<p>It's of vital importance to contact the financial aid offices of the schools to which you apply as your family has special circumstance before you receive your financial aid package - if you don't they will accept what is on the FAFSA and the majority of funds may have been allocated by the time you appeal. Financial aid offices want to hear from you - appeals take time and effort. So, look up their contact information and e-mail or call them about how to disclose your family's special circumstances.</p>
<p>There's a right way and a wrong way to negotiate for more aid. Marching into a financial aid office brandishing competing aid packages is the wrong way--unless the office is at Carnegie Mellon University, which encourages students to fax in offers from other schools.</p>
<p>Explaining how the FAFSA didn't capture your family's special circumstances, on the other hand, might get you some results. In fact, it has a name--professional judgment review--and is even encouraged by financial aid officers. "People expect the financial aid office to intuit their circumstances strictly from the numbers," says Joe Paul Case, financial aid director at Amherst College. "You need to provide a narrative. We translate that narrative into dollars." They'll want to know about unusually high medical expenses, for example, or a family income that varies significantly from year to year. The FAFSA does not provide space for such detail, so aid officers suggest that families contact them with any extra information that may be relevant, including documents whenever possible. Roughly half of these appeals garner families more aid.</p>