<p>Oh, I began paying for my son's sophomore year before his FA package came out. Mythmom, is that what you are referring to? The option was pay, or transfer and pay elsewhere. My son loves the school he attends, and at his school I only needed wait to see whether his Staffords would be subsidized or not. He does not get any other grant aid, nor is he entitled to any.</p>
<p>The 30 day spread between offers and depositing I find too short. I feel that some financial aid offices cannot handle the workload well during that month, and frankly, I do think that it has an effect on their yield. I know that my son could not consider a few private schools bc the aid package was lacking. I don't know if he would have gotten more assistance if we could sit and speak to someone without the stress of needing to get done, and making a decision in what seemed like the blink of an eye. One school we spoke with by phone was unwilling to change the package and left a huge gap, another school took with one hand and gave with another (increased the merit award by 2500, took away work study, and the subsidized loans and increased gpa to keep the merit award), and one school we just never bothered persuing bc we were too far apart and my son was getting cold feet about that school. Actually, there were two in that last category, bc one met need by offering all loans only (and it was a safety school).</p>