<p>I have 2 kids in ivy league schools. We paid full freight for first kid during the two years when she was the only one in college. Got a nice financial aid package when my 2nd went to college last year. I expected the financial aid package to be very similar for 2013-14 since our income has not changed and our savings have declined due the expense of two kids in college. Just got the aid package for 2013-14, one will be a senior and one will be sophomore. Our grant aid went down by nearly $20,000! I don't understand why. Tuition has gone up by $2K per kid as well so our gap has increased even more. It almost seems like we got a nice package when my son was a freshman, to lure him to go to the school. Now we have a crazy package that is completely ridiculous given the fact that our income has not changed. Anyone else experiencing this?</p>
<p>I am very concerned as when I look at the conditions for appeal, it doesn't sound like we meet any. but how can they reduce the aid so much in one year with so little changing on our behalf? I don't understand....</p>
<p>Haven’t heard of this wrt the ivies because they don’t need to lure in students. They can fill a class with full pay from the get-go. Did both packages change? Might be worth a call to the fin aid people, perhaps not for an appeal (at first) but for an explanation.</p>
<p>Increase in amount of loans depending on yr would account for some but not all.
Your numbers didn’t change at all?
One thing however- 100% need based aid can be met by loans, grants & work study.
If they didn’t leave a gap, even if it is filled with loans instead of grants, they still can be considered to meet need.</p>
<p>Financial aid department should be able to pretty easily tell you what changed in your finances (at least on paper). Just ask. I had a similar question last year and the financial aid department was able to identify the changes in a matter of minutes. May be a mistake that is correctable.</p>
<p>loans went up a tiny bit, like $500 per kid. I will have both in undergrad next year, both at the same ivy. the 20K decrease was the drop in the grants across both kids. *n addition, the loan amounts went up and the contributions from the kids and from us parents also increased. My income did not go up, we do have a business that we are in the process of closing but it has not earned any income for a few years which is why we are closing it. My pay for the last year was relatively flat, but this coming year will decrease because I got laid off in December, but then immediately found another job at the same company but it pays a little less. No change in assets other than changes driven by the stock market in our retirement accounts. Home equity is basically the same.</p>
<p>Son passed up another school with a nice 20K/year merit scholarship. With the aid package last year, it ended up being a draw because the aid from the ivy was fairly generous and offset the scholarship. I will call the school too and try to understand their perspective. I hope there is a mistake.</p>
<p>I will pull the CSS profiles and compare them line by line vs the previous year.</p>
<p>this is normal, because there is an expectation that students earn more from summer earnings.</p>
<p>Things to consider;</p>
<p>Did you junior D work an internship last year or over the summer? If yes, did she earn more than $6k (if yes, then her EFC probably increased by .50 for every dollar she earned over 6k). The same would be true if your son also worked last year.</p>
<p>when you got laid off, did you receive a severance package? If yes, this will have also increased your EFC and will have reduced your need.</p>
<p>Although you are closing your business and you were able to write off some operating losses, on your taxes, they may have been added back in on the FAFSA/CSS profile.</p>
<p>You need to try to hone in on where the difference in your package is coming from. Has your FAFSA EFC increased significantly from last year to this year?</p>
<p>Also compare your taxes from last year and this year.</p>
<p>Though the fin aid does decrease each year at most schools because they do tend to expect the student to take on more of the load, the increase seems much more than attributalbe to just that. I would call the fin aid director and ask for a phone conference with a line by line. Do it with each school, and see what the issue is. </p>
<p>I can also tell you that having any home business, family business, owing a businees can ream you in the process as what often happens is that your deductions all get added back in, not to mention the fact that you are paying less in taxes due to them.</p>
<p>The OP says the kids are at the same Ivy. When you call, discuss one kid at a time. Compare this year’s Profile to last year’s before you call.</p>
<p>The increase in student contribution is one factor. Also, it sounds like this school packages loans and yours increased as well. Student Direct loans are included in need based aid at some schools.</p>
<p>I do think this is worth a call. </p>
<p>And I agree that the family business may have something to do with this as well.</p>
<p>Call financial aid and inquire. I’m going to guess that you need to discuss this with someone a tad higher on the food chain than the person who answers the phone.</p>
<p>thanks for all of the suggestions. I will do the line by line review of FAFSA and CSS tonight. The kids each have small increases in loans and their contribution from work which we fully expected to see, but the biggest change is the extra $19000+ that we as parents are expected to pay and that is due to large decreases in the grants that they each received.</p>
<p>I will call tomorrow and report back. I am very curious to see what the answer is. I don’t think it will be as simple as they did not realize that they are both in college since they attend the same school.</p>
<p>I may have an ulcer before tomorrow. This just terrifies me as we were not prepared for this.</p>
<p>I am curious too, waiting for my senior year packages…I’ve heard stories or increases but not as much as that! My daughter at an Ivy had a larger contribution second year when a 1 year scholarship ended and her summer earnings were supposed to be larger.
That is why some scholarships are great but if the package is good with them, it has to be good without them if not 4 years.
I hope you find it was an error. With my son years ago, my bleary eyes didn’t see I put a retirement amount in the wrong area, long story short, it made it seem we had more than we did. They adjusted it and I started to breathe.</p>
<p>The other thing…if the business expense issues are a one time thing for a business that is underwater and being dissolved…the school financial aid folks might be able to make an adjustment. Ask about this too.</p>
<p>As a self employed parent (which means higher taxes than those with W-2s, not lower, due to the self employment tax), and with a rising sophomore, its hard to imagine what the school would be ‘adding back in’ the second year that they didn’t add back in the first time around. I hope the OP reports back.</p>
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