<p>Does anybody have any stories about appealing Rice's financial aid award? Rice's EFC for my family is slightly less than 1.5x my FAFSA EFC, and I'm tempted to ask for a financial aid file review. I have a substantially better offer from a peer school (WashU), however, my family doesn't really have any special circumstances-- Rice's formula just expects more. Any advice?</p>
<p>The same thing happened with Rice and Emory for me. I think I’m going to call them this week and show them that Emory and FAFSA calculated a reasonable EFC and Rice may have overestimated how much my parents can afford. I’d recommend doing the same</p>
<p>My son was accepted to Rice and our EFC seemed high. I called the FA office and we went over the offer on the phone. It turned out that they split our FAFSA EFC 60-40 between our son and our daughter. I explained to them that we really do spend 50% of our EFC on our daughter. They had me send them a quick e-mail listing what we spend for tuition. In the e-mail I listed what we pay for tuition and fees and what the California University’s expected cost for the year was. They contacted me a few days later offering our son an additional $4,000 grant. It’s definitely worth the extra effort to make the call.</p>
<p>Same deal. Vanderbilt’s EFC was substantially better than Rice’s, but I don’t want to go to Vandy. I want to go to Rice. However If Rice’s EFC cannot change my parents will not pay for Rice over Vandy.</p>
<p>Any advice in a similar manner regarding asking Rice to match a merit scholarship at a peer school?</p>
<p>@livn, as I’ve heard asking to match merit aid is a no-go.</p>
<p>As for the rest of y’all, did you have any luck? I’m planning on calling tomorrow because Vandy and Emory both gave me significantly more financial aid.</p>
<p>sorry to do this, but I really need to bump this up! any success stories?</p>
<p>I’m not sure if it’s worth visiting if there’s no way a complicated appeal would work out. unless I maybe graduate in 3 years?</p>
<p>Providing the documentation and asking for a reconsideration of FA is reasonable with peer schools, but be prepared to have specifics about your circumstances to support your appeal. Good luck!</p>
<p>Could you go with what you mean about specific circumstances to support your appeal? Is it enough to say, hey that EFC is wayyy higher than another school I got into (specifically Bowdoin).</p>
<p>Additionally, is it legit to say “There’s no way that travel will only cost $600. Therefore, can you give me more money.” The money’s not horrible at Rice but it’s better at several comparable schools I got into.</p>
<p>Rice was very generous with the financial aid they gave my daughter, but I too thought 600 for travel was way too low. She is going back and forth from Cleveland to Houston- moving her down there in August cost more than that! I sent a friendly letter to Financial Aid just to find out if that could be reviewed and they said that it was the same amount for everyone and they wouldn’t change it. My son goes to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and he got a lot more for travel in his budget and we are no where near as far. Oh well- still very thankful for what Rice did give her!</p>