D applied to 10 schools. 8 acceptances have been received, 2 schools haven’t sent decisions yet. Of those 2, we expect obe acceptance with merit which is clearly outlined on the college website and not restricted to a certain number of students.
D has a very clear top preference. This school comes in at #4 of the 8 in terms of cost after merit,grants and aid. Once all decisions are in, we expect it to fall to #5.
Should we wait for the other decisions before appealing the FA at her top choice? I'd rather not as I believe closer to March, April the more families may be in the same position and asking for the same finite funds.
Top choice offered unsubsidized Federal loan and no work study. Other offers included subsidized loan and work study. Should we mention this in our appeal?
D has also requested a review of merit as ACT and GPA have increased. This could yield an additional $1k in merit
Bottom line, we need $3500 to $4000 to really make it work.
It depends. Smaller Lacs will negotiate has been our experience. If top 20 school then no go.
FYI - FA packages can change depending on your situation. Is there something that changed that can have an affect on your aid?
Remember your child can easily get a campus job VS work study. My kid did and it pays more. That alone could cover what you need.
If school x gave you more money then school y then that is helpful. They will ask you to send the offer to them for review also.
Keep in mind very few ask for help with housing costs. After the school exhausted merit aid we simply asked what about housing costs. We were given a few more thousand dollars a year. So… Never hurts to ask.
Well…you can ask. But did you have any changes in your financial situation since the applications were sent? Are you asking top choice college to review the award when compared to a peer school?
Is your kiddo prepared to immediately accept an offer of admission to top choice college if they give her the additional money?
But most important…this is need based aid. You apply annually for it. Will the school give additional money in subsequent years? Or does this college have a guarantee for the same aid (Northeastern does, for example).
You want to make sure that the school is willing to give an extra $4000 or so every year…and since you apply annually, this might not be a guarantee they will make.
You will not be able to turn an unsubsidized loan into a subsidized loan. If you got a sub from one school & an unsub from another, the sub school costs more and/or the sub school gave less aid. Sub eligibility is COA-EFC-all other awards (grants, scholarships, FWS).
Check to see if the school has part time jobs that don’t require FWS, if you are concerned about lack of a FWS award.
Are you comparing apples to apples? Make sure you are looking at tuition & fees only … don’t compare the COA, because those vary too much to get a good comparison when you include all the estimates.
Our 2017 taxes had an usually, one time income that we did not have in prior years and will not have going forward.
This is a small U, but it’s peer schools are LACs. We are specifically comparing this top choice to 2 peers. D also had some IS directional which are cheaper, but we are aware that isn’t an equal comparison.
The closest peer school offered sub and unsub. Tuition & fees was slightly more more before any merit. After merit, it is 2,000 difference. That may be the difference.
On campus jobs are difficult to get without work study at one of my older students schools. I didn’t think this school would have campus job without work study. That is a question I will have D ask.
Most colleges have a call center…and need cafeteria workers. In most colleges, these are not work study jobs. They aren’t glamorous, but they do earn money!
Are there no off campus places where a student can work? One of my kids had an awesome off campus job.
Off campus work without a car seemed difficult. We will need to investigate that in more depth since we learned there are buses that go to shopping centers.
You can negotiate the merit between colleges with Lacs. If one offered you $18,000 and another gave you $25,000,you can negotiate that to close the gap. If you need $4,000 then tell them you need $6,000 and see where you can get them to go. If you need work study then tell them to help her find a job. Lacs are so much different then larger universities. We have done it and got more money when we needed it.