<p>Thank you mom2college for all your help, who do you suggest I try and speak to? Will a financial aid counselor do?</p>
<p>Hmmm…I don’t know how NU’s FA office works. Were you assigned a FA advisor?</p>
<p>Is your mom good with this sort of thing? If so, have her call. She should be polite but firm. she needs to get the point across that aid wasn’t calculated correctly because 2012 was different from 2013. She needs to point out that the calculation for 2012 included non-taxable income which doesn’t exist for 2013.</p>
<p>“All of my applications have already been sent in”</p>
<p>Are you sure the other schools would be affordable? What I’m suggesting is making sure you have some schools that would be. </p>
<p>If you have already spoken to a financial aid counselor, you may want to see if the head of financial aid can help you. I wouldn’t start there. I would try to get your individual financial aid counselor to reconsider but it sounds like you’re facing an uphill battle.</p>
<p>Some colleges actually “average” the family contribution using the past year. If NU does this, that additional income WILL be considered. I don’t know if they do…or don’t. </p>
<p>This student likely has a deadline for accepting the ED offer (although it sounds like she already did…OP…could you please clarify that. Did you already ACCEPT the NU offer of admission?). She needs to contact the financial aid office, and request a special circumstances review. If the deployment income was a one time thing, and will not reoccur this year, then NU MIGHT consider this. Then again, they might not. This is up to the college. Some schools will consider special circumstances and others will not. Also, it is very possible that NU expected that some of that extra $30,000 in income could be put aside for college costs. </p>
<p>Then the OP needs to call admissions and politely request an extension of the ED acceptance date until she gets an answer from financial aid.</p>
<p>But she needs to act QUICKLY…very QUICKLY.</p>
<p>thumper1- no I haven’t accepted the ED offer.
How do I know if I have an individual financial aid counselor? I was planning on contacting the woman who emailed me, unless going to the head financial aid officer is a better idea…
Am trying to act as quickly as possible!</p>
<p>I don’t know if contacting the woman who emailed you is the thing to do. That person seems rather unbending and not willing to look at the facts.</p>
<p>I don’t know how much any individual financial aid counselor would help, be able to help I mean. I can’t find anywhere that says I personally have been assigned a counselor</p>
<p>When S and I were dealing with a not-quite-good-enough financial aid offer, we dealt with his ADMISSIONS rep who spoke with the financial aid office on his behalf (and did get a better deal for him which he accepted). Have you checked in with your admissions rep? Or Questbridge, maybe?</p>
<p>In the meantime, write up using FEW BUT CLEAR words why the 2013 income numbers aren’t as strong as the 2012 income numbers.</p>
<p>Include points like:</p>
<p>Differences in gross income</p>
<p>X income dollars in 2012 weren’t subject to income taxes</p>
<p>And anything else that is different. </p>
<p>Scan in photos of docs that support your case.</p>
<p>Then, email them to the FA office and to the person that you talk to so that they can “see” what you’re talking about when you have them on the phone.</p>
<p>Thank you, both. mom2college- Good idea, I will discuss with my mom what exactly to point out
OHMomof2- the senior admissions officer of the Theatre program emailed me congratulations when I was accepted and told me if I needed any help or had any questions to contact him. He said he had reviewed my application. Would he be a good person to ask?</p>
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<p>^ yes. He can at minimum point you to the right person in the FA office if he can’t speak to them on your behalf himself. He has an interest in you attending - he did accept you ED after all - so may be a good advocate for you with FA.</p>