<p>Hi,</p>
<p>As the thread title said, I want to ask whether it is a good idea to lay all your cards down on the table and tell the school that basically this is what we can really afford? The letter will be nicely written and won't sound like a bargaining, and I have read all the posts about how to write an appeal letter, but what's left is this only question.</p>
<p>I only need 4200 more to afford the school of my dream, and I'm willing to put in extra hours for work-study program (currently they only give me 900 for work-study, whereas I feel I can handle more than that)</p>
<p>I don’t know if there’s a right or a wrong but I think I would go ahead and include it. You only need a bit more to make this happen. I don’t $5100 is a realistic work-study award, however. I don’t know that you’ll find enough work on campus for that. But perhaps they could give you additional work-study and the rest of the money some other way-- a loan, an extra $1,000 grant-- and the $ could come together. Good luck!</p>
<p>I agree. You can certainly ask. I doubt they will award that much work study. The jobs are for freshman will most likely be minimum wage so I don’t think you could get to that number totally with work/study even if they give it to you but a good summer job and alittle more work/study might get you there. Also I would not specifically ask for work/study I would simply state the facts, tell them how much you could earn from a summer job and ask if there is anyway to close the gap. If you don’t get an extra $5000 do you have a B plan for covering this gap each year and are you confident that your aid will stay the same all 4 years?</p>
<p>Hi,</p>
<p>We could finance the remaining 4.2k, but that means we will have to default on our mortgage and pay punitive interest. I don’t think they will award 5k in work study either, but 900 is really low as compared to other schools work study (almost all of them give me 2k for work study), so what I have in mind is to ask them specifically to increase the work-study to 2k, and see what they can suggest for the remaining 3.1k. I would be happy taking out a loan (all the aid they gave me has been grant, not loan), but do you think I should specifically mention that, or does it reveal my position too much?</p>
<p>Oh, they specifically mentioned in the aid award that the family contribution will remain the same, whether or not tuition and other cost will increase - they will increase the aid award to match that.</p>
<p>Anyone who fills out a fafsa is entitled to $5500 in loans but I think you’re an international student, right? If so, that’s not an option. I don’t know what loan options are available to international students. Is there any chance you could work until the schoolyear begins to come up with the $?</p>
<p>What exactly is the COA breakdown for your school?</p>
<p>What exactly was in your aid package?</p>
<p>How much can you earn/save during the summer?</p>
<p>How much will your parents contribute each year?</p>
<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I just want to update: After I checked my school’s portal today, I realized they had increased my FA without emailing me. They have closed the gap by $1800, and I think we can stretch ourselves to cover that remaining $2400.</p>
<p>After reading some of the posts here I realized that I am extremely fortunate to be able to go to a good school with a good FA package, and thus I had planned to commit to the school without waiting for the increase in FA. This really comes as a surprise to me, and I am really thankful for that.</p>