<p>I received the fin package yesterday, although I like smith, but she didn't offer me enough grand, about $15k short, I got a free ride in a local university, what should I do?</p>
<p>Depends on your alternatives… Is the local university one you’ll be happy at? Congrtas on the free ride… it is a real gift at any institution.</p>
<p>It depends. Everyone’s financial aid package is going to contain some loans and usually some family contribution, so even in the best situation you wouldn’t get a package that is completely grants. </p>
<p>If you think that your aid was calculated unfairly, you can get in touch with financial services and try to make the case that you deserve more aid based on certain factors. For example, if one of your parents is retiring or going to be making significantly less money next year than they did on their last tax return, or if you have siblings that require a lot of support, or some other factor you don’t think they considered. If you got a better deal from a university similar to Smith, you might try to leverage that for a better deal. </p>
<p>or You might want to consider if you can study what you want to study and do what you want to do and be happy at your local university. Having a free ride is nothing to sneeze at and then maybe you could save money and try for transfer admissions later if you still want to go to Smith.</p>
<p>Can you actually leverage FAs between schools? I would have thought they’d be all “if you are unhappy with our offer, you’re more than welcome to attend another institution…”.</p>
<p>It kind of depends on how badly they want you… I don’t think that Smith does a lot of negotiating, but if you were to go to them and say upfront, “I would really like to attend, but my family really cannot afford this,” then you <em>might</em> be able to get a bit more. However, if you were to not get anything but enroll anyway, this could be seen as dishonest. Your best bet is to draw extenuating circumstances to their attention.</p>
<p>Officially Smith gives it’s best offer in your fin aid package, so it’s not like they’re holding out on you. Still, if your aid is significantly better at one of Smith’s peer institutions, there may be a reason for that which Smith didn’t consider, so you can try to point that out. Of course, you’re right, they may very well say “you’re welcome to attend the other institution,” but if there is some circumstance they overlooked that another school considered, it may be worth pointing out. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t do try to leverage though unless you’re really in a tight spot.</p>
<p>So if I was admitted to MHC with slightly better aid, would it be worth it to call Smith’s FA office and try to use it as leverage? The package only differs by a few thousand, and I know that may not seem that much, but it means graduating with $10,000 + interest more in loans, which would suck…</p>
<p>I received a likely from Wellesley, will compare the fin aid from both and decide where to go. I heard Wellesley is more generous than Smith, hope it is true. My local university is very good, but I will give up the free ride simply becasue I want to go somewhere else live in a dorm other than 10 min from home.</p>
<p>Good luck Joa…another option might be to start at your local uni and transfer after a year or two…</p>
<p>aj- It’s up to you, but Smith says that their financial aid offers are usually with $1000 of peer institutions, so it might not make a difference.</p>
<p>Congratulations! I am so happy for you ! </p>
<p>All Smith offered me was a $5000 loan at a 6% interest rate. Even though they are trying to hide it I can tell my parents are freaked out at the idea of trying to pay $50,000 each year. My Dad is an engineer, and my Mom is a pre-school teacher, so we aren’t rolling in money & now I am feeling guilty that they are thinking about stopping their retirement savings.</p>
<p>We were banking on the published statistic that the average financial aid package is $23,000 and were stunned to receive nothing. I just re-read that statistic and it is $23000, but only for students that receive financial aid. It is difficult to believe the Smith web page that says the average indebtedness for the 2008 graduates is only $20,000 – maybe that statistic is only for students that receive financial aid, too…</p>
<p>Smith was my number one choice – I hope I can join you!</p>
<p>Ditto; my mother’s a self-employed single parent and our package was ridiculously high. I’m freaking out about it. :|</p>
<p>Thanks, S&P. I’ll definitely email the office just to feel them out and follow up if it sounds like they’d increase the package.</p>
<p>My DD and I were likewise surprised at the low financial aid offer from Smith. We’ll of course compare it to the Wellesley offer when it comes.</p>
<p>Daughter was accepted.</p>
<p>My wife and i are both engineers.</p>
<p>Smith offered zero financial aid.</p>
<p>There’s no way, no way at all, that we can pay the full freight for Smith.</p>
<p>I have to wonder; 1) what are they thinking?, and 2) Is something else going on here?</p>
<p>I mean, I don’t want to sound like a conspiracy theorist or anything, but <em>every</em> other school that accepted my daughter offered on the order of $10K of merit aid plus loans. One school offered $24K per year of merit aid. (No, it’s not it’s not an academically elite school like Smith is, but for us anyway it sure is financially elite. There are two sides to the coin.)</p>
<p>I want to stress this: I don’t want to say bad things about Smith. It’s a great school. My daughter applied there with my full support and encouragement. I was thrilled to learn that she was accepted. But this raises questions…</p>
<p>Is Smith having financial difficulties? Are they banking too much on name recognition? Are they using financial aid as another step in the weeding out process of applicants (not maliciously, but by way of allowing a certain amount of self-selection)?</p>
<p>I’m so glad you guys published this post. I called Smith yesterday and talked to them about this and, after awhile (didn’t want to be obnoxious) mentioned what BMC and NYU had offered. BMC met our goal through grants, work study and a small loan to realize what we stated on FAFSA that we could pay. While we’re by no means poor, we do have another kid coming down the line and unless you’re Donald Trump, $50K a year is a huge burden. I really, really appreciate BMC for this. They’ve extended themselves and earned our loyalty.</p>
<p>ON THE OTHER HAND…Smith gave us nothing. According to the financial aid office, only 5% of students receive merit aid. </p>
<p>NYU gave us a sizeable grant, too, and the “opportunity” to take out bazillions in loans. The problem there is NYU’s tuition is $58k!!! So, no way…</p>
<p>Which brings us back to Smith. I talked to financial aid and called admissions. I was sent to voice mail and they haven’t returned my call. This leads me to believe that they’re not interested in talking about it. The door is closed. No financial aid.</p>
<p>There’s a story in the New York Times yesterday about schools being forced to accept more students who can pay full boat. While I’m sure the good people of Smith admissions would love to meet everyone’s financial needs by offering out merit aid and ditto for the financial aid office, my experience tells me the college is simply not in a position to do that at this time due to the current economy.</p>
<p>If anyone has a different experience, I’d love to hear it.</p>
<p>The economy really has very little to do with the merit aid situation. Smith has never made a secret out of the fact that it’s merit aid is extremely, extremely limited. They give out around 50 STRIDE scholarships each year, that’s 50 out of a class of 600 or more students. After that there are two other merit scholarships. So you’re chances going into it are very slim. </p>
<p>Even with the crisis, Smith is doing everything it can to protect student aid, so much so that aid cuts aren’t even on the table. Still, I’m surprised that Smith didn’t offer you any aid at all (or was it that they didn’t offer any merit aid?). Usually Smith offers are within $1000 of peer institutions, and Smith is sticking to its policy of meeting 100% of student need. Of course, the trick with that is that it’s 100% of student need as Smith calculates it, based on the FAFSA, PROFILE, and their institutional formula. And as you’ve discovered, Smith’s calculations are not always the same as family’s calculations. </p>
<p>Calling admissions probably won’t bear fruit as they’re not responsible or in control of the aid situation. The place to call about that is just Student Financial Services, and if they aren’t willing to budge, you might be stuck. </p>
<p>Of course, as your second child enters college, and your aid is re-evaluated each year, you may end up getting a better deal down the line.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info!</p>
<p>Contrary to most of the people here I have had a very good experience with my financial aid package. </p>
<p>I’m an international student and my financial situation is very complicated due to a variety of factors. I sent Smith quite a long detailed letter explaining all my circumstances and after that I was contacted twice by the SFS to clarify various points and when I recieved my aid package it really was amazing and will definitely let me attend Smith College.</p>
<p>You know, sometimes the SFS office misses things–my mother called to ask some questions about our aid package and they somehow found an extra $1,600 in grants that weren’t in the aid letter. Boy, were we pleased!</p>