<p>Hoping this makes sense and someone can help me. I was accepted to 6 schools. School A has been my dream school for two years (also the most difficult to get help from their financial aid department). My little sister and brother both have major medical conditions and my parents incur large amounts of medical bills every year. 2007 the amount was over $13,000. My mom was required to send proof (In the form of all the bills they paid, not just a tax form, including schedule A worksheet) to school A for special financial circumstances. It changed the EFC by $600 and ALL six schools were sent a new SAR and adjusted my Pell Grant accordingly (All six of them adjusted it based on school A's calculations). School B (my second choice school) had also been sent the same information, yet they took two months to calculate everything and (finally) two weeks ago also generated a new SAR. This changed our EFC drastically (Based on the SAME info sent to School A) and our EFC dropped another $1,827. Schools B-E all adjusted their aid awards and increased my Pell Grant. School A (The school I have chosen) has stated they can not/will not adjust the PELL grant based on school B's newly generated SAR. They state that each college makes their own determination as to what they consider important and they don't have to follow the new SAR based on school B's calculations. Is this correct? I thought this was a federal document and if it was good for one shouldn't it be good for all? As stated, they refuse to increase the PELL Grant based on this new SAR. Do we have any recourse. I appreciate any help/assistance someone is able to provide. If this ISN'T correct on school A's part, do you know what our next course of action should be or who we should contact to help us?</p>
<p>I believe the consideration of special circumstances (your family's medical bills would be considered special circumstances) is at the discretion of each individual college. Perhaps others will weigh in here with their opinions.</p>
<p>Thumper is correct, as usual. No school is obligated to follow what the SAR and FAFSA results say. That is just a starting point. It's logical, because schools all have vastly different FA policies. So, it's pretty hard to tell exactly why we have to file the FAFSA and CSS Profile in the first place. I think they serve as equalizers in some way, kind of the way the SAT and ACT do. Each school has different acceptance policies, so while one set of SAT scores might be fine for one school, they would not qualify for another. I think the SAR should be interpreted similarly. </p>
<p>My advice would be to contact each school's FA office and go from there. I hope your situation improves.</p>
<p>here's the hidden message from your dream school.
"we don't want you enough to help you get here in the first place".</p>
<p>maybe you should reconsider how important this school is to you.</p>
<p>I've read your few other posts, you deserve better than that.</p>
<p>I'm dissing the school, not you.</p>
<p>Schools vary widely in how they will view medical expenses. It is at their discretion to adjust the EFC. We applied to 7 schools, and they each looked at it differently. Utlimately we went with the one that was the most helpful and took the costs into the greatest consideration since we would have them each year. Try talking with the FA counselor directly to see what can be done and especially how it will be looked at in the next 4 years. It may not be your dream school if they will not factor in a special situation. This could have a long term impact on the whole picture.</p>
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No school is obligated to follow what the SAR and FAFSA results say. That is just a starting point. It's logical, because schools all have vastly different FA policies.
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<p>Well, not exactly. Pell awards follow strict rules according to the FAFSA EFC. Once the EFC is computed, schools must follow the Pell guidelines. What School A is saying is that they aren't accepting the FAFSA changes, and thus the new EFC, made by School B, not that they aren't accepting the FAFSA results. This is basically semantic for the OP, but I did want to reiterate the difference in how Pell must be approached compared to other FA.</p>
<p>Unfortunately what the above posters say is correct. For special circumstances adjustments it is up to the school's financial aid administrators discretion whether they are willing to make an adjustment or not. and they have the final say for their school.</p>
<p>While this must be very dissapointing to you right now it is better to know now that the school is so difficult to work with for financial aid. If they are unwilling to work with you at this stage they are not likely to improve once you are actually enrolled there so you would probably face a fight every year.</p>
<p>I would like to Thank each of you for the clarification on the SAR. There is a lot of wisdom on College Discussion and I knew you would provide me with the correct information. What seems to be the right thing, rarely is.</p>