<p>I'm sending a letter to ask for more money from a school. Should I email or snail mail it?</p>
<p>I’m also curious about the answer to this… I was planning on calling the financial aid office, explaining them my situation, seeing if there is anything that could be done in my situation. I don’t have anyone who could cosign a PLUS loan, so im kind of SOL D:</p>
<p>Are you looking for more aid to meet need or for to help cover family contribution? Are your stats high for the school?</p>
<p>wmurphy126 was accepted to GWU (EDI) with 30k merit. This leaves ~ 25k on the table in direct fees. My guess is that he is trying to make his EFC work and his parents are not eligible for a PLUS loan (why he needs a cosigner).</p>
<p>Wmmurphy…</p>
<p>Do you have a financial safety school? </p>
<p>You seem to have gotten a good offer from GWU, but it sounds like your family can’t pay the “family contribution” and can’t/won’t sign for a loan (which is understandable).</p>
<p>I doubt your school is going to give you more aid if the reason is just that you need help covering EFC, unless your family has huge uncovered medical bills.</p>
<p>If you applied ED1…does that mean that you’ve already indicated that you will go there and have withdrawn your other apps? Oh my! Why did you apply ED if you weren’t sure how your family would pay its share?</p>
<p>Well, our EFC is 1.5k and they are expecting us to pay about 5-7k more than the efc. So more finaid wouldn’t be to cover the family contribution, but to cover the 5-7k gap between the package they gave us and the family contribution.</p>
<p>When you say that your EFC is 1500, that is FAFSA EFC…not your “family contribution” that GWU determined it to be using CSS Profile.</p>
<p>Your FAFSA EFC is not the goal at CSS Profile schools. FAFSA is just used to determine fed aid…not THEIR aid. They’ve determined that your family can contribute more.</p>
<p>I imagine that the “family contribution” is a combo of parent and student contribution. Did they breakdown how much the student contribution is? That’s what you’re supposed to earn over the summer to pay for your personal expenses. Schools really don’t want to pay for your shampoo and deodorant.</p>
<p>Your school isn’t going to give you more money to cover your “CSS Profile determined EFC” (I know that CSS doesn’t technically use the term EFC).</p>
<p>How much are the DIRECT costs to GWU? </p>
<p>How much are you getting in free grants?</p>
<p>How much in loans?</p>
<p>How much in work-study?</p>
<p>I imagine that your Direct Costs are largely covered.</p>
<p>By direct costs do you mean tuition or tuition + room/board? Tuition is 45k and room/board is 13k. I got 30k merit, 10k need, 4k pell, 1k fed sup. That covers the tuition, which is really good now that i look at it in retrospect. 2.2k in work study, 5k in subsidized loans, 2k in unsubsidized. That totals the package to 53.8k. which is 10k shy of the COA. </p>
<p>Is there are way to find out what my CSS “efc” is? Has GWU most likely met what they assume my CSS “efc” is?</p>
<p>direct cost for GWU are:<br>
Tuition* $44,103
Student Association Fee $45
Matriculation Fee** $350
Room and Board*** $10,325</p>
<p>total 54,823</p>
<p>indirect cost are :</p>
<p>Books and Supplies $1,275
Personal**** $1,400
Transportation $1,000</p>
<p>total $3,675</p>
<p>I think an additional wrench will be health insurance, which you must purchase if the school deems the the insurance that your family currently has may be inadequate. This could be an additional few $$ dollars.</p>
<p>If your parents are not eligible for a PLUS loan, then you can borrow an additional $4000 as an unsubsidized stafford loan. Hopefully this will cover your direct expenses.</p>
<p>You will have to get a an afterschool job now, and summer job (maybe 2) to cover your indirect expenses. Work extra shifts, weekends, wait tables, do what you need to do (legally) to make your money. You must also cut down on any expenses in order to save for college. This may mean movies, outings with friends, senior trip, etc.</p>
<p>Is there are way to find out what my CSS “efc” is? Has GWU most likely met what they assume my CSS “efc” is? </p>
<p>==============</p>
<p>Each school determines your “CSS EFC”…it’s not like FAFSA. Each school takes your CSS info and uses their formula and VOILA…they spit out a “family contribution”…so GWU has met need by saying that your CSS EFC is about $10k or so. </p>
<p>Another CSS school may determine differently.</p>
<hr>
<p>Tuition is 45k (wow!! very high!)
and room/board is 13k. </p>
<p>total about $58k plus about 1k for books.</p>
<p>I got 30k merit,
10k need,
4k pell, </p>
<h2>1k fed sup. </h2>
<p>about $45k.
That covers the tuition, which is really good now that i look at it in retrospect.</p>
<p>2.2k in work study, (that’s for personal expenses…you can’t really use that for R&B)</p>
<p>5k in subsidized loans, </p>
<h2>2k in unsubsidized. </h2>
<p>$7k in loans. </p>
<p>That totals the package to 53.8k. which is 10k shy of the COA. </p>
<p>Are you saying that GWU didn’t breakdown how much should be parent contribution and how much should be student? If not, then you should assume that about 2500-3000 is your student summer-work contribution.</p>
<p>GWU has determined a higher Family Contribution because of something in your CSS…maybe a lot of equity in ones home, maybe NCP income, maybe business deductions that have been added back in.</p>
<p>If you don’t have a Non custodial parent, lots of home equity, or a family business, then you might contact GWU and see if they’ve made a mistake.</p>
<p>GWU is not a school that guarantees to meet 100% demonstrated need. On average they meet 95% of need (this does not mean that everyone will have 95% of their need met).</p>
<p><a href=“Institutional Research | The George Washington University”>Institutional Research | The George Washington University;
<p>If OP borrows the additional 4k as unsub (s/he is going to have huge debt at graduation), then the direct cost will all be covered. I am going back to my post # 9</p>
<p>There isn’t a NCP, so i guess the only thing i could see is maybe house equity? I’m not really sure how much is a lot of home equity but i know we needed to get refinanced recently :P</p>
<p>Anyway, I have a personal number for a guy I can talk to in the financial aid department. Is it even worth a call to see if there is anything that could be done or should I just accept it?</p>
<p>Got this package EDI. Since you did not turn the school down, you have already “accepted it”. At this time, you were suppose to pull all of your other applications and not make any new ones. If you cannot make this work, you need to walk away from it and move on to more affordable options.</p>
<p>So youre sayng I shouldn’t try to talk to the finaid office?</p>
<p>Have you accepted the offer by the ED deadline?</p>
<p>Either way…call the guy up and see if a mistake was made. Before you call, ask your parents how much equity they indicated that they have in the home, so you’ll know that if that subject comes up. It’s possible that your parents over-estimated the equity amount, don’t know if you can change that.</p>
<p>Anyway…it never hurts to call and ask to have your file reviewed. Your family is obviously low-income and that must be stressed since your family can’t pay the $10k remaining COA. Ask what they used to come up with that.</p>
<p>Since you got a good merit scholarship, the school must think your stats are desired.</p>