<p>I don't see any indication from what you posted that the school determined "need" at all. For all you know that school never received your son's SAR or some other info they deemed critical for the financial aid award. </p>
<p>Smaller colleges are pretty good about contacting you to ask for missing information, but that's not the case with larger universities. When my daughter was accepted at UC Berkeley the financial aid awards were online and there was nothing there for her -- the online system indicated that no SAR had been received. I know for certain that the FAFSA was submitted -- the other UC campuses had theirs that were submitted at the same time -- but it wasn't there. I never bothered calling to ask - but if my daughter had wanted to attend Berkeley at that point I would have emailed & faxed the SAR immediately and been on the phone trying to get a person to give me an award based on the FAFSA EFC. </p>
<p>I'm not trying to challenge you on this -- I certainly didn't waste time trying to deal with financial aid at colleges that were low on our preference list at the end of the process -- but my point is that you can't assume that an award was premised on full information if you didn't ask. I think my daughter's college is wonderful when it comes to financial aid, but I got my daughter's grant for this year increased by about $600 after I called them to discuss the award and it turned out that they hadn't considered a certain fact about our financial situation. The conversation went like this: </p>
<p>*Me: What about X expense?
Rep: You had X expense? Well, in that case we would increase your grant.
Me: I know the Profile asked about X?
Rep: Yes, I see it here, you wrote down you had X in the Profile, but we don't lok at that.
Me: Well, what do you look at?<br>
Rep: You need to send the specific documentation that shows X.
Me: OK, I'll do that. *</p>
<p>Anyway, the point is that you have no way of knowing whether the document you were sent was premised on full and accurate information. College financial aid offices make mistakes all the time.</p>
<p>It doesn't really matter for you. I hope that the college your son chose is one that he preferred in any case. </p>
<p>I just think its important for others who are reading this thread to know that these awards can be questioned and that there is a formula that has to be applied. If there is unmet need, then the student is eligible for a Stafford loan no matter how obtuse or confusing the financial aid letter might be. But there may be some red tape to deal with to get it all straightened out, depending on circumstances.</p>