I’m a freelance writer working on an article for a national publication about frontloading of financial aid, and I have permission from College Confidential to post on this forum.
I’d like to interview parents whose children received generous grants their freshman year and then watched their grant aid plummet in their sophomore or junior years. I’d like to hear what happened and how families coped with the drop in grant aid. Did your child have to switch schools or drop out of college? Is he or she now saddled with more debt than expected? Please respond to this post and I’ll contact you with more details about the story.
Thanks so much.
Just confirming that this reporter has been vetted and approved to post this thread.
Sorry. We had consistent aid all four years. I realize that does not fit your apparent thesis, but it is a fact.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1821354-no-financial-aid-no-sense.html#latest
This doesn’t fit your facts either but is similar.
The poor girl applied last cycle to MSU as a high school senior, was accepted, received an affordable aid package, but then was told by MSU to wait until Spring 2016 to start her freshman year, THEN was told that the MSU need-based grants had run out for Spring semester and the grants were switched out for Parent Plus and Student loans!
I also am not going to be of any direct help as we were lucky enough not to have to apply for need-based FA. But I have observed that at some private schools, at least, the amount of the grant portion of the need-based package is dependent on how well the student does in their freshman year. I have seen grant packages improve when a student does very well their first year. I hope you include that in your article if you find some evidence for it.