, if they want to document a change in circumstances, they FIRST need to document the original circumstances.</p>

12

<p>I fail to see what your race has to do with this.</p>

<p>Note from moderator - I deleted the remainder of this post as it made accusations that were unsupportable. Hence the beginning of the post from @thumper1 and the end of the post from @Mom2TX both reference something no longer here. FC</p>

13

<p>Tennis…what are you talking about? The family is NOT going to be given a financial aid disbursement AT ALL until they can document their earnings to NU. The issue here is these self employed parents did NOT yet file their taxes for 2013 AND now they have a “change” in financial situation. Where do you see a suggestion of fraud? </p>

<p>NU can’t really consider a change until they have documentation of the original income for 2013.</p>

<p>One thing this family needs to remember…some deductions allowed by the IRS for business owners are NOT allowed for financial aid calculation purposes, and are added back as income.</p>

<p>What is troubling to me about the WHOLE thread…this student accepted a matriculation offer from NU without a firm financial aid award. In my opinion, one should NEVER accept an admissions offer without KNOWING what their financial costs as a family are. This didn’t happen here. </p>

<p>And this is the THIRD student in the family to go to college. What happened with the other two? Did they get full merit awards? Was the family able to pay full costs without aid? </p>

<p>There is a missing piece to this story.</p>

14

<p>Tennis…I see that was your first post. Welcome to CC, it’s a great place to learn about college admissions and financial aid, and to share that knowledge.</p>

<p>All the OP did was list her sister’s academic and EC stats and her status as URM and first-generation college student. People do that ALL the time here on CC, because those things can be factors in both admissions and scholarship decisions.</p>

<p>For this admitted student’s financial aid at NU, they aren’t really relevant now. NU financial aid is based on financial data. (The exceptions are National Merit Scholarships, athletic scholarships and music performance scholarships, none of which seem to apply here.) But, the OP is an interested sister and may not have known that detail about NU.</p>

<p>I don’t see any suggestion of fraud or bragging in these posts. This family is apparently dealing with a very different financial aid situation for child #3 vs. the first two, and has the complication of being self-employed / business owners. The OP is just trying to help them work things out so her sister can attend college.</p>

15

<p>@thumper1 - I think @Mom2TX probably is correct. For the first two apparently the family finances were more “normal”, steadier or whatever. At least that is what I inferred. Whatever that situation was, you and the others have given strong guidance to help her deal with the situation they have now, whatever the details. Maybe some innocent mistakes were made, like not having the FA package nailed down before accepting the offer, but then perhaps at that point they didn’t think they really needed it all that much. Things can change quickly, as a lot of us know all too well. It will be interesting to see how this all turns out.</p>

16

<p>You’re asking all of the right questions, thumper.</p>

<p>@MOM2T As our family has experienced this year, the financial aid scrutiny is more thorough in 2014 than it was even just a couple of years ago. We welcome and encourage the new intensity. </p>

<p>From everything the OP has stated, NW provided a very large need-based award to her sister. The award was clawed back after their documents or her student account was flagged for review. The older sister would like NW to give a scholarship in place of need-based awards because the family can’t produce the requested documents? It’s just very puzzling to me.</p>

17

<p>NU doesn’t do merit scholarships except for small ones in very limited circumstances, such as being a Chicago or Evanston resident (Good neighbor award). What NU calls scholarships most schools call grants and are entirely need based. I am not sure if the OP was aware of this or not, but I will assume she was since she didn’t say “merit” scholarship and simply used the same language NU does. Given the remainder of her posts about FAFSA, which is all need based, I think this is a valid conclusion.</p>

<p>

Once again, there is zero basis for those statements. In fact, the OP said the opposite:

So you are severely misstating the facts as presented by the OP.</p>

<p>BTW, Northwestern goes by NU, not NW.</p>

18

<p>I’m sorry, what am I misstating?</p>

<p>She stated, “extreme circumstances have made it so that unless she receives a significant scholarship from NU, she will no longer be able to attend.”</p>

<p>Are you reading her posts to mean the ‘extreme circumstances’ are that the parents were previously in a stronger monetary position and could pay for a large portion of her schooling and are now not? For example, she was entering the fall anticipating the parents would pay $20k per year, but now the family is no longer in a position to pay the $20k, so she’s seeking alternate funding?</p>

<p>I read it that the school gave her a need-based estimate -or- the family was assuming they would be in position for a lofty need-based award (perhaps using the finaid calculator or possibly based on experience of older siblings). They were then flagged for review, because things are very thorough these days, and they now can’t prove eligibility for a need-based award.</p>

<p>Whatever the case may be, good luck to the family.</p>

19

<p>Tennis…I personally think you are taking a huge leap with your assumption. NO WHERE did the OP mention anything about any award from NU. And she clearly said there has been a change in circumstances. What possible difference does it make as to why? It is what it is.</p>

<p>The OP is looking for suggestions on how to get the financials resolved with NU. </p>

<p>So I will clearly reiterate my suggestions.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>The family needs to get their 2013 taxes done ASAP…or sooner! This will show NU what the original situation was…whatever that was.</p></li>
<li><p>The family needs to get any and all documentation together to show how and when the circumstances changed…and why. Some reasons will be considered (like medical expenses, job loss, etc.). Others will not (bought a more expensive home, sending support to extended family, loss of money in stock market, etc).</p></li>
</ol>

<p>The above needs to be done with the financial aid folks…ASAP. And the family needs to realize that they have missed a bunch of deadlines for institutional need based aid.</p>

<p>IF the finances can not be worked out, and it looks like this year will be more of the same…the family needs to talk to ADMISSIONS to see if the student can defer a year…and also find out the parameters for this.</p>

<p>And lastly, if this is totally unaffordable…the student might consider a gap year…and applying to schools that are more affordable.</p>

20

<p>Is it your interpretation that the change in circumstances was a drop in household income or drastic expenses somewhere, thus support towards tuition is suddenly off the table?</p>

<p>It is my interpretation that the change in circumstances was being flagged, thus no access to a need-based award, or a much smaller need-based award than they assumed.</p>