(sorta) "Negotiating" Financial Aid

Paying for College
1

<p>Ok, so this is a hypothetical question, but it is a very realistic possibility for me.</p>

<p>So far, I've been accepted to Brandeis, and, with financial aid, I only got 3500 in loans and am expected to pay about $8,000 for tuition, room, everything.</p>

<p>However, I might be accepted to the following: Williams, Bowdoin, Wesleyan, Vassar, all of which meet 100% of aid, whereas Brandeis does not.</p>

<p>My problem is, I may prefer Brandeis over all of those, but in all likelyhood, Brandeis would be providing me with the least aid. If this were to happen, is there anyway to "negotiate" with Brandeis Financial Aid so as to increase their aid so that it matches, comes close to, or even exceeds the offers of the other schools?</p>

2

<p>bump this up....</p>

3

<p>anyone??????</p>

4

<p>I was wondering the same thing actually if you could ask the school to in a way match the other packages but I have no idea. I'm going to ask my guidance counselor, see what she says about it.</p>

5

<p>No, I don't believe you can. Financial aid is awarded on a school-to-school basis. If School A has a larger endowment than School B, logically, A will tend to give more than B. You simply can't ask for more financial aid from a school that has less money. I have heard of cases where merit money is used to negotiate between schools. Merit money is awarded for academic achievement. If School A offers you a $10,000 scholarship, but School B doesn't, you can try to get School B to entice you by letting them know about the scholarship School A awarded. There is a subtle difference between financial aid and scholarships; this is a case in point.</p>

6

<p>I have spoken to other parents over the past year who have definitely "negotiated" a higher amount of aid with various financial aid departments. Not Brandeis specifically, but I know it does work sometimes.</p>

7

<p>Ask Brandeis to "recalculate" financial aid because School X calculated that you have more financial need.</p>

8

<p>If Brandeis costs around $43,000 and you are expected to pay $8,000 and you only got $3,500 in loans did you get the remaining in scholarships/grants or ? Please explain your numbers...</p>

9

<p>If you receive a better financial aid package from another school, you could ask that school's financial aid office to explain their figures. Armed with the better package and additional information you are in a stronger position to negotiate. A friend was successful using this method, but there were quite unusual circumstances.</p>

10

<p>If the bulk of your brandeis aid is the result of merit aid, you will have very little leverage when it comes to negotiating against need based aid. If it is all need based aid, by all means, ask for a financial review as there may be something a school has overlooked.</p>

<p>I agree with avant-garde, that schools may negotiate based on a school for school basis (there is a posting on the parents forum about the 568 group and how home equity differs from school to school) and depending on how much money they have.<br>
The truth is some schools (Williams does have larger endowments and a smaller group of students, mostly undergrads therefore can afford to give very generous need based aid 100% as compared to Brandeis which only meets 84% need based aid).</p>

<p><a href="http://www.nacubo.org/documents/research/2006NES_Listing.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nacubo.org/documents/research/2006NES_Listing.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>And on the other hand, some schools are very straight forward in telling you that if money is an issue, then you need to go where your money can take you.</p>

<p>The net-net is if you don't ask for what you want, you will never know if you can get it. So wait until you have an offer in your hand and ask (what is the worse that can happen? they say no. However, they could say yes).</p>

<p>Good luck</p>

11

<p>Well, I received 15,000 in Merit Aid from Brandeis, and the rest was other Brandeis grants and very little (less than 1500$) in State/Fed Grants. The 3500 was a Federal Loan Estimate, and the rest was Brandeis Financial Aid grants, which totaled about 15,000 ish. And then, of course, my family's contribution of 8,000 ish. </p>

<p>I'll wait and see how my other schools turn out, and will consider negotiating if there are substantial differences in aid.</p>

12

<p>You will really have an uphill battle "negotiating" the merit portion, against your list of schools that only give need based (where when it comes down to merit, most of the students would be eligible for merit money)</p>

<p>If the money is really going to be an issue, talk about it with your parents now with the worse case scenario being Brandeis not changing their aid offer (remember, merit money is a mechanism used to attract payers and a tool for schools who don't meet 100% need as their way of "discounting and not dependent on need)</p>

<p>Also take the time to look at the "fine print" of your merit money. </p>

<p>Is it automatically renewed each year though out your undergrad career?</p>

<p>Is the amount the same? Is there an opportunity for more? Will it be cut?</p>

<p>What is required to keep it? It it attached to a major or a GPA requirement?</p>

<p>If it is attached to a GPA requirement, is it a phase in period before reaching the GPA or does the requirement kick in from day one?</p>

<p>Would the GPA seem onerous, something like 3.75gpa to keep merit (remember college is not high school, so while you may have cruised to a 4.0, colleges do have weed out courses, life happens and it could be a little harder getting that 4.0).</p>

<p>If you don't make the gpa requirement is there a probationary period (one term) to bring the grades back up or is the merit money iimmediately taken?</p>

<p>These are all of the things you should know upfront before committing to merit money because any change could be major financial ramifications for you and your family.</p>

<p>I would again run my numbers through the Williams financial aid calculator (which was pretty on point with the financial aid offer that came to my house).
again, good luck</p>

13

<p>So you got $31,500 in grants and merit aid and $3,500 in loans for a finaid package of $35,000? I would say that is fairly good overall. What is your EFC?</p>

14

<p>I'm a little confused here. Your EFC was around $8000 and beyond that everything is covered with grants aside from $3500 in loans? How are they not meeting 100% of need? Unless I'm missing something that looks to be very nice packaging to me.</p>

15

<p>I agree with rlm19 & MomofFour (maybe we as parents are just looking at things differently ;) ).</p>

<p>according to the college board, the cost of attendance is 45,198.
You have an 8000 EFC.
Your demonstrated need is $37,198
You have a financial aid package of 35,000
Brandeis has met ~94.1% of your need.
Over all, I too think you did pretty well especially when they meet on average of 84% of need (I don't think the cards are in your favor as far as negotiating for more aid).</p>

<p>the only gray area I see are the issues which I stated before regarding the terms of your scholarship.</p>

16

<p>My EFC (from FAFSA) was actually 2800$. </p>

<p>But my original point was, if I were to get better aid from other colleges, could I negotiate for an increase in aid from Brandeis, because other colleges find my need to be higher. It was an entirely hypothetical situation, seeing as, as of now I've only gotten a letter from Brandeis, and don't even know if I'll get better aid from the others, it was just an assuption, seeing as the others guarantee to meet 100%.</p>

17

<p>I believe that is cost of attendance for 2006-2007, not for 2007-2008. Tuition, room and board alone was 43,498 for 2006-2007 so if you factor in books, personal and travel, the 45,198 would be for 2006-2007 school year. 2007-2008 will be higher.</p>

<p>If Brandeis uses profile, they calculated your EFC higher than FAFSA. You can always call and see what they calculate EFC as. You will need to know that to compare with need based money awarded by other schools, especially PROFILE schools. Some schools may cap house equity, others won't, etc. Sometimes (don't count on this) one school will match the EFC calculations of another school even if they usually do things differently. If Brandeis is willing to do this, it still doesn't mean they will meet 100% of the newly accepted EFC.</p>