Not enough financial aid from Loyola Chicago

I didn’t receive as much aid as I expected from Loyola Chicago. Would it be reasonable to speak to the financial aid office about my FAFSA/need?? I know they don’t give much money to begin with.

It cannot hurt to ask, but it probably won’t help much if you’re looking for more than another $1K-$3K. Start thinking of schools #2 and #3 immediately.

The FAFSA EFC is primarily used to determine if you’re eligible for a Pell Grant. To get an estimate of what a particular college might cost use the Net Price Calculator on their financial aid page.

Unfortunately, if the gap between what your family can pay without borrowing and your net cost at Loyola is more than a couple of thousand dollars then it’s probably unaffordable. Do you have any financial safeties on your list?

Although LUC is a private school that only uses FAFSA to determine need, they do not meet full need, and they tend to leave large gaps which they suggest be filled by parent plus loans. Don’t take out any loans above and beyond the $27K undergrad total in Federal Direct Student loans.

As noted above, if the difference between your EFC and their offer is more than a few thousand dollars, I would not expect that to be closed, but you can certainly ask. Do you have any better offers from LUC peer schools? If so, you can show them that when asking for more $. Only ask for more $ if you would likely attend there if they give you the $.

Do you have any affordable schools that you have been accepted to yet? An affordable safety you are still waiting to hear from?

Good luck.

Do you qualify to apply for Loyola’s Ignatian scholarships? They cover full tuition.

EconPop,
Great, I was thinking of contacting the financial aid office. Not completely sure if I am attending but if they do happen to add money I most likely will.

austinmshauri,
That’s what my family and I have been thinking, we do not want to depend on loans. My top financial safeties are in state, which I will attend one if I do not receive any more aid from Loyola.

Mwfan1921,
I have received greater aid offers from schools. I was accepted into 2 in-state public universities- UofA and NAU, and the only out-of-state schools other than Loyola I applied to are private Catholic universities such as Saint John’s University, Salve Regina University, and Saint Louis University- I have been accepted to all. I received much more merit-based aid from all of the other 3 Catholic universities, not including the pending need-based aid, which I don’t anticipate as being too large of an amount. I will definitely provide the offers from those schools- I’m still stuck on Loyola as my #1 so hopefully that could add a small amount of aid. Thank you so much for your input!

Coun2316,
Unfortunately, I did not. I received the Dean’s Scholarship from them.

I would share SLU’s aid offer with LUC…that is probably the only one of your schools they would consider as a peer (maybe Saint John’s too).

When you take total COA and subtract the institutional aid offer, how do the private schools compare in net costs?

It’s great that you have two affordable in-state options…congrats and good luck!

How much did LUC offer? How much more did you need?

How much will your family pay per year?

I was offered $21,500. We want to try to cap total cost at $30k

So that gets you to a net of around $35K…tuition, room, board, fees, books, etc.?

What is SLU’s net cost?

it would be helpful if folks posted their results of FA appeal, both positive and negative.

I just received my financial aid package from SLU and with merit + need-based aid the total would be about $27k for tuition, room + board, and fees