@circuscats on the first choice bit - i meant “first choice if affordable otherwise can not attend” not “first choice, FA notwithstanding”
On who contacts the FA office, this might be a situation by situation thing but a few months ago i had read a CC post about getting the student to contact them first because FA officers get defensive when parents come on much more aggressively. after all, it is the student who is going to enroll, not the parent. so the student can state that the parents have informed her that they cant afford the number quoted and she really wants to go to the college and would request a review of her file. i assume the parent can keep it streamlined in the background as well?
I am in the same boat. My daughter got more grant/scholarship money from other colleges than she got from smith.
Does it help or hurt with Smith to mention that? my brother in law got more money from my nieces college by telling them she got more money elsewhere. They asked him to send the award letter from the other college, and then matched it. Sort of like best buy or sears, right?
@bmcmom I’ve heard both sides of playing one fa offer against the other. One of my acquaintances successfully used one offer letter to get the other one higher and i read elsewhere that another college didn’t play ball. I think it’s best if you guys tentatively feel them out first. Or maybe look up older threads in cc in this forum?
@bmcmom The problem with playing colleges off one another is that they have different methodologies and so FA awards can differ. Moreover, most colleges will only consider need-based aid in an appeal. And they won’t want to hear that you cannot afford it; they’ve determined that you can. What you must do is show them that their calculations are wrong or that there were factors they hadn’t considered.
You must also be prepared for the college to say, “fine, go to the university that offered you more”. I know that that is Columbia’s general attitude, and Brown likes to say, “we do not negotiate”.
Make your appeal based on facts. But if it is a case where there is no new information, you must decide whether or not to look elsewhere.
@whatnext28 $40K is a large EFC. They must have concluded that you have very little financial need. Getting any more aid will be very difficult as you must have large investments, retirement accounts or savings (or, depending on school, a large amount of equity in your house). You are going to have to show them that they failed to consider something or double counted savings etc.
We had an astronomical EFC. Very little savings or home equity. Have needed to fund special services for youngest sibling for years. We have a small amount in an account that is only used to pay for elderly parent care and not available for college. Spouse received raise last year so income looks high but it has not been that way for years. Will have children in college consecutively, not at same time so no help on EFC but will increase overall college costs.
Who cares if the school gets annoyed? It’s not like they are going to rescind their offer. And if you are polite, I don’t see why they should get annoyed. It is their job, after all. I know many people who have been able to get a little more money after going back to a school to discuss. Never a lot more money, but every couple thousand bucks count. (I also wouldn’t trust a word that Harvard says. But I grew up in that school’s shadow - unlike other Boston area colleges, they treated their staff - cleaners, kitchen, etc. - like crap. I hope it has improved since then, but it left a bad taste in my mouth that the richest school in the country would quibble over stuff like paid sick time for people making $12 an hour. Rant over. )
We are disappointed in Smith’s financial aid offer, especially next to other equal or more highly ranked schools, but it is not on the top of daughter’s list so we did not attempt to renegotiate.
We too have an astronomical total cost billed to student. Smith is at the top of my daughter’s list but Smith gave us the worst offer. It’s $15k-$25k less than what any other school offered. They didn’t meet our EFC per Fafsa or even their own net price calculator EFC. It kills me to say no to my daughter but paying $60-$100k more for 4 years of college just so she can go to Smith seems crazy to me. We should have been celebrating but instead it’s been tears and a lot of frustration.
This is terrible to hear about so many families being disappointed with Smith’s fin aid. As an alum I am so so sorry to hear. Not meeting EFC per FAFSA or even Smith’s net price calc?
I vote for the parent to contact the school, calmly and politely, to ask if there is a “review process” in order to ferret out any $ that can be included. We did this at S’s need-based school, and it turned out that going thru with a fine tooth comb was the best strategy, keeping fin aid officers “on our side”.
I really wish the best to the families who are trying to send their daughters to Smith.
Smith was the least generous of every school D was accepted at, I believe there were 14 of them. Every private school uses the CSS profile in their own way and determines need in their own way,
In our case, Bard was the only one less generous, but Bard has a lot less money than Smith. I thought it was just our family’s anomaly. I always thought Smith was at the top in terms of financial aid.
We thought Smith was supposed to be more generous with financial aid too. Morever, when we visited this summer they used their support of STEM as a big selling point … which is important to my D since she is a science kid. Even had a professor reach out to her about her research interests. We were completely sold on Smith so the financial aid thing has just been crushing.
We are in the same situation as so many here. Smith is my DD top choice, but no aid. I’ve spoken to both the financial aid folks and the merit aid people. Went ahead and sent in copies of her merit scholarships from other colleges. Everyone was very nice, but no budging. The best they could do was to agree to review our situation if our finances change.
Smith does have an excellent financial aid program but what they determine to be your “need” may differ from your view of what you can pay. If you have assets, significant equity etc., this can cause them to significantly decrease their estimate of how much FA you need.
We received an email stating that they would review our request for a review. We haven’t heard back in over a week. I realize they just had open campus but we’ve got crickets. Turns out that after Open Campus daughter doesn’t think it’s the right fit for her anyway. Has anyone else had any luck? Northwestern has been the most responsive in reviewing and adjusting aid.
bump this old thread because am in OP’s situation. Smith says I am not eligible for need based aid, even though I am eligible to receive the maximum Pell grant. Other colleges awarded me a Pell Grant and SEO grant. Something doesn’t seem right. Got an early write from Smith and was excited to go there until this terrible financial aid news arrived.
We were not all that impressed with Smith aid either, although we are looking at it from a different perspective – we are nowhere near Pell eligibility but our EFC is still well below $66K. What they have offered is not all that far off from the NPC, but when they subtract the Presidential Scholarship from our need, we are left with only a very small loan and work study to fill the gap. The reduced loan attached to the scholarship isn’t really helping us. D has a better offer from MHC, but could potentially make up the difference if she could take out a larger loan. Our 2016 income is more than 10% lower than 2015, so we are going to ask for a review – at least we want to know if the picture would be better next year, so that we can look at the comparative 4-year cost. Our case is not necessarily relevant to anyone else’s, but if I get an idea how responsive they are I will try to post here. In the meanwhile, we are going to visit and see which college she really likes more, and try to figure out if Smith is worth the extra investment. And we will try to meet with FA in person while we are there.
maq4972 - This seems extremely strange. If you are eligible for a Pell Grant, you should definitely be eligible for need based aid. Any chance they have you mixed up with someone else? I know it seems odd given that you have to provide personal info a thousand times over on the CSS Profile. However, my husband has a very common name, and this has happened to him several times, including with his employer, who obviously has lots of info on him! They sent him a letter thanking him for his service and that they were sorry to see him go, but he never resigned! Luckily that was resolved quickly. If you are still interested in Smith, I would call them ASAP and ask lots of questions, because this is very odd.
^Agreed. But, isn’t pell grant eligibilty based on household income (FAFSA numbers)? Household income may be low enough for a pell grant but if there’s a non-custodial parent with income that changes the picture. This is exactly why Smith didn’t offer an affordable package to us when D was accepted, also early-write. They count non-custodial income/responsibility pretty heavily if our numbers were anything to go by.
I would guess that it has to do with the NCP situation as well. FASFA determines Pell eligibility. The parent who has the child for the most amount of time during the last year is who fills out the FASFA. If the FASFA parent has a low income, the student could be Pell eligible; however, if the other parent has a lot of $$ and assets, the NCP/Profile could drastically change the financial aid situation for a student.
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